ELIZABETH VANDER KERK

The words of our LORD Jesus, as seen in Matthew 10:32-33, are straight and sharp – “32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

Going a little further in the passage, our Saviour says, “38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” – Matthew 10:38-39.

Life, a Christian is called to, is not some kind of fun and games. The life we are called to, is a life of love, sacrifice and self-denial. It is a life where the cost we pay is high.

One such person who followed the LORD faithfully is Elizabeth Vander Kerk, an eighty-four-year-old widow, from Holland. She faced a peculiar and precarious situation, where she, and all the Christians during that time, were told what they could do, and whom they can invite to her homes.

On 25 August in 1568, about 450 years back, the Duke of Alva, who is also called the “Iron Duke” orders the execution of Ms. Elizabeth Vander Kerk in Utrecht, Holland. The reason for this ‘murder’ is that “she allowed her nephew to bring a Reformed minister into her house.”

History records that when she was about to be executed, the executioner asks her to lower her hands, which she had raised up in prayer, she exclaims, “Do your business; when the head is off, the fingers will feel no pain.”

It is not easy to stand for the LORD in such testing times. It is heartwarming to see the examplary courage of this old lady, in the face of such hate and danger. May the LORD grant us such grace to stand for Him.