Why Are You Talking about Jesus?

Jesus Christ says: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:29). A while back, I was reviewing the basics of Christianity with a young Iranian man preparing for his asylum interview with the German authorities. I asked Ahmed why he had come to Germany. He told me his story. He had grown up in Tehran, nominally Muslim. In university he met a fellow student who told him about Jesus. Intrigued, Ahmed started reading the Bible on the Internet. A year later, Ahmed had become a Christian and was already witnessing to fellow students. Since owning a Bible is illegal in Iran, he printed out various chapters from the internet and arranged to meet his friends in the hills outside of Tehran to discuss Christianity. However, word soon got out about these gatherings. One day, a professor summoned Ahmed into a classroom, closed the door, and demanded to know whether Ahmed was talking to students about Jesus. However, rather than refute the claim, Ahmed courageously told the professor that it was none of his business. A few hours later, a friend texted Ahmed, warning him not to go home because the authorities were looking for him. Ahmed spent that night at a friend’s house. The next day the authorities did, in fact, storm into his parents’ apartment. They turned Ahmed’s room upside down and discovered the printouts of the Bible passages. Even though his parents were (and still are) Muslim, they feared for their son’s safety. The family made the heartbreaking decision that he should immediately escape from Iran. The following day a friend drove Ahmed northwest towards the border, and he illegally crossed over into Turkey. The only place he knew to go was Germany because he had friends here. The last time Ahmed saw his family was that fateful day when his professor confronted him. I had the privilege of baptizing Ahmed about 14 months ago. Praise God for such brave Christians who are on the front lines for the faith—leaving house and brothers and sisters and father and mother and land, rather than deny Jesus.