On Saint Stephen

Praise of Stephen§1

1Let the whole earth keep the festival of Stephen, for he tilled all of it, one region after another, with his words, and filled the inhabited world, every people in it, with holy laws. He sowed the doctrines of piety everywhere and gave all the churches the light of his teaching to glory in. And as the sun, rising from one corner of the sky, has the task of lighting the whole visible creation, so Stephen, the crown of graces, flashing out from Jerusalem, filled whole cities and lands, nations and peoples, tribes and tongues with unquenchable theology.

But we rightly owe him more festivals, since he is a citizen of the Cross, a familiar of Bethlehem, an offspring of the Resurrection, the table-server of Zion, the herald of the Ascension. Among us he pitched his courts and his tents; among us he received the lot of the diaconate and the portion of martyrdom. Here he has the altar of his sacrifice and the sanctuary of his blessing, the field of his teaching and the theatre of his eloquence. From here he was taken up to heaven, and from us he departed to Christ.

That is why we gather so often for his festivals, why we so often crown his bridal chamber, why we keep going up to the winepress with leaps of joy, singing a wedding song and chanting the song of the winepress: “Lord, you have crowned us as with a shield of your good pleasure” (Psalm 5:12). For Stephen’s zeal is a shield to the faithful, and his tongue a sword to the devout; his boldness is a preparation for confession, his daring a spur to courage, his eloquence the material of theology; his teaching is instruction in the law, knowledge of the prophets, understanding of the Gospels; his contemplation is an exposition of the mysteries of heaven, or rather of the mysteries above heaven.

But who is able to tell the praises of Stephen one by one? What shall I call him? Witness to the light, deacon of life, soldier of Christ, lampstand of the Word, pearl of the Spirit, flower of endurance, foundation of philosophy, pattern of freedom from passion, firstfruits of teachers, pillar of the Church, tutor of grace, ladder of virtues, monument of progress, forerunner of the apostles, firstborn of the martyrs, guide to knowledge?

He was a minister to widows, yet, ordaining himself, he became a minister of the churches. Appointed to bring in food, he brought in doctrines instead. He changed the tables into altars; he used the bread that comes from heaven, not the bread that comes from the earth. He turned the mixing bowl of drunkenness into cups of grace: in place of wine he mixed the Spirit, and in place of water the senses perceive he set out the mystical water that the mind perceives.

He was great in word and in deed, teaching and working wonders, refuting the Jews, driving out demons, healing the sicknesses of body and soul alike. He opened his mouth, and caught every ear; he moved his tongue, and death fled, falsehood was bound, love advanced. Though a lamb, he fought the wolves on behalf of the Shepherd; though a dove, he made the serpents subject to the eagle. By his silence he showed his judges the face of an angel (Acts 6:15).

He laughed when he saw the slanderers circling him; and seeing the false witnesses standing by, he said these words to himself from David’s songs to the harp: “Their blows have become children’s arrows” (Psalm 64:7). For whatever the slanderer shoots, the worker of truth is not wounded; whatever arrows the evil one lets fly are set in motion and sent in vain. For he does not pierce the upright, does not strike the guileless, does not bite the innocent.

And what form did the slander take? “This man does not cease to speak words against this holy place and the law” (Acts 6:13). “This man.” Which man? “The man who works signs and wonders beyond human power; who has drawn up the whole spring of wisdom; who has emptied the treasuries of grace into himself; who…

Prophecy, Not Blasphemy§2

2…who works mighty deeds that we cannot bear; over whom we have wasted away with jealousy and envy; whom the deaf man obeys when he is called; to whom the blind man looks and sees, having received his eyes from him; from whose tongue the lame man asks for feet, and borrows hands as well; through whom the beds of the sick have been emptied; through whom there is no difference between the healthy and the sick; through whom lepers have forgotten their disease; through whom there is no need of physicians; through whom the medicines people grind are useless.”

“This man does not stop speaking words against this holy place and the law” (Acts 6:13). What words are these? “For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed down to us” (Acts 6:14). Rightly are you called false witnesses and slanderers, because you speak the truth as though it were not the truth; because you call blasphemies against God the prophecies that came from him and concern this place; and because you count as a setting aside of the law the very things he himself threatened would come to pass.

For whose voice is this, whose prophecy, whose proclamation? Who commanded Isaiah, who commanded Micah to speak in this way: “Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall be like a hut for watching fruit” (Micah 3:12); “The daughter of Zion shall be left like a booth in a vineyard and like a hut in a cucumber field” (Isaiah 1:8)? Who inspired David as well to say such things: “Remember, Lord, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem, those who said, ‘Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundation’” (Psalm 137:7)?

