The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand

According to medieval legend, the ten thousand martyrs of Mount Ararat were Roman soldiers led by Saint Acacius who were converted to Christianity. They were then crucified on Mount Ararat in Armenia. They were killed by the King of Persia, Shapur I, by the order of the Roman emperor Hadrian or Antoninus Pius or Diocletian – depending on which sources one reads.

The original story is attributed to the ninth century scholar Anastasius Bibliothecarius.

There are many difficulties with the legend. It contains many historical inaccuracies and utterly improbable details. However, despite its questionable veracity, the event was extremely popular in Renaissance art, as seen for example in the painting 10,000 martyrs of Mount Ararat by the Venetian artist Vittore Carpaccio, or in The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand by the German artist Albrecht Dürer.

The legend reads: “The emperors Adrianand Anoninus marched at the head of a large army to suppress the revolt of the Gadarenes and the people of the Euphrates region. Finding too strong an opponent, all fled except nine thousand soldiers. After these had been converted to Christ by the voice of an angel they turned upon the enemy and completely routed them. They were then brought to the top of Mount Ararat and instructed in the faith. When the emperors heard of the victory they sent for the converts to join in sacrifices of thanksgiving to the gods. They refused, and the emperors applied to five tributary kings for aid against the rebels. The kings reponded to the call, bringing an immense army. The Christians were asked to deny their faith, and, on refusal, were stoned. But the stones rebounded against the assailants, and at this miracle a thousand soldiers joined the confessors. Hereupon the emperors ordered all to be crucified.”

In his Ten Thousand Martyrs of Mount Ararat, Capraccio depicts a ghastly scene, with an army of Roman soldiers on the ground, and trees strewn with dying bodies. The painting is densely packed with naked, tortured figures. The scene piles up and stretches away into the distance. You almost believe that, if you tried, you’d be able to count 10,000 individual martyrs.

The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand, completed in 1508, is said to have been one of the favorite works of Albrecht Dürer. Commissioned by Frederic the Wise, Dürer incorporated himself into his image of the Christians being slain for their religion. Dressed in black, Dürer holds a banner identifying himself as the artist, and is accompanied in the painting by his recently deceased friend and scholar, Konrad Celtis. Dürer was known for adding his self-portrait to many of his works, particularly religious depictions. Another interesting reference within the picture is the turbaned man in blue, who is believed to represent the Turkish threat within Durer’s own country at the time of the painting.

The persecution of Christians isn’t relegated to Renaissance art. It is very real and is happening today around the world.

Christians are being persecuted and slaughtered across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. 100 million face persecution. Thousands are murdered every year. It is a holocaust happening right now.

In the first few centuries, Christians were crucified, burned, stoned, and fed to lions under Roman rule. Today, believers are being blown up, incinerated, shot, crucified, and beheaded.

A few weeks ago in my confirmation class, I wanted my confirmands to understand the reality of persecution that comes with Christianity. I showed them pictures of Christians being persecuted around the world. They saw Christians in orange jumpsuits lined up in front of an ISIS firing squad and Coptic Christians standing in the middle of their bombed out churches in Egypt and a Christian hanging dead on a cross. They were especially horrified with the image of a gun being pointed at the face of a Christian infant.

Christians across the globe practice their faith knowing they might die because of it! Meanwhile, here in America, Christians don’t go to church; we don’t stand up for our beliefs; and we don’t accept God’s Word in its entirety. Not because we fear violence … but because we simply cannot be bothered.

Iraqi Christians are in danger of having their heads removed from their bodies. We can’t bother to remove our heads from our pillows.

Coptic Christians are in danger every time they enter their churches. We only come to church when it is convenient for us.

African Christians will walk miles in order to attend a worship service because there is nothing more important to them. We can’t attend a worship service because our weekend is filled with soccer tournaments and hunting trips and anything else that is more important to us than God at that moment.

We are lazy. We are lukewarm. We are selfish. We are apathetic. … We are cowards.

In dozens of countries around the planet, Christians go to church, read their Bibles, and profess their faith fully aware that these decisions might get them killed. In many cases, they are converted to Christianity knowing their conversion may well cost them their lives. These men and women ready to give up everything — their very lives, if necessary — for what they believe.

