The cost of discipleship

Word came last week that a medical aid team had been murdered in the Puran Valley of Afghanistan after two weeks of a medical mission in that remote and impoverished area. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the "executions," citing their belief that the aid workers were attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity. International Assistance Mission, the agency sponsoring the mission, rejected that accusation, declaring that the mission was humanitarian and that it does not proseletyze. One of the victims was an American optometrist who had served in Afghanistan for thirty years. Another was a dentist from Denver who had given uip his private practice to serve the poor in Afghanistan. Another was a male nurse, graduate of Johns Hopkins. Another was the daughter of a pastor in Knoxville, Tennessee. In addition to Americans, the team also included two Afghans, a German and a Brit.

That no attempt to convert Muslims was associated with this mission did not matter at all to the Taliban. It was enough that some on the team were Christians, and they were therefore presumed guilty of evangelizing. They were serving the children of Afghanistan, some of whom had never seen a toothbrush or had an eye exam. But they were killed for being Christians.

In the Greek New Testament, the word for "witness" is martyria, from which the English word martyr is derived. It is not a coincidence.

Those of us who speak (rather glibly, I'm afraid) about witnessing in the comparatively safe environment of the US might give thought to the cost of discipleship in some places. I am deeply saddened by the tragedy of these aid workers. I know, though, that God has used them to serve "the least of these" and that their contribution to goodwill and peace lives on.