Steadfast: Making the Ultimate Sacrifice

Steadfast: Making the Ultimate Sacrifice

Our Steadfast series continues through Holy Week . . .

I just returned from Cyprus, where I spent the past two weeks with SIM — Serving in Mission — gathered with missionaries from around the world.

I am writing this article for Holy Saturday, the day of silence between Christ’s death and resurrection.

The faith we celebrate on Easter Weekend is more than a handed-down religious tradition. It is a living reality, and Cyprus challenged my understanding of what it means to share in the sufferings of Christ.

The Conversation on the Road from Larnaca

My first hour in Cyprus, weary and jet-lagged, I rode with a Nigerian missionary couple from the airport in Larnaca to our venue in Paphos.

We were getting to know one another when I asked them about the news accounts of violence in Nigeria.

I learned that this was their lived reality. Hundreds of members of their churches had been killed or kidnapped in recent years. Not statistics. People they know. Members of their church family, ECWA, the Evangelical Church Winning All, one of the largest Protestant denominations in Africa.

Just weeks before, an ECWA church had been attacked, and several members were still in captivity — including the pastor's wife — and being held for ransom.

Suffering: Holy Week in Nigeria, 2026

Christians continue to be violently murdered in Nigeria. Just this past week, on Palm Sunday of Holy Week 2026 — March 29 — gunmen killed 53 people in three coordinated attacks in Plateau State, Nigeria.

One week earlier, the ECWA church in Kwara State was attacked during morning worship—gunmen shot the congregation as they prayed. Similarly, the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria and the Church of the Brethren have each suffered waves of Boko Haram killings, leaving hundreds of local churches displaced.

Just yesterday, I heard from a Lutheran pastor I know personally from IWS that his nephew was among those killed in the Palm Sunday violence.

Across Nigeria, this year, more than 3,490 Christians have been killed for their faith — more than in any other country on earth.

I am not trying to just repeat news stories; I am trying to share something that I—and now you—have a personal connection with.

There is one more name I learned more about in Cyprus: Kevin Rideout, a SIM missionary pilot kidnapped in Niger on October 21, 2025, by armed men with suspected links to ISIS. He was targeted—taken from his home in a neighborhood considered secure, just blocks from the presidential palace. He has been missing for more than five months. His wife and children wait. This is a heavy burden for my SIM friends to bear. Let us continue to pray for his safe release.

The Cost of the Cross

On Holy Saturday, the disciples did not yet know their silent grief would be transformed into joy on Sunday. They only knew their Lord had suffered terribly and was now dead.

Jesus knew what was coming. In Gethsemane he prayed: "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done." (Matthew 26:39)

His was the ultimate surrender. Jesus laid down his life out of love (John 15:13). Our Good Shepherd laid down his life for his sheep. Then he says: Follow me.

Paul understood that following Jesus means we are willing to be crucified with Christ (see Galatians 2:20).

These words are familiar to Christians, but we hear them from a safe distance. For our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church, these words are not metaphorical.

This Easter Sunday, churches around the world will sing and celebrate—but for our brethren in Nigeria, Niger, and many other parts of the world, gathering for worship is not safe.

That contrast should awaken something in us. The same cross that defines their lives defines ours as well.

Our Response

Not all of us are called to martyrdom, but we are all called to share in the sufferings of Christ—to lay down our lives in love and obedience.

The family of God is also called to unity (see Hebrews 13:3). Our unity with God’s mission and solidarity with the suffering members of the body of Christ begins with paying attention.

Pray for the church in Nigeria — for families who buried their dead this Holy Week and now face Easter Sunday in grief. Pray for Kevin Rideout and his family. Pray for our missionaries around the world, whether with SIM, OMF, YWAM, or others; and pray for organizations like Voice of the Martyrs and Persecution.org

The Stone Is Not Yet Rolled Away

Holy Saturday is a day of silence and loss.

Our brothers and sisters in the persecuted areas of the world know that darkness — not as an abstraction, but as reality.

But we know what Sunday morning will bring.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, You drank the cup we could never drink.

You bore what we could never bear.

Awaken in us a deeper unity with those who suffer for Your name.

May the resurrection we celebrate tomorrow be the living hope we carry into every aspect of our lives, and every dark place You call us.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Amen.

Listen to "Keep the Faith" on Bandcamp 

PS: The themes of this devotional series are reflected in the songs I wrote for Keep The Faith, which express the hope that God has a mission to declare his glory among the nations.

Take a moment to listen to "Keep the Faith"  → [link]

ABOUT THE STEADFAST DEVOTIONAL SERIES: 

Since the beginning of this year, we have been exploring what it means to live with steadfast faith. Steadfastness is a character trait essential to growing in spiritual maturity. These companion essays include:

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