Living with Enemies: Polycarp of Smyrna
This post is part of a series exploring the lives of people attempting to live a life true to Jesus’ example and teaching in the midst of serious enmity. The first post focused on Jesus and the most recent one on Ignatius of Antioch.
After seeing another Christian devoured by lions, the crowd in the amphitheatre screamed for the next victim to be brought in:
Down with the atheists! Get Polycarp!
Atheists?
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna in Western Turkey, was certainly not an ancient precursor of Richard Dawkins. Rather, Christians were called atheists in those days because they wouldn’t worship the multitude of Roman gods, including the Emperor, which was seen as revolting against his authority.
And they paid for it with their lives.
The 86-year-old Polycarp was up next to entertain the crowd for a few minutes.
When Polycarp heard he was being sought, his friends had to persuade him to leave, because he himself did not want to run away.
Then, when his persecutors found him in a house in the countryside, he simply welcomed them, and ordered some food and drink to be set before them. (Exactly what Paul encouraged people to do for their enemies). He only requested an hour to pray before they took him away.
On the way to the amphitheatre, a Roman officer tried to persuade him to give his loyalty to Caesar instead of Jesus, and thus to save his life. When Polycarp politely refused, he was kicked out of the chariot and dislocated his leg.
In the stadium, the local Roman ruler also tried to persuade him, threatening him with wild beasts and fire, but to no avail. When he announced to the crowd that Polycarp would not deny his loyalty to Jesus, the crowd screamed once more:
This is the father of the Christians, and the overthrower of our gods. He has been teaching many not to sacrifice, or to worship the gods. Let loose a lion upon him!
The Roman ruler ironically indicated that it would be illegal to use a lion, since the shows with wild beasts were already over. Therefore, they burned him at a stake, and finally finished him with a dagger.
Although fully aware of where all this was going, the old Polycarp was not at all fazed in the face of death. He was even rather sharp in his answers to the Roman ruler.
When the ruler told Polycarp to swear by “the fortune of Caesar” and say “Down with the atheists!”, Polycarp sarcastically pointed to the wild crowd in the stadium and said “Down with the atheists!”
When the ruler threatened Polycarp with fire, Polycarp replied: “Your fire burns only for an hour, but you know nothing of the fire of the coming judgement that burns forever for the evil.”
Again, turning the other cheek does not simply mean always nodding and saying “yes, sir”. Evil can and should be named and resisted.
Yet not by evil means, as Polycarp wrote:
Do not render evil for evil, or railing for railing, or blow for blow, or cursing for cursing. Judge not, so that you not be judged; forgive, and you will be forgiven; be merciful, that you may receive mercy.
Like Ignatius before him, Polycarp embraced his inevitable death, seeing it for what it is, a temporary suffering serving as a passage into eternal glory with his lord Jesus.
I thank you that you count me worthy to be a martyr, to share the cup of Christ and the resurrection to eternal life.
Out of the ashes of death arises a new glorious life.
Read the next entry in this series on Iraqi priest Saad Sirop Hanna.