And what about us? Many of us Christians here in America cannot be bothered to drive a few minutes to an air conditioned building to worship with our brothers and sisters for an hour or two on a Sunday. And why? Because it means sacrificing a relaxing morning. It means having to get up and get dressed before noon. It means maybe missing the first quarter of Packer games in the fall (for those in the Midwest). We are afraid of standing up for our faith, not because we are in danger of being dragged out of our home, beaten, burned alive, and hung from a bridge. But because we might have to deal with some angry internet comments or frowny face emojis or losing some friends or getting a poor grade from an atheist professor or being called a bigot by the LGBT crowd.

And if we can’t be hassled to praise the Lord at church once a week, we certainly won’t worry about standing by the more difficult and challenging aspects of our faith. Here, many Christians frantically skim through the Bible discarding every part that doesn’t suit the modern lifestyle. We sit up on a perch like gods, deconstructing Scripture while constructing a new religion for ourselves; one that permits abortion, premarital sex, adultery, gay marriage, and whatever other sin we feel like indulging in.
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While our fellow believers many miles away are marched out into the desert and massacred for believing in the Word, we abandon the Word entirely if it threatens to put a crimp in our lifestyle choices.

At our confirmation, we stood before God’s altar and vowed that we would be willing to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from our Christian faith. However, if it were left up to us, there isn’t a chance that we would remain faithful unto death.

But there is One who can make us faithful. One who was faithful to us.

Jesus knows what it is like to truly be humiliated, persecuted and willing to die for what He believed in – us. Jesus was born into a world that didn’t want Him – where the king of the country tried to murder Him as an infant. Members of His boyhood home tried to throw Him off a cliff. Religious leaders continuously plotted against Him. One of His best friends betrayed Him. Another denied Him. The rest deserted Him. None of them truly believed in Him.

He was unfairly arrested, lied about by perjured witnesses, declared “guilty” for declaring that He really was the Son of God. He was beaten, laughed at, spat upon, scourged, and condemned to die by a man who knew He was innocent. When He was crucified, one criminal challenged Him and the passersby mocked Him. It can honestly be said – with only the rarest of exceptions – from the beginning of His life, until the moment He breathed His last, Jesus Christ was misunderstood, misinterpreted and maligned. He was seldom respected and often rejected.

Still, it is for the very people who didn’t want Him, who hated Him, who detested and despised Him that Jesus was born. Search the annals of history and you will not stumble upon anyone like the Savior. In Jesus, the Innocent is traded for the guilty, the Perfect for the flawed, and the Eternal for the temporal.

For every cowardly act on our part, Jesus stood strong against the temptations of Satan.

Every time we put Him last on the weekend, He made us and our salvation His singular thought on the cross.

Every time we are afraid to be forsaken by our friends or family because of our faith in Jesus, He endured being forsaken by His heavenly Father.

He suffered for our laziness. He surrendered Himself for our selfishness. He was resolute for our cowardice. He remained righteous for our apathy.

He was crowned with thorns so that we might receive a crown of glory.

He walked the streets of sorrow so that we might walk streets paved with gold.

He endured an eternity of hell on the cross so that we might spend an eternity in heaven with Him.

He was covered with blood so that we might be covered with His robes of righteousness.

Look at who your Jesus is. Cherish how much He loves you. Believe in the constant forgiveness He offers you. Worship Him who adores you.

Jesus told us, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5) Remain connected to Jesus. He is the vine. You are the branches. He is your life. Apart from Him you can do nothing. You will fall. You will fail. You will remain an apathetic, lazy, coward. But connected to Jesus you have forgiveness of sins. Through Jesus’ baptismal waters you have the divine authority to overcome Satan. Through Jesus’ almighty Word you have the power to live the life He desires. Through Jesus’ Holy Supper you have the confidence of eternal life in heaven. Through Jesus’ absolution you are forgiven for every apathetic, lazy, cowardly act so that on the Day of Judgment you will stand as a bold confessor of the faith, wearing your crown of glory. A crown, not because you were faithful, but because Jesus was faithful to you.

The legend of the 10,000 martyrs may have been fiction, but it captures an all too real reality. Christians are being persecuted around the world for their faith. That persecution is quickly making its way to America.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, when your enemies are gathered to humiliate you, degrade you, unfriend you, imprison, crucify or behead you, how will you respond?

Here is how you will respond. You will be faithful unto death. Not because of a confirmation vow you made before God’s altar in church, but because of the vow Christ made to you on the altar of His cross. He is the One who gives you the assurance. He is the One who makes His promise to you: “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).