#22: Over My Dead Body

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them?



#22: OVER MY DEAD BODY

“Jesus now has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of his cross.” (Thomas à Kempis)

Michael Sattler was sentenced to death on a spring day in 1527. His crime? He was an Anabaptist leader – a bible-believing pastor who dared to stand up to the corruption of the established church in Germany. His sentence read:

“Michael Sattler shall be committed to the executioner. The latter shall… cut out his tongue, and then forge him fast to a wagon and there with glowing iron tongs twice tear pieces from his body, then on the way to the site of execution five times more as above and then burn his body to a powder as an archheretic.”

Throughout his torture and with a tattered tongue Sattler could be heard praying for his executioners. Tying him to a ladder they pushed him into the fire but through the crackling flames he called out, challenging the crowd, the judge and the mayor to repent. Soon the ropes around his wrists burnt through and the crowd gasped. Clearly, deliberately the dying man raised two defiant forefingers to heaven. It was a sign, recognised by the Christians, that a martyr’s death was bearable. Even at that moment Michael Sattler was confessing Jesus.

Eight days later Michael’s wife was drowned in the Neckar River. She too refused to recant her faith.

Get up! Shake yourself! Act! Do something! Do it at once! Go on doing it! Do it with all your might! Spare no pains! Never stop any more! Read, pray, talk, sing, give! Do anything you can – anything that seems likely to make people know the truth about themselves and Heaven and Hell. God will help you! (General William Booth.)