The martyr Stephen and Jesus, both filled with the Spirit, died unjustly with a word of acquittal on their lips. Stephen, on his knees among the flying stones, makes a last appeal to the heavenly court – not for his own life, but for mercy toward his executioners. Before he was finally put to silence and death, he was heart to cry aloud, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
There is an Old Testament story of another messenger who for his faithfulness was stoned to death, not (like Stephen) outside the city, but in the temple court itself, “between the altar and the sanctuary” – Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest. But as Zechariah was about the breathe his last, he prayed, “May the Lord see and avenge!”
The martyr deaths were similar, but the prayers were widely different. Stephen had learned his lesson in the manner of him, who when he was fixed to the cross, prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”