Eleven years ago, twenty-one men in orange jumpsuits gave the world a lesson in courage that has not been forgotten.
On February 15, 2015, twenty Egyptian Coptic Christians and one Ghanaian named Matthew Ayariga were beheaded by ISIS militants on a beach in Sirte, Libya, after refusing to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. The men had been kidnapped from construction job sites in late 2014 and early 2015. In the final moments captured on the video released by their captors, several of them were heard crying out, “Ya Rabbi Yassou,” meaning “O my Lord Jesus.” Matthew Ayariga, a Ghanaian who was reportedly not a Christian when first captured, chose to identify with the others when given the opportunity to live, saying their God was now his God.
Within days, the Coptic Orthodox Church under Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria declared all 21 men martyrs and saints. In May 2023, Pope Francis added them to the Roman Martyrology, the Catholic Church’s official list of saints. Their relics now rest at the Church of the Martyrs of the Faith and Homeland, built in their honor in Al-Our village in Minya, Egypt, where 13 of them came from.
The story still matters because what happened that day was not historical. It was prophetic. Across the world today, persecuted Christians continue to be killed for the name of Jesus, often in places the West rarely covers, often without protests, marches, or trending hashtags. The 21 stand as a witness that the Church has never been built by the comfortable. It has always been built by the faithful.
“And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God.” — Revelation 20:4
Their last words were not fear. Their last words were love. And their God, the One they refused to deny, has not forgotten a single name, a single tear, or a single drop of blood spilled on that beach.
What do you think the modern American church can learn from believers who chose Jesus when it cost them everything? #justice #faith #jesus
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