And what of Moses? Does he not also cast his vote with what Stephen said? Did he not write down these curses of yours, which have now come true in plain experience and which let everyone see the causes for which they were pronounced? Let the wounds that befell the Jewish people be set beside the words of Moses. If you examine them word for word, you will find that they came to pass without being false anywhere in anything, small or great. “And if after this you walk crookedly” (Leviticus 26:21): for they never kept their heart straight toward God, and far less in the later times, when they swerved from the call of Christ. Therefore he went on: “And if you will not obey me” – and indeed they did not obey when Christ called – “I will bring seven more plagues on you according to your lawless deeds” (Leviticus 26:21). For since they denied the seven gifts of the Spirit, the seven spirits of wickedness, which entered and dwelt in them, become seven plagues for them; and their last state became worse than the first (Matthew 12:45).

“And I will send against you the wild beasts of the earth” (Leviticus 26:22). He means the nations; for formerly, through their ignorance, they were beasts, because they worshiped the divine in the image of beasts and four-footed creatures and reptiles (Romans 1:23). Cursing them, David said: “May those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them” (Psalm 115:8). These are the nations God has now sent against them, and they do what the lawgiver says next: “And they shall devour you, and consume your cattle, and make you few; and your roads shall be deserted” (Leviticus 26:22). For every one of these things has happened to them, both visibly and spiritually, since they have been ruled by the nations.

Yet God did not stop the threats he spoke through Moses to the thankless people at this point, but set out others harsher and greater than these. For he says: “You shall take a wife, and another man shall have her. You shall build a house, and you shall not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard, and you shall not gather its grapes. Your calf shall be slaughtered before you, and you shall not eat of it” (Deuteronomy 28:30-31). And after threatening many other things besides these, he did not hide the cause from which these things come, but brings it in with a host of threats that are joined to the ones we have just quoted: “And your life shall hang before your eyes; and you shall fear day and night, and you shall not believe in your life. In the morning you shall say, ‘When will it be evening?’ And in the evening you shall say, ‘When will it be morning?’ because of the fear of your heart, with which you shall fear, and because of the sights of your eyes, which you shall see” (Deuteronomy 28:66-67).

Hear, then, how these things end; hear also how they come to pass, and do not blame Stephen for addressing the people in agreement with the law and the prophets. “You shall take a wife”: the old covenant; “and another man shall have her”: for the people from the nations has gained it. “You shall build a house, and you shall not live in it”: the temple, plainly, for you see it fallen. “You shall plant a vineyard, and you shall not gather its grapes”: for it bore not grapes but thorns (Isaiah 5:2). Or let us also take the vineyard to mean the vine that is Christ…

The Day That Was Neither Day nor Night§3

3…for Christ came from them (Romans 9:5), the vine of our life (John 15:1); but it is we who gather his grapes, we who mix the wine, we who drink the new wine. “Your calf shall be slaughtered before you, and you shall not eat of it”: for theirs is the sacrifice of Christ – they led the calf from heaven up to the altar – but ours is the supper, ours the table.

And for what reason? Because they fell sick with unbelief, brought ignorance instead of knowledge, and at the time for theology slid into blasphemy. They entered the bridal chamber and did not receive the Bridegroom; they wreathed the wedding hall and refused the marriage; and when the cross was carried out, the elements were shaken, but they were not changed. For this is what he added next: “And your life shall hang before your eyes” (Deuteronomy 28:66). What is the life? Christ, who says: “I am the way and the life and the truth” (John 14:6). And where does it hang? On the wood of the cross. For he who hung the earth by a word (Job 26:7) hangs on the wood; on it he who carries is carried, he who suspends is suspended, he who lifts up is lifted up: “For when I am lifted up,” he says, “I will draw all to myself” (John 12:32). “And you shall fear day and night, and you shall not believe in your life” (Deuteronomy 28:66). So unbelief has become the cause of fear.

“You shall fear day and night”: for day and night were the same, because “there was darkness over all the land from the sixth hour” (Matthew 27:45). Hence Zechariah is at a loss what he ought rather to name it, what it is fitting to call it: whether the time of the cross should take its name from the darkness that fell or from the daylight that by rule belonged to it. So he says: “And on that day there shall be no light; and there shall be cold and frost. It is a great day; it shall be known to the Lord; not day nor night; and toward evening there shall be light. And on that day living water shall go out from Jerusalem, half of it to the first sea and half of it to the last sea” (Zechariah 14:6-8). These things happened both visibly and spiritually.

