Eighty-Six Years With My King

On a cold afternoon in 155 AD, the Roman proconsul in Smyrna gave the elderly bishop Polycarp one simple way to save his life. All he had to do was say two words: "Caesar is Lord." The crowd roared. The flames were prepared. The old man had every reason to comply.

Polycarp had followed Christ since childhood. He had sat at the feet of the Apostle John himself, hearing firsthand accounts of the resurrection. Now, at eighty-six years old, soldiers had dragged him into the arena, and the empire demanded he renounce his faith with a public declaration.

He refused. Standing before the proconsul, Polycarp answered, "Eighty-six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?"

In that arena, the confession cost him everything. But Polycarp understood what Paul wrote to the Romans centuries before — that what we declare with our mouths and believe in our hearts is no small thing. In the early church, "Jesus is Lord" was not a polite religious phrase. It was a dangerous, world-altering claim spoken against every competing authority.