“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:10-12
If you have been reading my posts on the Beatitudes, you know that we’ve been invited to travel a variety of pathways that lead to extraordinary living. In each case, we’ve seen how walking these pathways makes it possible for us to live right in the middle of God’s blessing. Regardless of that fact, we instinctively know that walking these pathways is not going to be easy. Each of them have their own unique set of challenges. Even with that said, nothing we’ve seen so far prepares us for what we’re about to hear.
On the surface this final beatitude seems to contradict every idea of what living an extraordinary life in the middle of God’s blessing would look like. For in this last beatitude, Jesus said this: “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
But He didn’t stop there. He went on. “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Jesus’ words fly in the face of the shallow easy believism that’s so much a part of today’s Christian world. Yet that’s Jesus’ final invitation to extraordinary living – an invitation to walk the pathway of courageous faithfulness knowing that to walk it is going to bring grief into your life. Yes, grief but also a promise – a promise that no matter how difficult the path may be, it will be worth it in the end. Before we get there, however, we must understand something about the journey ahead.
People who live extraordinary lives understand the cost of discipleship. Throughout the ministry of Jesus, you see where He offered a new and better life to so many people. It was a life where sins were forgiven, God was accessible, and eternity was secure. It was a wonderful, abundant life that Jesus came to offer. Those who chose to truly follow Him discovered that it was everything He said and more.
At the same time, He made it perfectly clear that following Him wasn’t going to be easy. He spoke of walking a narrow road that few travel. He insisted on picking up one’s cross to die to self. He warned against turning back and getting caught up in competing loyalties. At one point, Jesus told His disciples about the threats that they would soon be facing. Eugene Peterson translates it from John’s gospel:
“If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me. If you lived on the world’s terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God’s terms and no longer on the world’s terms, the world is going to hate you. When that happens, remember this: servants don’t get better treatment than their masters. If they beat on me, they will certainly beat on you…. I’ve told you these things to prepare you for rough times ahead…. so that when the time comes and they start in on you, you’ll be well-warned and ready for them.”
Wow! So much for the idea that following Christ is like living in a heavenly version of Disney World. No, the truth is that anyone who follows the pathway of courageous faithfulness is going to be living at odds with the world.
Sadly, the modern church, especially the church in America, has resisted the invitation to walk this pathway. Author and expert in Christian culture, Dick Staub, refers to the faith in America today as Christianity-lite. According to Staub, “This brand of faith tastes great but is less filling, and wherever it prevails, it is a source of impoverishment of faith and culture.” He goes on to say that “in the place of Jesus’ call to self-denial and promise of persecution and sacrifice, today’s consumer-oriented… Christianity offers heaven in the future and fulfillment of the American dream now.” As a result, we have produced an American Christianity that is “three thousand miles wide and two inches deep.”
That may be the prevailing attitude of many in the American church today, but people who live extraordinary lives know better. They know that living in the middle of God’s blessing can’t be sustained by a theologically shallow, therapeutic, and emotionally based faith. For such a faith cannot stand when the heat is on, and Jesus makes it perfectly clear that those walk with Him will feel the heat.
So you and I are going to have to make a decision. Do we want Christianity-lite or Christianity real? Are we willing to hike the hard road of true discipleship and obedience to Christ that will at times seem like failure and loss or are we going skip our way down the lanes of pop-religion that require nothing more from us than a weekly hymn or praise chorus while watching our culture go to hell? Yes, we have a decision to make. But before we make it, there a second thing we need to see about walking the pathway of courageous faithfulness.
People who live extraordinary lives rejoice to share in the cause of righteousness. Jesus spoke of being persecuted for righteousness sake. If you will recall in earlier posts, we’ve defined righteousness in the Beatitudes as being the way God always intended life to be. It’s a righteousness that recognizes the reality of spiritual poverty, grieves over its presence in the world, humbly hungers for God’s mercy to bring change to it, and with purity of heart tries to bring the true peace of God into every area of human life.
