What Is "All Saints Day"?

Scripture

28Then Peter began to speak up. “We’ve given up everything to follow you,” he said. 29 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, 30will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life. 31But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then. Mark 10:28-31

Observation

We, like Peter, will often ask “What’s in it for me, Jesus?” His response is telling and quite sobering. In fact, if I had my way I wish Jesus would have stopped with the first half of verse 30 because I really love the promise of 100 times the blessing for what I’ve given up to follow Jesus. But, Jesus didn’t stop there. Three words He includes at the end of that sentence should clue every believer in to why today, “All Saints Day”, should matter much more than it currently does. Jesus makes it clear in this passage and many others that persecution and suffering is par for the course for any follower of Jesus. In fact, later on in this passage when James and John miss the point and try to secure an eternal promotion above the rest of the boys Jesus says quite clearly, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering.”(Mk. 10:39). “Historian Michael Licona captures the key point in his book The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach: “After Jesus’ death, the disciples endured persecution, and a number of them experienced martyrdom. The strength of their conviction indicates that they were not just claiming Jesus had appeared to them after rising from the dead. They really believed it. They willingly endangered themselves by publicly proclaiming the risen Christ.” Jesus speaks about the present suffering in the scope of eternity when He makes it clear that the world’s value system is opposite that of the Kingdom. Many who are celebrated in this life will be unknowns in the life to come. So, if we are celebrating anyone, shouldn’t it be those who have died as martyrs for their faith? They may be ignored in this life, but they will be celebrated in Heaven. “9When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their testimony. 10They shouted to the Lord and said, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?” 11Then a white robe was given to each of them. And they were told to rest a little longer until the full number of their brothers and sisters6:11 Greek their brothers.—their fellow servants of Jesus who were to be martyred—had joined them.” Revelation 6:9-11

Application

Growing up in a Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition I was taught to look down on the Catholics for worshipping saints. Though certainly some do and worship of anyone but Jesus is idolatry, many I’ve known over the years simply celebrate their lives and learn from their deaths. The way they lived to die for their faith inspires their own faith. This is especially important to recognize for Christians in the American Church who are largely unaware of the martyrdom of fellow brothers and sisters of our faith around the world. In fact, according to Gordon Theological Seminary, “more than 70 million Christians have been martyred over the last two millennia, more than half of which died in the 20th century under fascist and communist regimes. We also estimate that 1 million Christians were killed between 2001 and 2010 and about 900,000 were killed from 2011 to 2020.” In light of this modern reality and 20 centuries that preceded it of those who have died for Christ what kind of hubris is it to believe we can just skip this day and not be the worse for it? A family from our church brought this point up to me and I couldn’t stop thinking about how right they were. “It would be cruel injustice and ingratitude,” writes historian Charles de Montalembert in The Monks of the West from St. Benedict to St. Bernard, “to pass by in silence twenty [plus] generations of indomitable laborers who had cleared the thorns from the souls of our fathers, as they cleared the soil of Christian Europe.” When Jesus calls us to be His witnesses in Acts 1:8 to the world that sound pretty great, right? Until you realize that to be a witness for Jesus, to tell people everywhere about Him, means they will be martyrs for Him. Yes, the Greek word for witness is martyr. Something we lose in our English translations that the disciples would no doubt have understood. This is a word used in the judicial process where a person becomes the proof of an incident or accusation in a court of law. They were being summoned by the courts of Heaven to be the proof that Jesus IS alive and often died for that testimony. Am I willing to die for my witness of Christ? Sometimes, I don’t even want to talk to the person sitting across from me at Starbucks for fear of looking weird. Maybe, we should not this day go by without taking a look at some stories of the men and women who have gone before us so that the fierceness of their faith can become our own. Today, I’m reading through some stories from Voice of The Martyrs. They also have a podcast if you don’t have time to read that will inspire your faith.

Prayer

Lord, forgive me for my pride in thinking I have nothing to learn from the saints who have gone before me. I feel like the disciples as I often ask “what’s in it for me” when really I need to be reminded it’s not about me. You’ve called me to be witness, a martyr, living as one who has laid my life down. Thank you for all those who have gone before whose debt of love I can’t repay but I can pay forward to those around me today.