Tuesday 23 February, Lesser Festival of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155

 

Psalm3│2 Chronicles 24.17-21│Revelation 2.8-11│Matthew 10.16-22

Psaumes 3|2 Chroniques 24.17-21 |Apocalypse 2.8-11 |Matthieu 10.16-22

Polykarp, Ferdinand Edvard Ring 1884, Frederikskirken, Marmorkirken, Frederikstaden, København

By Orf3us - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11582085

 The word “martyr” is not necessarily a very nice one nowadays. It may evoke a person, perhaps a mother, continuously reminding others about their personal sacrifices and sufferings and in that way manipulating the people around them. Or perhaps someone, perhaps a politician, arousing sympathy for themselves and their ideas (perhaps even very strange ideas) simply by being an underdog, or at least appearing to be one in the eyes their friends and Twitter-followers. Or perhaps even a religious fanatic blowing themselves up in the middle of a crowd in a hateful religious war. “Martyr” – a word whose connotations have become so twisted, connotations of desperation, egocentrism, manipulation, vanity, falsehood, of holding on to ourselves, of craving attention, of doing everything to be seen by others, remembered by others, acknowledged by others, of not accepting one’s littleness as a human, one’s mortality and futility. It makes me think of a fist, tense of desperation. 

“Throw it away” sung by Abbey Lincoln, illustrating the attitude of the open hand.

https://youtu.be/j2OO3vuk3r4

When the original meaning of the word is actually “witness”. Someone who simply reports what they have seen and experienced truthfully, regardless of the consequences. Someone who loves truth more than life. Someone pointing beyond themselves, transparent, like a window. It makes me think of an open hand, sowing seeds.  

 

And the martyr of today, Polycarp, who gave his life in the arena of Smyrna around the year 155, didn’t do it in vain. His sacrifice bore much fruit. That’s actually what his name means: “much fruit”. We are this fruit! He and other martyrs held on to faith in the face of oppression, accepted the lot of death and in that way glorified the name of Jesus not only to the people of their own generation but also of the generations to come, even among us who live two millennia further down the road. 

 

Sara Gabrielsson