A number of captors made a raid on the church in Kyoto with a list of the arrested. The captors were identifying believers answering to them while reading out the list of the arrested.
At that time, a believer didn’t reply. It’s a cook named Matthias, but he didn’t respond. Then, quite a different person with the same baptismal name by himself came before captors, saying,”My name is also Matthias.”
The public officers seem the same as they were long time ago. Since what those officers had to do was to make up the number of the arrested, they didn’t try to look for Matthias the cook in the list but captured this man without reluctance. Thus he was accepted to officers and also into the group of martyrs by God.
Even now, it is hard to say the home town, the age and the baptismal day of Matthias the martyr. But his name is written in heaven certainly. With many unknown Christians who were martyred after that…..
He surrendered himself into martyrs with his own will, not by someone inflicting or compelling him. This matter compels us to think of choice. While he himself chose the way of martyrdom, God selected him as a martyr. It is true that God chooses the one choosing God.
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” (NIV Matthew 22:14)
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