the cost

One in twelve Christians faces persecution simply because they follow Jesus, and those were the stats for 2018. Persecution that results in death is not uncommon. This is harder to record, because often a whole community is persecuted, and those who flee and survive are considered useless and illiterate. An example of this would be the many refugees that escaped from Syria in 2014-5. The Yezedi, because they were animists and the Christians were targeted. As we may remember, the letter ن was painted on the homes of Christians. These people were given the age-old Muslim “dhimmi” warning; they had a specific date they had to leave, convert to Islam, pay a monthly fine, or face death by the sword. When families fled, militants pulled them aside, murdered the men, and took women and children captive as slaves.

As we also may remember, the slavery these women and children faced was sexual. To this day, widows who are still refugees, who have fled with their children still deal with the aftermath. They are constantly harassed by men in the Muslim countries they fled to. The men try to buy their children from them, or force women who survived all this to prostitute themselves. I used Syria here, as an example. But the same is happening in Libya, Nigeria, Afghanistan, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iran, Iraq and more. The news often reports things as ethnic, or civil, or clan warfare. But when you really get down into it, it is because these people are Christians or non-Muslims that they are targeted.

Yes it’s horrific when there is a shooting in America, or a fire in France, or a targeting of Muslims in Christchurch. But in each of these cases, the society in which they take place rises up and decries the incident. It is not a mass event where those who are being persecuted have no voice, and often no journalistic representation, let alone a voice in a court of law. In fact, any attempt at representing truth in these environments usually comes at the cost of one’s life.

And here’s where it gets interesting. Again, it’s horrific that journalists have been beheaded. But their deaths made global headlines. Their families were comforted. Local communities came around them and have sustained them since. Not so for Christians who live behind this curtain of persecution.

These people are brave beyond what most of the rest of the world can comprehend. When they once grasp who Jesus really is, and what He died to give them, they are on fire. They don’t worry about what will happen to them. They passionately realize that there are hundreds of people they know who do not yet know what Jesus offers them. They go and tell them. They risk everything, because the love in them is the love of God, passionately reaching out and offering the lifeline of eternal salvation to those people in their own communities. And of course Holy Spirit shows up. Miracles happen. People have encounters with the love of Father God. Jesus comes and touches people. That’s a given.

But almost always those people who bravely went out and told others the Truth die as martyrs within a short time frame. Would they like to have lived longer? Of course. Would they wish to live where they had the freedom to tell people what they believe without being killed for it? Of course. Do they grieve that their wives and children will become widows and orphans. Of course.

But that doesn’t stop them. They have found the One who laid down His life for them, and they are simply following Him. They count the cost, and consider Him worthy. Ironically perhaps, their very sincerity and genuine love is captivating. As fast as these brave men are dying, more are springing up, drawn to Jesus by their testimonies.

I’m challenged. Statistics don’t count well; thousands of stories are not being shared. Either they can’t be, to protect people, or they are stories that are known in heaven alone, because the village is too remote, the prison too far underground, or communications don’t exist. But the blood of the martyrs still speaks. It can never be silenced. And it always bears fruit. Eternal fruit.