Christian History Moment:
After being imprisoned by the Roman Catholic Church for his religious beliefs, Dirk Willems, a 16th-century Anabaptist, escaped the jail where he was being held and fled across a nearby icy pond. But when a prison guard gave chase and fell through the ice, Willems, moved with compassion, returned to rescue his struggling pursuer. Willems was recaptured, tortured, and ultimately burned at the stake on this day—May 16—in 1569. He remains a hero in the Anabaptist/Mennonite tradition to this day, and his witness lives on as a testament to Christian compassion. May we all (Christian and non-Christian alike) have the courage to practice the same enemy-love embodied by this remarkable person.
Heh... that very picture is the header of my blog. :-)
ReplyDeleteI know!
DeleteIt was also the cover photo on my facebook profile for a long time (although I had to flip it around to keep my profile photo from covering up part of the image).
One advantage to being starved in prison is that it allows one to escape across the ice without falling through. That probably explains why Willems made it across and the jailer didn't. Not all people consider Willems' actions commendable. I've heard of Jewish survivors of the holocaust who expressed the opinion of that stopping to save the life of an unjust pursuer is foolish.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting.
DeleteI would agree that stopping to save the life of any pursuer (whether or not the pursuer is "unjust" is ultimately unknowable) would be foolish. No one ever said that enemy-love is wise. In fact, I'm pretty sure Paul says in Romans that it only serves to heap burning coals on your enemy's head!
But then again, I have never been a Holocaust survivor...
The Jewish Holocaust Survivors came from this context: I organized a conference on Mennonite and Jewish ethno-religious history, held at the University of Maryland at College Park in 1997. We invited scholars of Jews and Mennos to speak in comparative sessions on various topics. When Mennonite historian, James Juhnke, told the Dirk Willems story the room erupted in laughter--much to the surprise of the Mennos in the audience, myself included. Holocaust survivors told us they thought of Dirk as stupid. Why would one turn back to save the life of a jailer? The prime directive in their case is to "survive" so that one lives to teach the faith and heritage to the next generation.
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