This is the righteousness that invites persecution and hardship. Because the world doesn’t value what God values, it resists any intrusion of righteousness into its vice like grip on people’s lives. It refuses to accept the moral standards of the Kingdom. It wants nothing to do with empowering the oppressed and the needy. And it will never abandon its self-centered ways. So it lashes out at those who seek to advance the cause of righteousness.
Yet, those who walk the pathway of courageous faithfulness seek to advance it anyhow. They do so not with a grim determinism but with a heart that is able to rejoice and be glad. Why? Because they know that the very persecution they are experiencing is evidence that they are walking in lock step with all the great saints who were persecuted before them who dared to uphold the righteousness of God in the world.
Is such an attitude possible? Yes, it is. We see it in the story of missionaries Martin and Grace Burnham who were captured by a terrorist group in the Philippines. For over a year they lived on meager rations as they were dragged from one place to another while the terrorists tried to evade capture. Martin explained the gospel to the rebels as the couple tried their best to be cooperative and gracious. Yet they knew that at any moment they could be killed.
One day sensing the possibility that things might not turn out well, Martin tried to comfort and encourage his wife with these words: “The Bible says to serve the Lord with gladness. Let’s go out all the way. Let’s serve him all the way with gladness.”
The couple prayed together, recited scripture verses they could remember and sang. Later that same day the group was discovered by military rangers. During the firefight, Martin was killed leaving his wife behind who survived the ordeal and was eventually reunited with family where she was able to tell the story of what happened.
Few if any of us will ever be called upon to make that kind of sacrifice. But if we walk the pathway of courageous faithfulness, we will eventually run into opposition from the world. Whether that opposition comes from the religious or the irreligious, our calling is the same – to heed the admonition of Jesus to rejoice and be glad. Thankfully, there is a wonderful promise for all those who walk this pathway that makes the struggle worth the effort and the sacrifice seem small in comparison.
People who live extraordinary lives will be celebrated in heaven. Nobody wants to be persecuted. In saying that, we certainly need to make sure that our struggles really are for righteousness sake and not because we’ve been obnoxious, judgmental, or arrogant. But assuming that we’ve operated in the ways that Jesus taught here in the Beatitudes, we should anticipate that sooner or later we will experience a painful retaliation from those who want no part of God’s kingdom or His righteousness.
When that happens, it’s very easy to become consumed by it – to allow it to totally take up our vision as we focus on our present circumstances. But the promise Jesus makes encourages us to lift our eyes beyond the current struggle to see the ultimate triumph that awaits all those who walk the pathway of courageous faithfulness. That promise is this: “Great is your reward in heaven.”
I wish I could tell you all of what that means. Whatever it is, it will be worth the wait. To be delivered from the tyranny of death, to be freed from the pull of my old sinful nature, and to simply be in the presence of the One who loved me and gave His life for me will be enough. It’s that promise that encourages me to press on.
I read once about a missionary couple who was returning to the United States on a large ship after a life of mission service in Africa. On the same ship with them was then president Teddy Roosevelt who was returning from a hunting trip. When the ship pulled into harbor, there were great crowds waiting for the president. Bands were playing. Balloons were flying. It was a real welcome home. However, no such welcome awaited this missionary couple. They got off the ship, and nobody seemed to care.
Later that night in their hotel room, the missionary husband began to complain. He told his wife that he didn’t mind all the sacrifices they had made to be missionaries, but it didn’t seem fair that when they came home, nobody greeted them for all their years of service while the president got so much attention just for coming back from a hunting trip.
To that his wife very calmly, but powerfully reminded her husband, “I know. But just remember. We haven’t gotten home yet.”
No, we haven’t gotten home yet. For now we are being called upon to walk the pathways that Jesus has laid out before us. None of them are easy. In fact, they can at times be dangerous. But those who live extraordinary lives keep on walking them. They know that they lead home, and home is worth the journey.
So Jesus stands before each of us with this invitation: follow me. Not run in retreat. Not hunker down and hide. But with courageous faithfulness, follow me. And if you will, you will indeed live an extraordinary life, and your reward will be great in heaven.