Martyrs of New Guinea (d. 1942)
John 12:20-32
Sir, we wish to see Jesus.
Today we remember the martyrs of New Guinea. I understand that local RSL clubs are also remembering “The Battle For Australia”. It is good to see that our church life is tied so closely to that of our community. For in World War 2, as in any war, we must remember that everyone, not just the front-line soldiers, are called up to give their lives for those they love.
There is a sense both in the military as well as in the spiritual life that there is a “call” that we must “answer”. Perhaps you are familiar with the old World War 1 recruitment poster, of an Australian soldier standing astride the continent of Europe, calling out “coo-ee” to his countrymen back home to come and join him. The sense that there is a call we must answer is so strong and universal I think it proves that there is something transcendent and spiritual about it.
As Christians we recognise that God is calling us, and he is waiting expectantly for our answer. He is calling us to place our trust and love in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to follow him as his disciples. The question that follows (at least in my mind) is how can we know we are following Jesus? And how can we know that we are placing our trust and love in him as he truly is?
Today’s Gospel reading recalled for us an occasion in which some Greeks had heard about our Lord, and approached his disciples, asking to see him. Going to the Master, he replies with words describing his death and resurrection: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (v. 24) Let me put the two statements together: “Sir, we would see Jesus”; “then look to his sacrificial death and the fruit of the resurrection to find him”.
The martyrs of New Guinea, as with all martyrs, heard the call from Christ and realised it meant they must follow him in his public death – and I think they knew that they had to do this, because it would lead to his glorification and their resurrection. Listen to the words of the missionary bishop Philip Strong, on 30 January 1942:
I have, from the first, felt that we must endeavour to carry on our work in all circumstances, no matter what the cost may ultimately be to any of us individually. God expects this of us. The Church at home, which sent us out, expects this of us. The Universal Church expects it. The tradition and history of missions requires it of us. Missionaries who have been faithful to the uttermost and are now at rest are surely expecting it of us. The people whom we serve expect it of us. Our own consciences expect it of us. We would never hold up our faces again, if, for our own safety, we all forsook him and fled when the shadows of the passion began to gather round him in his Spiritual and Mystical Body, the Church in Papua.
I am certain it did not seem like a particularly glamorous martyrdom to those men and women. There is nothing glamorous about death: it is ugly and pathetic and the great enemy which Christ came to destroy for us. Yet in their God-glorifying death, the church in Papua New Guinea welcomed in more missionaries after the war. And fast forward to our time to see the fruit of their sacrifice.
Parliament has today (12.03.25) voted to allow the Constitution of PNG to declare its affinity to and identity as a Christian country with these words to appear in the preamble of the Constitution, “(we) acknowledge and declare God, the Father; Jesus Christ, the Son; and Holy Spirit, as our Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe and the source of our powers and authorities, delegated to the people and all persons within the geographical jurisdiction of Papua New Guinea.”
Parliament voted 80 to 4 in favour of the bill so the Preamble of the Constitution can bear this declaration; and for Christianity to be reflected as part of the PNG Ways in the Fifth Goal, which is also in the Preamble; and similar identification to be made in section 1; and the Bible to be declared as one of the national symbols in section 3 of the Constitution. (Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Council [Papua New Guinea])
You and I may not be called up by the Lord to give our lives in the same way as the famous martyrs of history. Yet Jesus says that if we want to see him, then we should look to the love that gives itself even to death. For in this type of death a seed is planted, and that seed grows to bear much fruit. So in our day to day, let us listen for the call to give sacrificially in love, seeking to plant seeds along our path. We will not necessarily see the fruit; but it will grow, and God will be glorified, and we will have answered his call.