“On that day there shall be no light”: for the sun set at midday, and darkness and ignorance had been poured over the hearts of the Jews. “There shall be cold and frost.” Peter bears witness to this, warming himself by the charcoal fire because the winter season was at its height (John 18:18). But beyond this there was cold and frost, because the love of the Jews toward God had then grown especially cold; for otherwise they would not have crucified the Savior and Redeemer who came from him. “It is a great day.” How could it not be great, the day on which Adam was formed anew, sin was abolished, death was destroyed, the potter received back his vessel, the shepherd his sheep, the merchant his pearl? “It shall be known to God.” For how could he who knows all things not recognize above all that day, on which he gave up his only-begotten Son for sacrifice? “Not day nor night”: since by its course it was day, not night. “Toward evening there shall be light”: when, after the ninth hour, the darkness ceased. So the same time was both night and day.

“And living water shall go out from Jerusalem.” From where? From the side of the Life (John 19:34); for from the place where Eve was formed, from there the Church is fittingly formed (Genesis 2:21-22). “Half of it into the first sea”: that is, the sea of baptism. “And half of it into the last sea”: plainly, the sea of repentance. For the tears of repentance are what remains of the gift of baptism, and the proof is clear: one who has not been baptized repents in vain unless he hastens to be baptized; in vain he offers his prayer as a sacrifice, in vain he asks for pardon, in vain he pours out a spring of tears. For without baptism forgiveness of sins does not take place. But one who has been baptized has a repentance that works: he weeps and is set free; he groans and mourns and prays, and at once he is cleansed.

But hear also how the rest of the law’s prediction comes to pass: “In the morning you shall say, ‘When will it be evening?’ And in the evening you shall say, ‘When will it be morning?’” From what cause? “From the fear of your heart, with which you shall fear, and from the sights of your eyes, which you shall see” (Deuteronomy 28:67). Because of the signs and wonders that were being done at the time of the cross – the earth quaking, the sun fleeing, the sky hiding, the rocks splitting, the veil tearing, the tombs opening (Matthew 27:51-52) – they were afraid and troubled, and so they were naturally driven to say to one another: “When will it be evening, so that we may take the Life down from the cross, hide in the earth the one who came from heaven,…

The Heavens Opened§4

4…shut up the Immortal in a tomb, and rid ourselves of the wonder from which such great terrors come upon us?”

But even when they had done these things, they gained nothing of their aim; what they attempted turned out the opposite for them. And this is why in the evening they said, “When will it be morning?” For again the wonders worked in the night of the resurrection were fearful: they saw the tomb as a bridal chamber, the grave sealed and the dead man running out alive, the soldiers like dead men (Matthew 28:4), the women bearing myrrh, angels guarding the linen cloths, and another sitting on the stone as herald of the resurrection (Matthew 28:2). Then they said: “When will it be morning, so that we may give silver to the soldiers, so that we may corrupt Pilate, so that we may steal the truth by deceit, so that we may spread the report ‘that his disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep’?” (Matthew 28:12-14).

This is the testimony the law bears, and Moses through it, or rather God in each of them, against the thankless people; and Stephen the theologian, for convicting that people, is called a blasphemer by them. And the high priest says: “Are these things so?” (Acts 7:1). Do you not know how they are? Did you not contrive the plot? Did you not hire the slanderers? Are not the witnesses of the deceit in your pay? “But there is need,” he says, “of falsehood and pretense, and we need deceit for the trap we have laid. So we sold Joseph (Genesis 37:28), so we murdered Naboth (1 Kings 21:13), so we crucified Christ.”

But Stephen, having found an occasion for teaching, poured many saving words into the people’s ears, and as the conclusion of his speech he brought in words fit for him to say, as a witness of the truth, and for them to hear, as men bent on fighting against God and sick with opposition to the Spirit: “Hard-hearted and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you” (Acts 7:51).

