**This is the answer to your question: **
The important thing remember about martyrs is that most of them want nothing more than to be persecuted. By letting the worst possible things happen to them, God is allowing martyrs to bask in their overwhelming self righteousness, because in the mind of the martyr, emotional euphoria is logarithmically proportional to brutality of execution. That’s certainly the way I was taught to think at church as a wee lad. The more they hate you for loving God, the more God will reward you for your good faith in heaven–just be a good boy and wait. Martyrdom isn’t the only place this dynamic exists: Oh people are laughing at you for building a large boat? Chin up kiddo, they’ll get what’s coming to them, soon you’ll be watching them gasping seawater–remember how good it feels to get the last laugh.
ed: third definition here is particularly telling. I also want to add that it is precisely this underdog empowerment that made Christianity so popular.