On My Way to Rome

those who had this faith and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. As far as I was concerned, this Jesus of Nazareth was an imposter, who claimed to be the Son of God, the long awaited Messiah. The flames of my hatred towards this new sect were fuelled when I watch the stoning of Stephen. His sermon in his defence before the council of the Sanhedrin tormented me. Stephen had said things that cut me to the heart and infuriated me."

  Stephen was one of seven upright and honest men that had been appointed by the twelve apostles to serve and distribute food at the tables. The apostles themselves had served daily at these tables at first, until the number of the Lord's disciples had greatly increased. They said, "It's not right that we should have to give up preaching the Word of God in order to attend and serve at the tables." Therefore they selected seven men of good character. Men full of the Holy Spirit and full of the wisdom of God. Men capable of handling disputes that often arose because some groups felt that their widows were being neglected with handouts and were not been treated equally.

  At that time I had already taken Gamaliel's doctrine to heart as he had a confrontation with those holy apostles and came to the conclusion, that if this movement was of men, it would fade and quickly pass away. But if this movement was ordained of God, then you would not be able to stop it or overthrow it. You might even be found to be fighting against God Himself, by opposing it and attempting to stop it. At the time I saw nothing in that movement that indicated it was ordained by my God. It opposed everything that the God of Israel had established in the past through our forefathers. Gamaliel had seen movements like this come and go his entire life. These movements would start with enthusiasm and passion but would eventually diminish and then fade away completely.

  This Stephen was full of this movements faith and exerted authority and power. He had done great wonders and miracles among the local people. However, there arose those, like myself of the various synagogues who debated and disputed with Stephen. But we were not able to resist the intelligence and wisdom that he had. Later I discovered that it was by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that he spoke with such boldness and conviction. So we instructed men to conspire against him and say that they had heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against our God. So after we had stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, we had Stephen arrested and brought before the council of the Sanhedrin. Then we set up the witnesses who said with assertiveness, "This man keeps on making statements against this sacred place, our beloved Jerusalem and against the Law of Moses. We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will tear down and destroy this holy place, our sacred Temple. We heard him say that this same Jesus will change the laws, the customs and the traditions that Moses handed down to us."

  On hearing these words, a flame of hatred ignited my anger. So I became consenting unto Stephen's death. On that day a murderous spirit possessed me and I became thirsty for the blood of the saints. That day I developed a deep hatred for this Jesus of Nazareth and for His "Followers of the Way" who believed.

  Stephen calmly stood before his accusers with an angelic peace in his heart. There was a silent pause as Stephen took a deep breath. Then he began to speak with confidence and great boldness, interpreting Scripture after Scripture from the ancient writings of our forefathers in his defence. His knowledge of our history and traditions was extremely accurate. He showed tremendous passion about our heritage. He expounded on Abraham, Joseph, Jacob, Moses, David and even Solomon. I was astounded by his wisdom and was greatly inspired by his zealousness for my God, as I shared that very same zeal.

  I sat in the counsel and gazed intently at Stephen. I then saw how his human face suddenly took on the appearance of an angel. My inspiration quickly turned to despair when Stephen began to refer to Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfilment of my God raising up another prophet like unto Moses. Thus claiming this Jesus to be Christ, the Messiah, the King of the Jews.

  My heart exploded with fury as those blasphemous words reached my ears. And how infuriated I became for the disrespect that Stephen showed towards our holy Temple, "How dare he imply that my God no longer dwells in our sacred Temple. How dare he state that my God does not dwell in temples built with human hands. How could he deem it even possible for my God to dwell in the hearts of men by the Holy Spirit." The more Stephen spoke the more outraged we all became.

  Without any fear in his heart, Stephen boldly announced that we were a stubborn and stiff-necked people, "You are uncircumcised both in heart and in hearing. You always resist the Holy Spirit as your forefathers also did!" He shouted with the courage and tenacity of a fierce lion. Every bit of admiration that I had developed in my heart for this young man instantly turned to hatred and rage in a microscopic moment. How could this young man even refer to us in the same breath as those, who under Moses hardened their hearts in the wilderness. How dare he accuse us as being of the same ancient example of our forefathers unbelief. How dare he imply that we were cut from the same cloth as them and haven't mixed the word we received from God with faith in our hearts.

  "How could this be?" I questioned, "only the Messiah when he comes could be the fulfilment of all this!" I became confused and inwardly began to question the ancient beliefs of our forefathers. How could we have not heard from God. Our forefathers had diligently written down every encounter and word spoken from God. I had reverently studied and memorised our ancient writings out of the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets. Was he proclaiming that this Jesus of Nazareth was the fulfilment of the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets?

  "Jesus Christ, the Just and Righteous one is the promised Messiah," yelled Stephen at the top of his voice. He could be clearly heard above the noise of the angry crowd, "you had Him, the Prince of Life betrayed and put to death on a cross. You betrayers and murderers!"

  I could not detect a quiver of fear in Steven's voice. He was outrageously bold and fuelled with confidence. Suddenly the high priest handed me his robe. Instantly my arms were filled with the outer garments of all my fellow Pharisees. They too were cut deeply to the heart as I was. But Stephen being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up into heaven and having his spiritual eyes opened, saw the glory of God and Jesus Christ. He cried out, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of God." We, all in one accord seized Stephen and shouted together in harmony. Some people placed their hands over their ears to prevent any further blasphemy from desecrating them.

  I ran behind those who seized Stephen. They dragged him outside the city gates. My arms were now suddenly full to the brim with men's coats. Subconsciously I had accepted them during the adrenaline rush and the mass hysteria of the crowd. The Law of Moses was specific about punishing blasphemers. They were to be taken outside the city gates and stoned to death. The human stampede had caused a dust cloud to arise and it envelope us as Stephen was driven out of the city gates. My heart pounded in my chest as I became enveloped with the murderous chants of the mob. I was hypnotised as adrenalin raced through my body and I became overwhelmed by a violent force. It was my first stoning.

  The crowd all stopped running and made a huge circle around Stephen. The thick cloud of dust began to settle once again. The dust clung to every fibre of my being. As the dust settled, I could see Stephen standing with his arms stretched upwards towards the sky. His eyes were firmly fixed on heaven. I quietly watched as the crowd gathered huge stones. Some people only took what they could carry in their hands. Some only took a stone for each hand while others gathered as many stones as they could. They stored them in front of their robes. By this time I was covered with everyone's outer garments. They had all laid their garments down at my feet, thinking that I was the young man responsible for the safekeeping of their clothes.

  Stephen calmly called upon his God as they began to stone him, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He knelt down and cried in a loud voice, "Lord do not lay this charge of sin against them." Then he fell asleep as his spirit left his body.

  Although Stephen's spirit had departed from
his body, his accusers continued to annihilate his lifeless body with stones. Some walked up to his dead body that lay in the dust and continued to hurl insults at him. While others spat upon him in disgust. They were forbidden by the Law of Moses to touch anything that was dead, thus making themselves unclean. So they didn't touch his dead body with any part of their own bodies.

  I stood there watching the lifeless body of Stephen. I was still mesmerized by the entire event. Slowly my arms became free of garments as one by one the counsellors of the Sanhedrin collected them. The echoes of Stephen's words rang over and over again in my ears.

  "How dare he, how dare he," I whispered to myself, "how dare he deem this act of ours as a sin against God?" We were following the Laws of our forefathers to put to death those who blasphemed. My anger turned to hatred and my hatred to thoughts of murder.

  I kept asking myself in my innermost thought chamber, "Who is this man Jesus, from Nazareth, that this young man Stephen would embrace and