January 23rdA Different Time
To my dear TFMC family,
I spoke briefly last week about the zealousness of the Early Anabaptists. A phrase commonly used to describe the early Anabaptist movement was that they were, “on fire for Christ.” A phrase that has been picked up as a trendy and pithy rallying cry. However, the ‘fire’ that the Anabaptists had came from their complete and utter devotion to the life and teachings of Jesus.
The early Anabaptists were so drawn and taken by the words and teachings of Jesus that they submitted their entire lives to God and Jesus. For some of the early Anabaptists they went so far as to release everything in their lives to God’s will and control. There are accounts in the Martyr’s Mirror of parents being arrested and while awaiting their execution writing letters to their families; to their children, offering words of encouragement to remain steadfast in the faith that they were taught. Its curious that these last pieces of correspondence to their families, often read more like evangelical tracts rather than farewells.
One of these stories is of Maeyken Wens. Maeyken had been arrested in April 1573. She was imprisoned in the Steen castle of Antwerp, where her husband and her children sometimes visited her; they also wrote some letters. Maeyken was executed on the morning of 6 October, with a tongue screw to prevent her from addressing the crowd as martyrs often did. Her son Adriaen watched the execution, but when his mother was tied up to the stake he fainted. When he regained consciousness he looked for the tongue screw in the ashes where his mother had been burned, and took it as a memento of his mother. Her story is special in that we have a number of letters from her, written on the back of Maeyken's farewell letter of 5 October is a note to her children, the only existing autographed letter of a martyr.
Now, as a parent, I’m hard pressed to embrace this degree of sacrifice. As committed as I am to following Jesus, as committed as I am to our faith tradition, I don’t want my last words to my family to be one of holding true to faith, there are many other things that I’d like them to remember. And, in all honesty, if push came to shove, I would probably put their well being foremost. Then again, the 16th Century was a different time.
It was a different time. Their commitment to follow Jesus at that time, I think, meant something different than it does now. And I’d say that’s more a reflection of culture and society than it does to people’s commitment. We’re not regularly threatened for our pursuit of our faith. We’re not pushed to lay our lives down for the sake of our faith. And, at the same time, another question comes to mine, one of priority, “what priority does God, or the life and teachings of Jesus have in your life?”
For the early Anabaptists this wasn’t a question for them, God and Jesus had priority over everything else in life. They saw their lives as something to be wholly and completely given into the service of God. They saw their whole lives as an offering to God to help bring God’s dream into fruition. How might we reclaim this passion?
Yours,
Craig Janzen Neufeld, Pastor