And how is it that at the beginning you say, “Men, brothers and fathers, hear me” (Acts 7:2)? “Those words,” he says, “belong to the nobility of Abraham, these to the wickedness of these men. Those belong to the good root, these to the bad branches. Those show what is distinguished in the flock, these the unruliness, the hardness, the unbridled temper of the many.” Isaiah urged him toward that opening: “Say ‘Our brothers’ to those who hate us and abhor us, so that the name of the Lord may be glorified” (Isaiah 66:5). But toward this ending they themselves forced his speech, even against his will: “I called them brothers, I addressed them as fathers, so that no one would think I was accusing them as enemies or refuting them as foes. But I called the same men hard-hearted and uncircumcised, since truth must be put before kinship, and one must not spare friends or brothers or fathers or any other relatives when they break the law.”

Yet the children of the Jews could not bear these words, but gnashed their teeth like wild beasts, eager to swallow Stephen up while he was still speaking. “They gnashed their teeth” (Acts 7:54). For of them it had been said: “Sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword” (Psalm 57:4). But Stephen kept his eyes not on them but on God, and leaving the earth behind he hastened toward the courts of heaven, and with a ringing voice he proclaimed: “Look, I see the heavens opened” (Acts 7:56). That is: the gain is shared, the way is ready for all, the gate has been opened to those who wish to enter. Let the brave man contend with all his strength; let the true soldier now use his weapons, now show the greatness of his might. For the one who presides over the contest is watching; he stands ready, handing out the crowns and the prizes.

“Look, I see the heavens opened.” And he did not leave the one who wishes to know in ignorance of who opened them. For this reason he cried out: “and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56), meaning God the Word made flesh. For since the Son of God has become Son of Man, since he who is from the Father has himself come from a virgin and stood as the common border of earth and the heavens, the dividing wall of enmity has been taken away (Ephesians 2:14), the barrier is out of the way, and citizenship is shared by angels and men, if men are willing. Those who are on earth may serve as soldiers in heaven, be below in the flesh and present above in the spirit, be with the clay by the clay, but with God by the mind.

Such, then, was the theology Stephen proclaimed; but disorderly shouts followed his orderly theology, and shout followed shout; and stones from slings followed the teachings of the holy laws.

The Lamb Slain Outside the City§5

5With no weapons to hand, they armed themselves from the ground; for want of swords, they made do with stones in their right hands, and they took him outside the city and offered him in sacrifice (Acts 7:58). For the old Jerusalem was not a fitting place for this victim. The lamb had to be slain beside the Shepherd’s Lamb, and the soldier had to receive the pledges of victory there, where the King had set up the trophy over all.

But what provision did he take for the journey of his death? Prayer, and the incense that rises from it; and as he put off the flesh, he put on prayer. And what was the prayer? “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). That is: “Take what is yours; take back the deposit you gave; welcome the pearl you entrusted; what I bear after your image (Genesis 1:26), this I send to you. ‘Receive my spirit’; for no longer into Hades, the place of weeping, do the…”

A Prayer for Safe Passage and for the Jews§6

6“…souls of the righteous enter; no longer do the gloomy regions of death take in the spirits of the living. Following you, who became at once the firstfruits of the living and of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20), so that you might be Lord of both the dead and the living (Romans 14:9), the whole mass of the dead takes courage, and not without reason.

‘Receive, then, my spirit’ (Acts 7:59). Do not let the hunters lie in wait for your sparrow (Psalm 124:7), nor let the enemies who meet me at the gates spoil my departure from the earth or trouble my ascent into the heavens.”

This prayer, then, he offered up for himself; but he offered up another, in turn, for the people of the Jews: “Lord, do not set this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). And…

The Judge Who Weighs Our Deeds§7

7…here is the point: he did not say, “Do not count it against them,” but “Do not set it,” surely so that you may learn that our Judge weighs with an exact balance, weighing each person’s deeds at the time of judgment. For if “he set the mountains in a balance and the valleys on a scale” (Isaiah 40:12), how much more does he weigh what is ours, whether our failings or our good deeds?

“Do not set this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). Do not lift it onto the scale of judgment; do not weigh down, on my account, those already weighed down by their own doing; let not my blessing become for others an occasion of curse, nor my gain a cause of loss to the Jews.

I do not want my sacrifice to bring harm on those who offer it. For even if…

Blood Poured Out in Confession§8

8…they offer it with wicked intent, still I respect them, for even against their own purpose they are for me the occasion of coming into your presence, of the kingdom of heaven, of release from the clay, of being taken up on high, of a martyr’s victory, of confessing you and being confessed by you.

For yours is the voice that speaks to us; urged on by it, I readily gave myself up to sacrifice and, through my confession, poured out my blood into your hands as into a bowl: “Everyone who confesses me before men, I also will confess him before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.