Three Christians slain in Turkey. Massacre in Malatya. Malatya martyrs. The words flowed across my computer screen last week. Tight news headlines and terse subject lines of e-mails told of horrific events in the town of Malatya, in eastern Turkey. I sort and grieve the names of the dead, one German citizen and two Turkish men.

Then, I pause. I had not thought I would know any of these. But one is named Necati (Nejahtee). Turkish Christians number only in the mere thousands, but they are scattered and it is impossible to know them all. Perhaps this is not the Necati I know.

But it is. Others confirm that Necati is the one remembered by Turkish Christians as “he who played Jesus.”

Images of Necati spring onto my mental screen. In a passion play once performed on a large, public stage in Istanbul some few years before, Necati had brought gospel scenes to life at an Easter celebration attended by more than two thousand from across the city. In my mind’s eye, those scenes unfold once again. Jesus raising a child from the dead. Jesus forgiving a sinner. Jesus healing and touching outcasts. Jesus comforting crowds. Jesus decrying the hypocrisy of religious leaders who wash their hands ritually but neglect their filthy hearts.

In a powerful performance, Necati and the amateur cast from a small church in Izmir, Turkey, set forth the stories before an audience in which critics mingled with believers. The bold performance of Jesus with his compassionate and bracing words was unforgettable. I felt at the time that henceforth Jesus Christ of Nazareth would look like Necati to me.

Most riveting of all were the scenes of scourging and crucifixion. In that play, Necati had offered up his nearly naked body to be bound to and hung on a cross. Vulnerable to critics in the crowd who might have risen up and shouted blasphemy, Necati played out the shameful crucifixion of Christ to the bitter end, giving up his spirit with a loud cry. To the sound of a mournful dirge, the friends who loved Jesus came to take him away for burial.

Necati and the others knew that the city to which they had moved did not love and honor Jesus. They knew that people in Malatya needed the healing touch of Christ and the forgiving hand of the Savior. That was why Necati undertook to pastor the tiny congregation in that place.

Necati understood that even his life represented a sharp rebuke to the powers of that city. Yet still, he went, faithful to give his life so that others might better understand who Jesus is.

Not every martyr has opportunity to imitate the death of Christ, as Necati did on stage. Not all will foreshadow their own ultimate sacrifice in such a powerful way. But each martyr, and those who remain, have the hope that the words of Jesus can be fulfilled by that death.

For it is Jesus who understood, and his own death demonstrated this, that only the seed that falls into the ground will bring fruit.

Although gruesome and violent, the deaths of these three martyrs have meaning, for they were rooted in the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth.