THE WORD "martyr" has come to be associated with images of planes flying into buildings and cars bursting into flames. A word for fanatical suicide bombers.

But the word itself has been hijacked. It started out as the Greek word martys which means "witness" - someone who testifies in court.

The first Christians adapted it to mean someone who "testified" that Jesus was alive and was their master. They often paid a high price for that testimony. Some paid with their lives. And so the word martyr came to describe those who paid for their faith with their life.

But these martyrs couldn't have been more different from suicide bombers who die for hate and vengeance.

The first ever Christian martyr was a man called Stephen. Surrounded by murderers throwing rocks at him, Stephen died with these words on his lips: "Lord, don't blame them for what they have done". He died loving.

He was following in Jesus' footsteps. As soldiers were nailing Jesus to a cross, He prayed: "Father, forgive these people! They don't know what they're doing." Jesus died forgiving.

In fact, the death of Jesus was one great big, cosmic act of forgiveness. God Himself soaked up human evil on that day and exhausted its power. That's worth living - and dying - for.

See also: True Definitions: Radical True Definitions: Gospel

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