At the time of his martyrdom, Polycarp was 86 years old. Polycarp knew that the Romans were after him. He ran and tried to hide, but the Romans captured one of his young servants. They tortured the servant, and he broke, confessing Polycarp’s location. Polycarp went peacefully into custody, and the passage below opens with him being marched into the local stadium. Some of the passage may not be clear to a modern audience, so I want to explain what is going on in the story. The “proconsul” was the ruler of the city and responsible for prosecuting Polycarp. When the proconsul tells Polycarp to “swear by the fortune of Caesar,” he’s essentially telling Polycarp to admit that the Roman emperor, not Jesus, is both lord and God. When the proconsul tells Polycarp to say “Away with the Atheists,” he is telling Polycarp to renounce the church. The Romans worshiped a large number of different gods. Since the Christians worshiped rejected the Roman gods and worshiped Jesus, the Christians were accused of atheism. Of course, when Polycarp says “Away with the Atheists,” gesturing toward the crowd, he is pointing out just who the real atheists are.]
From “The Martyrdom of Polycarp”
Now, as Polycarp was entering into the stadium, there came to him a voice from heaven, saying, “Be strong, and show thyself a man, O Polycarp!” No one saw who it was that spoke to him; but those of our brethren who were present heard the voice. And as he was brought forward, the tumult became great when they heard that Polycarp was taken. And when he came near, the proconsul asked him whether he was Polycarp. On his confessing that he was, [the proconsul] sought to persuade him to deny [Christ], saying, “Have respect to thy old age,” and other similar things, according to their custom, [such as], “Swear by the fortune of Caesar; repent, and say, Away with the Atheists.” But Polycarp, gazing with a stern countenance on all the multitude of the wicked heathen then in the stadium, and waving his hand towards them, while with groans he looked up to heaven, said, “Away with the Atheists.” Then, the proconsul urging him, and saying, “Swear, and I will set thee at liberty, reproach Christ;” Polycarp declared, “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?”
And when the proconsul yet again pressed him, and said, “Swear by the fortune of Caesar,” he answered, “Since thou art vainly urgent that, as thou sayest, I should swear by the fortune of Caesar, and pretendest not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian. And if you wish to learn what the doctrines of Christianity are, appoint me a day, and thou shalt hear them.” The proconsul replied, “Persuade the people.” But Polycarp said, “To thee I have thought it right to offer an account [of my faith]; for we are taught to give all due honour (which entails no injury upon ourselves) to the powers and authorities which are ordained of God. But as for these, I do not deem them worthy of receiving any account from me.”
The proconsul then said to him, “I have wild beasts at hand; to these will I cast thee, except thou repent.” But he answered, “Call them then, for we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil; and it is well for me to be changed from what is evil to what is righteous.” But again the proconsul said to him, “I will cause thee to be consumed by fire, seeing thou despisest the wild beasts, if thou wilt not repent.” But Polycarp said, “Thou threatenest me with fire which burneth for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but art ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. But why tarriest thou? Bring forth what thou wilt.”
Commentary:
I think most who would self-identify as Christians would like to think that, if it came right down to it, they would stand against such persecution. I know that most of us, including me, have failed to stand for Christ when the stakes were much, much lower. How in the world do we expect to stand for Christ in death when we fail to stand for him in life?
Why do we fail to take Jesus seriously when he says, "... Fear only God who can destroy both soul and body in hell ... Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven ... If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it" (Matthew 10:28, 32-33, 38-39; NLT).
May we be as Polycarp!
Jeremy Green
