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2 Corinthians 4:1-10 Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.
Matthew 5:1-12 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Blessed Are the Persecuted
I came across an interesting story about the beatitudes that is fitting this week as we conclude our series. Some years ago a panel of doctors was appointed by the Federal government to meet together and draw up eight laws of public health that could be printed as a pamphlet and distributed to the public. After twelve days of exhaustive meetings, the doctors were unable to come to a consensus. It seems that their areas of concern were so diverse: one was a cancer specialist, one a cardiologist, one a psychiatrist, and they all approached the problem from their own discipline. The cancer specialist was concerned about smoking, the cardiologist wanted to focus on diet and exercise while the psychiatrist was concerned about the effects of stress. Finally, one of the doctors came up with the following idea. He said: Let’s just republish the eight beatitudes of Jesus and simply replace the word “Blessed” with the words “healthy.” It would make sense wouldn’t it? If everyone lived according to the beatitudes it would be a much better world. The whole point of this series has been though, that we can’t live this way on our own, only through the Holy Spirit working in us and changing our very natures can we begin to live this way.
This week we come to the final beatitude and it is completely counterintuitive. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now I don’t mind being poor in spirit, mourning my sin, being pure in heart and merciful but persecuted? No thank you, I would like to skip that one. It doesn’t sound like any fun at all. We don’t get to pick and choose which verses we follow though, we don’t get to pick which words of Jesus we listen to, we need to listen to them all. Jesus says we will be persecuted for righteousness’ sake. The previous nine verses have taught us what righteousness is, what right living looks like and our world cannot tolerate such a life. Why, we might ask? Let’s start with poor in spirit. It runs counter to the pride of an unbelieving heart. The world admires the self-sufficient not the poor in spirit. Second, those who mourn over their sin and the sin of the world are not appreciated by the world where sin is considered a dirty word. Third, the gentle and meek person who has the inner strength not to react to personal offense is considered weak by our world. Fourth, hungering and thirsting after righteousness is both foreign and repugnant to our world where only the sensual counts. Fifth, the merciful person who feels compassion and forgiveness is out of step in a world that seeks revenge. Sixth, the pure in heart provide a convicting contrast to our impure, self-focused world. Seventh, the peacemaker who will not settle for counterfeit solutions that don’t bring real peace has an embarrassing inclination to wage peace. A person with all these characteristics is persecuted because they are like Christ. This is why Jesus says, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account”; He knows we will be persecuted if we are like Him. Listen to what Jesus says in John 15; 18 “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world– therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.” If Jesus was persecuted then if we are like Jesus we might as well expect persecution.
Note something different about this beatitude. It is the only one that is repeated, that has a second sentence. Until now all the Beatitudes have been given in the third person—”Blessed are those,” and that is the way this Beatitude begins. But the repetition in verse 11 changes to the direct address of the second person—“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you . . .” The repetition of the Beatitude, its personalization, and its position at the end of the list tell us that it is of supreme importance.
Let’s compare the beatitudes to our world. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” but the world says blessed are the over-achievers. Jesus said “blessed are those who mourn” but the world says blessed are the self-fulfilled. Jesus said, “blessed are the meek” but the world says blessed are the powerful. Jesus said, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” but the world says blessed are the unrestrained. Jesus said, “blessed are the merciful” but the world says blessed are the manipulators. Jesus said, “blessed are the pure in heart” but the world says uninhibited. Jesus said, “blessed are the peacemakers” but the world says blessed are the strong. Jesus said, “blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake but the world says blessed are the conformists. Jesus challenges the very selfishness that runs our world today.
Now let’s consider our first reading from Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, “we have renounced the shameful things that one hides, we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.” Paul is talking about turning from the world and becoming righteous. He then talks about persecution when he says, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.” Yes, he and many Christians have been and are persecuted but what does Paul say is the result? For that we go down to the 17th verse, “7 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) This is what Jesus is saying when he said, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven”. Our reward may not come in this life but it is guaranteed in heaven.
Eugene Peterson in “The Message” translates this beatitude as, “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.” That’s the truth of it. When we fully commit our lives to following Jesus Christ, we will act different than the world around us and for that we will be persecuted. The deeper our commitment the stronger the persecution we will face. And the persecution will drive us deeper into God’s kingdom. That’s why Jesus tells us in the twelfth verse to rejoice and be glad. We aren’t to rejoice because of the actual persecution but we rejoice because we can know that we are acting and living as God would have us live, we can know that we are doing what God wants us to do and that the Holy Spirit is working inside us to let us do this.
There is a catch here. All the commentaries I read said that if we weren’t persecuted it meant that we weren’t acting different from the world. Now I don’t see any persecution of Christians here in Aston. Just because we don’t face persecution in Aston does not mean we aren’t living authentic Christian lives so I don’t want anyone leaving here today thinking that they aren’t a Christian if they aren’t persecuted.
I thought about this for a while and then I remembered a song by Paul Baloche that he wrote in 2010. The song is titled “We Will Hold On” and it’s message is that no matter what comes in life, we will hold on to Jesus. First it says, “We’ll be tested by the fire, persecuted and reviled maybe, either way there will be trials, we will hold on.” That’s true in many parts of the world. Throughout the centuries since Jesus people have been persecuted for their faith. We all learned about early Christian martyrs in Sunday School. We know there was persecution at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Now that’s history, some might think persecution has ended. Not so. More have died for their faith in the last century than all other centuries combined. I have known missionaries who risk their own lives to tell others of Jesus in Muslim countries.
Today we are only talking about persecution in our own lives. We simply don’t face persecution here in Aston. Paul Baloche considered this when he wrote his song. I saw an interview with him and he explained that without the challenge of persecution people have become apathetic about their faith and that is where the next part of the song comes in. “We’ll be tested by the blessing, with all the comforts of the world surrounding, we will not forget the Savior, we will hold on.” That applies to us more than the first part. We are blessed in Aston to live in an area where Christianity is accepted. It’s easy to be Christian here but just as persecution could cause us to turn from Jesus so could the blessings we enjoy in our country. The comforts we take for granted can cause us to turn from Jesus sometimes. It’s subtle. We may not even realize we’re doing it. We just want to fit in so we laugh at the off-color joke, we watch the same TV shows as others and we ignore the sin in them. We listen to gossip and maybe even pass it on. We allow pride to creep into our lives, we start to judge others thinking we are better. We listen to advertisements and join in the national sport of shopping for things we don’t need and spending more than we have. Then one day we realize we are no different than the world. We haven’t been persecuted, we never denied our Savior but somehow we lost our way. So we need to ask ourselves, is it possible that we face so little persecution because we have become so like the world? There is a price to pay when we follow Christ. We will stand out as different, we will not fit in. As true followers we will be treated different. We aren’t going to be stoned to death in this country; our lives are not in danger. What persecution we will face may not be obvious. People may think we are boring because we live by different standards. They may get angry at us for being Christian, they may judge us and exclude us. They may talk about us and ridicule us. That’s not really persecution but give thanks to God if this happens because it will mean that we are becoming like Christ, that the Holy Spirit is working in us.
The blessing Jesus promises us in this beatitude is the kingdom of heaven. He came to save us from our sin and it is by His death that we are set free from the kingdom of darkness and are invited to join Him in the kingdom of heaven. As he tells us today, “rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”