By Dr. Gilbert W. Stafford
Scripture: Acts 7:54-8:1
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| Rabin, Clinton, and Arafat (left to right) in 1993 |
Last November, while upstairs working, I heard my 14-year-old son yelling to tell me that it had just been announced on television that Yitzhak Rabin had been assassinated. Rushing downstairs, I began listening and watching the reports. Josh wanted to know who Rabin was. Prime minister of Israel, I told him. Two days later, our 19-year-old daughter was watching a tearful interview with Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, talking about Rabin. She wanted to know who he was, and so I told her a little about him. At the seminary the next day, I told my students that as a person who was very much aware of the 1967 War between Israel and the surrounding state, I was grateful to see, at the funeral, heads of nations formerly at war, referring both to themselves and to Rabin as partners in the coalition of peace. My students did not know about the ’67 war. For Josh, Anne and my seminary students, the end of the story was the opportunity for them to learn something about earlier pieces of the story. The days of mourning for Rabin launched us backwards to the bits and pieces of the story which for many were non-existent. It was those bits and pieces of the past which had led to the significance of the ending. And it was the end of the story which helped us to understand the bits and pieces of the past.
THE END INTERPRETS THAT WHICH IS BEFORE THE END
Each of us is writing a life story. Where our stories finally come out will help those who hear about us to tie together all the bits and pieces of earlier days. For example, the only reason we know anything about the birth, life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth is because of how his life ended. It is because of his crucifixion and resurrection that we know about his birth, life and ministry. If he had not been crucified and raised from the dead we likely would know nothing about his birth in Bethlehem, the visit of the shepherds and of the magi.
In fact, the end of Jesus’ story is so important that of the 16 chapters in Mark’s gospel, no less than the last six tell about Jesus’ final week. The end of the story predominates the whole book.
That is true also regarding the story of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, in Acts 6 and 7. We meet him for the first time in Acts 6:5 where he is listed as one of the seven who were chosen to help with the daily distribution of food to widows in the Jerusalem church. He is referred to there as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.” That is all we know about him prior to his arrest, interrogation and stoning to death. Most of these two chapters is about the end of his life. Acts 7:54-8:1 reads: “When...[the religious authorities] heard...[Stephen’s message about Christ], they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died. And Saul approved of their killing him.”1
SPIRITUAL FORMATION
As we have already said, probably we would know nothing at all about Stephen had it not been for the way his life story ended. Having said that, we need also to realize that his triumphant death was not the result of a spur of the moment decision. It was the result of years of spiritual formation. Apart from the long-term, consistent Christian formation which had taken place over the course of time, there would have been no ending like the one reported in our text.
Let’s look at his spiritual life. First of all, he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with his whole heart. He trusted so deeply in Christ that he was willing to testify to his faith even to a hostile audience, and was ready and willing to pay for it with his life. That was the first characteristic of Stephen’s spiritual formation which led to such a glorious end to his life.
Second, he was open to the fullness of the Holy Spirit. When he is listed as one of the seven chosen to serve the Jerusalem church, he is referred to as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.” Evidently, prior to his being chosen he was already known as a Spirit-filled man. That’s why they chose him. There can be no adequate spiritual formation apart from openness to the power and warmth and cleansing of the Holy Spirit.
Third, Stephen invested himself deeply in the life of the church. When his church needed seven men to do some common every day work of distributing food to widows he was willing to do his part. His character formation took place in the life of the church. He was who he was at the end partly because he had invested himself so deeply in the life of the church.
Fourth, Stephen loved others in the same way God in Christ loves us. When his enemies were stoning him to death, he prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Basic to the spiritual formation which leads to the kind of ending which is truly commendable, is the practice of loving others in the same spirit with which Christ loves us.
Fifth, he lived on the edge, in expectancy both of God’s surprises and of human surprises whether good or bad. When he met death by stoning, there is no indication of despondency on his part. Even as he stood on the very edge of death he “gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” He had a spirit of expectancy to the very end.
ARE YOU READY FOR THE END OF THE STORY?
One day, the end of your life story and of mine will come. We need to get in touch with that fact. When I was a teen-ager, some of my friends went to a church which had, as a youth program, some mock funerals. Various young people pretended to be deceased. They lay in a make shift casket during a pretend funeral service. Others in the youth group talked about “the deceased” both during the mock visitation and during the mock funeral itself. Doing this provided them with the opportunity to discuss the meaning of death. But it also helped them to come to terms with the fact that for any one of us the end of the story may need to be written at any time.
One of the most moving parts of the Yitzhak Rabin story, mentioned earlier, is that he had been at a meeting in Tel Aviv celebrating the peace process in Israel. Being an off key singer, he always declined to sing. But, on the night of his assassination, he did the unusual. He held forth the sheet of paper on which the words of the song were printed, and sang. According to his custom, he then folded the paper into four equal parts and put it into his chest pocket. It was soon afterwards that, walking to his car, he was shot. The bullet went through the song to his heart. At the funeral a particularly poignant moment was when his personal assistant held up the blood stained song sheet and read the words. The camera panned from behind the speaker so that we could see the Hebrew words on the folded, blood stained song sheet.
Did Rabin sing that night because he knew that within moments he would be shot? No! Did he put the sheet in his pocket knowing that it would provide a dramatic moment at his funeral? Of course not! When the end came, violently and unexpectedly, the whole of his life came together in such a way that it had a great impact on others.
In Stephen’s case, too, the ending of his life had a great impact. A young man named Saul was watching with approval as he took care of the coats of those who were throwing the stone. After Stephen was buried, Saul continued his anti-church campaign “by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison” (8:3). But all that was to change. On the road to Damascus, Saul was converted.
Had Stephen’s death made a significant impression on Saul? Probably so. The one who had approved of Stephen’s stoning, now embraced Stephen’s faith. So the end of Stephen’s story led to another story, and another and another. The bits and pieces of his whole life came together in the way it ended. All along, his life was going some place. He built for a good ending.
GETTING READY FOR THE END
Are there changes which need to take place in your life here and now so that the end of your story will be worth telling? If you are not ready for the end to be told yet, what do you need to do to begin getting ready for the end? I am not talking about whether you want to die right now or not. I am talking about whether your life is being shaped in such a way that if the end were to come today it would be a good ending. Do you have a warm personal faith in Jesus Christ, a faith worth dying for? Are you open to the fullness of the Holy Spirit in your life? Are you deeply involved in the life of the church? Are you loving others in the spirit of Christ? Are you living in expectancy of God’s surprises and of human surprises, both good ones and bad ones? If the end were to come right now, what might the end of the story sound like? Will it be an end which will impact others for good? You are determining that right now by the decisions you make moment by moment.
PRAYER
Let us pray:
Gracious God, we know you to be the eternal beginning and the eternal ending of all that is good. So work in our hearts and minds and lives that we shall be born anew and be formed in the image of Christ. We pray that when the end comes, it will be an ending worthy of telling, and a good influence on other. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
1 New Revised Standard version used here and throughout.
Script 2574 (GWS)
April 28, 1996
SERIES: STORY POWER
4. “The End of the Story”
Scripture: Acts 7:54-8:1
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