A Vase By Any Other Name - Will Tyler

About 150 years after Christ’s death, the city of Carthage (in modern Tunisia) had a big Christian community. However, the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus was not a fan of the growing number of Christians. He hated these people that told others to worship Jesus; you see people of other religions still worshiped the emperor, but Christians refused to worship anyone other than Jesus. In order to try to stop people from becoming Christians, he made a new rule that conversion to Christianity was illegal and punishable by death. However, this didn’t stop everybody. A 22-year-old woman named Perpetua converted to Christianity. She was arrested and was to be put on trial. Before her trial, her father tried to make her recant her conversion. He told her to think of her young child, in which she responded, “Father, do you see that vase?” When he said he could, she replied, “Could it be called by any other name?” When he said no for it is a vase, she replied “So too can I not be called anything other than what I am, a Christian.”  

A few days later her father tried to convince her again, but Perpetua famously answered him “It will all happen in the prisoner's dock as God wills, for you may be sure that we are not left to ourselves but are all in His power." Her faith in the will of God was extravagant, and due to her faith, she was sentenced to die in the arena.  

This is how her time in the arena was recorded: “First the heifer tossed Perpetua and she fell on her back. Then sitting up she pulled down the tunic that was ripped along the side so that it covered her thighs, thinking more of her modesty than of her pain. Next, she asked for a pin to fasten her untidy hair: for it was not right that a martyr should die with her hair in disorder, lest she might seem to be mourning in her hour of triumph. Then she got up. And seeing that Felicitas had been crushed to the ground, she went over to her, gave her hand, and lifted her up. Then the two stood side by side.” 

After this a leopard attacked the group killing one of the men. Another of the men grabbed a ring, bloodied it with the wounds he had been given, and then gave the ring to their guard saying, “Remember me, and remember the faith.” All that survived the beasts were to be killed by the sword. After many had died by the sword, a gladiator came to kill Perpetua. But being as young as he was missed his mark. Perpetua, not in hate but in love, reached out and grabbed his hand and directed the gladiator to where his cut was supposed to be, and moments later the young gladiator swung his blade, and killed the valiant woman.    

Perpetua became a hero of the faith that day. Her diary was finished off by a friend who witnessed her death and preserved it and even now can still be read (although I’ve never read all of it). Augustine, the now famous theologian born many years after Perpetua, was said to have preached sermons on her heroic death and brave words.  

This story always sends chills down my spine, the violence that our Christian brothers and sisters endured seems so hard compared to the struggles we face today. Her words “It will all happen in the prisoner's dock as God wills, for you may be sure that we are not left to ourselves but are all in his power,” even 1,800 years later strike me with power. How can someone submit to God’s will so submissively that they would accept a brutal fate in the hands of gladiators. I don’t know about you, but I can barely accept suffering as the will of God in little things, let alone dying in an arena in the hands of some of the greatest torturers our world has ever known. This leads me to ask, how can we submit to the will of God? 

At this let’s turn to Romans 8:27-28 which reads, “And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” This verse tells us two things: first, “the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” What does that mean you may ask, well the word ‘accordance’ means ‘conformity or agreement.’ So if we plug this into the verse it may give us a different outlook. “The Spirit intercedes for God’s people in agreement with the will of God.” When the Spirit intercedes for God’s people it does so only in agreement with God’s will. Therefore, the Spirit can’t act against the will of God, or else it would not agree. So, when we pray for the Spirit to intercede, we must remember that sometimes the Spirit may not act the way we want it to, because the Spirit is agreeing with God’s will.  

So for example look at Perpetua. I’m sure she prayed that she would not have to die. I’m sure she dreamed of living a full life and raising her child. But for some reason the Spirit chose not to act to save her. But Perpetua never complained about the Spirit not interceding because she recognized that her death may be the will of God. If she would have been freed by the Spirit and spared, I’m sure she would have praised God. But as in the story above, she did not allow her circumstances to take control. She went to her death trying to glorify God the best she could. She tried to worship God by submitting to the will of God, regardless of her circumstances. If the Spirit must agree with God’s will, then we must certainly also. Sometimes the Spirit takes time to act, and God’s will is that we would have faith and keep on glorifying Him until He does choose to act.  

Also, sometimes God’s will is that we grow and mature through our suffering, and actually do the hard work it takes to follow God. So just because something is hard and no miracles are happening, don’t say “oh it must not be the will of God, I’m just going to roll over until something easy comes.” Instead pick up your cross and glorify God in your suffering, do the hard work and God will meet you in that. For example, say you are in a big extended family argument, and you’ve prayed that God would just take it back to normal. If God doesn’t miraculously make it go away, He still will’s that your family come back together to love and glorify Christ, but you are required to have faith and trust in God and do the work. Go sweat, cry, repent, and forgive; try and put your broken family back together. Because God’s will is that you would act in faith to what He has commanded.  

Secondly, this verse says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” We can trust that the will of God, even if it is leading us through suffering, is working for our good. And not only for our good but for all those who love him. Sometimes in our culture when we read this verse, we subconsciously read it as ‘all things God works for the good of those who love Him, I love God so God is working for my good.’ This is true: God does work for your good! But this verse reads for the good of those who love Him, which is every born again Christian, not just yourself. What I mean is this- your suffering may benefit others and we have to be humble enough to thank God that He works in that way.  It may be a struggle, it may be more than you could ever possibly bear but know that God is working for not only your good, but for all those who love him. For example, look at Perpetua, she trusted that her suffering was the will of God and 1800 years later I am using her faith as a testimony of God’s will. Now she physically suffered, and she did not deserve to die and leave her newborn child motherless, but God’s will was to use her death as a testimony so that others may be inspired to have faith in the will of God. What was not physically good for her, God used in His sovereign will to bless generations upon generations of Christians throughout Church History.  

So, as I leave you to glorify God in your week I quote Perpetua’s famous words to you. “It will all happen in [your life] as God wills, for you may be sure that we are not left to ourselves but are all in his power.”