"Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" Php 3:13
"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it." Luke 9:23-24
On July 30, 1991, Shanghai, China, life was pretty normal. Ships, ferries moved along the Huang Pu river, streets were crowded and it was business as usual. On that morning, a group of men and women quietly slipped into a tiny, one-bedroom apartment in Shanghai to blend their voices and prayers in a memorial service for 91-year old Wang Ming Dao. The service was scheduled to be held the following day, but fearing that there will be too many people, family and friends decided to go ahead with a private memorial service on Tuesday instead of the scheduled Wednesday.
Wang Ming Dao was one of the most influential Chinese Christians to have lived in this century, and you might think it strange that the memorial service was held only in a small, one bedroom apartment where Wang and his saintly wife lived.
However, in China, there is a lot more to think about than flowers and special music. Wang Ming Dao was an ex-convict, having once been sentenced to death row under China'a penal code. When people visited Wang's little apartment, they would discreetly close the blinds to hide their presence from prying eyes.
What was the crime that sent Wang to prison for twenty two years and nine months? The Communist government charged and convicted him of being a "counter revolutionary" and sent him to forced labor in the northern part of China, where worked in a coal mine. His real crime was that Wang was committed to Jesus Christ. When the Communists closed the churches in early 1950s, Wang who was a leader, defiantly said, "They can close our churches but they cannot stop us from worshiping God in the confines of our homes!"
If anyone was a saint, Wang Ming Dao was one. Was he perfect? No. Committed? Yes. At eighty nine, he was hard of hearing and almost blind, yet he was alert, and in spite of everything he had been through, he had retained his sense of humour. In 1981, following his release from prison, Wang wrote of the events in his life in an autobiography called, A Stone Made Smooth. He would often say, he's a stone, but not yet smooth!
Today, the stone has turned into a crown. Wang Ming Dao is part of the reason that the church inside China is among the fastest growing in the world in spite of the repression of a government that is committed to Atheism.
One of the reasons people admire him is that he was so human. Convicted and thrown into prison, Wang began to question the mercy of a God who would allow such punishment on His children, and acknowledging his misgiving, he was released. Out of prison, he felt that he had betrayed Christ like Peter and again stood resolutely for Christ. This time, he was sent back to prison for the long haul.
Authentic saints are not made out of plaster of Paris or painted with gloss enamel. They are real men and women who have tasted the fire of bitter persecution but have found in the flame the presence of Jesus Christ to sustain and strengthen them.
Shortly before his death, when asked what lesson he could share with the church elsewhere, he firmly and resolutely replied, "Tell them to walk the hard road!" Wang Ming Dao was one of the greatest of all time. And at the end of the hard road, he met his Master, Jesus Christ.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matt 5:11-12
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." 2 Tim 4:7-8
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