As A Bride Led To A Dance

Martin Luther in his sermon on John 15:2 tells a story of an incredible 15-year-old girl,

"Thus we also read that when St. Agatha, a girl fourteen or fifteen years old, was being led to imprisonment and torture, she went cheerfully and said that she felt as though she were being escorted to a dance. These are surely words of comfort and defiance from a young girl who regards the torment and death to which she is being led as no different from a wedding and an occasion for the greatest joy. This is due to faith, which has averted the eyes from the physical appearance and sensations and has directed them upward to the life beyond. It has concluded: "What can they accomplish, even if they do their worst and afflict me with every misfortune? They only usher me quickly from this misery to Christ in heaven." It is the sole purpose of all the sufferings of Christians to promote our Christian life and to bear fruit for a fuller knowledge and a stronger confession of the Word, a more certain hope, and a wider expansion of the kingdom of Christ. The world, to be sure, intends to do us harm, but it really accomplishes no more than what the church sings about the martyrs: "Unknowingly they lead us into eternal joys." Unknowingly and involuntarily the world leads the Christians through torture and death to eternal joys. Such tortures are nothing else, as St. Agatha said, than taking our arms in a friendly way and leading us to heaven as a bride is led to a dance. Whatever harm is done to Christians by the world, God turns back their anger and lets the harm redound to their advantage." - Luther's Works, Volume 24, pg. 196-197

Why would this 15-year-old girl react like this? Luther writes that through her faith she set her eyes from "the physical appearance and sensations and has directed them upward to the life beyond." What would make St. Agatha do this? Like all the other saints that sing with the Apostle Paul, this 15-year-old girl held firm to Philippians 3:8, "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." St. Agatha knew that whatever trials she endured for her Christian faith, whether through killing sin or the hatred received by others for simply telling them about the cross, she would endure joyfully because there is more value in knowing Jesus Christ as Lord than any gold or currency in the world.

So, kill what you know is sin for the joy of knowing Christ by walking deeper with him.

Refuse to get drunk on alcohol because you have a far better substance to drink of knowing the satisfaction Christ grants his saints when they take pleasure in the kingdom and not the world.

Forsake the pleasures of the flesh manifested in ways such as pride and sex by knowing Christ will supply all your needs to bring you joy.

Hate the myth that says young people are only expected to show up and listen and be jealous to do good works that will let you know Christ greater by seeing God work to provide all your needs to make others glad in God.

Be willing to endure the hatred of friends because you simply love Jesus Christ.

Set your eyes upward to the life beyond where Jesus Christ, our great God, King, and Savior is. We want to be there and will endure anything to arrive there with joy and assurance.