Unconventional Good Guys

26 December 2025  Acts 6:8-10, 7:54-59

The Feast of St. Stephen, First Martyr

“The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.” Acts 7:58

Paul and Stephen had a lot in common. Both spoke Greek as their native language, and may even have been raised in the same part of the world – we are told that Stephen had great success arguing with people from Cicilicia (today southern Turkey), and Paul was from Tarsus in Cilicia. Both knew scripture extraordinarily well, were intellectually aggressive, and had very sharp tongues. Their unsubtle speech got both of them in trouble with the Jewish authorities, and got both of them killed. It isn’t unthinkable that they knew each other, and while it is admittedly speculative, maybe one reason why Paul held the coats of the people who stoned Stephen, and didn’t throw any rocks himself was because he was beginning to recognize Stephen as a brother. The next thing we are told about Saul of Tarsus is his conversion on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:1-22). 

Stephen and Paul are not conventional good guys. They are sharp, aggressive, didn’t suffer fools gladly, indeed didn’t suffer fools at all, and they loved the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to put the stoning of Stephen and the conversion of Saul together. In a way, it was the last thing Stephen prayed for: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). God didn’t punish Saul, but drafted him instead.

C.S. Lewis once said that the next best thing to a noble friend is a noble enemy. Children’s literature is loaded with them – Robin Hood, Spider-Man and Batman all operate as vigilantes outside the law, breaking laws as it suits them, but always on the side of the innocent and vulnerable. In the Harry Potter saga, Severus Snape only poses as an adversary to Harry so that he can protect Hogwarts, save Harry (several times), and finally defeat Voldemort. Darth Vader, Han Solo, the Grinch, and Ebeneezer Scrooge are bad guys who become good guys following a conversion experience. Noble enemies are a time-tested – and much beloved – way that we humans have found to express our hope in the ultimate triumph of goodness, the existence of goodness even in the most unlikely people and places. Anti-heroes are a riff on noble enemies – they are more complicated, often darker than the straightforward noble enemies. They make people uncomfortable, but also satisfy the human desire for elusive goodness. They include characters like Dirty Harry, Sam Spade, Raskolnikov, Dr. Gregory House, and Huckleberry Finn.

And they may also include people like Stephen and Paul of Tarsus. They are not conventional good guys. They are sharp, aggressive, didn’t suffer fools gladly, indeed didn’t suffer fools at all, and they loved the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. They are the ones that do their homework, ask uncomfortable questions, and say the kinds of things that many know are true but hope nobody brings up because, you know, it’s just so awkward. Paul was arrested and beaten in Philippi for exposing the fraud of a couple of swindlers. When the authorities found out they had arrested and punished a Roman citizen in violation of Roman law, they tried to hustle Paul out of jail and out of town. Paul refused to budge until the local magistrates came and said they were sorry in front of everybody (cf. Acts 16:16-40). He was the kind of guy that most people know is right, and hope no one invites to the Christmas party.

Stephen was on Paul’s mind till the end of his life (see I Timothy 1:15). It is not much of a stretch to see them as brothers, kin also to all the Judges and Prophets, Moses, Samuel, Caleb, Joshua, and John the Baptist, all anti-heroes of the Lord who abound in scripture. The Church puts them before us on the day after Christmas maybe to keep us from getting too comfortable.