Over the past nine weeks we’ve been working our way through
the beatitudes, with a break for Easter in the middle, and we are going to
finish this series today by looking at the longest of Jesus beatitudes;
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven” blessed are you
when people insult you, persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice because great
is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who
went before you”.. When we follow Jesus we will find ourselves in conflict with
the world Then I want to do a quick
summing up of the whole series.
Once again this beatitude runs contra to the predominant way
in which we think of people who are blessed, or happy in our society. We are a
society that values comfort and ease, getting ahead and being liked, we want
the worlds high five not to be slapped down. We would see the absence of
persecution and opposition and oppression, not its presence, as a sign of being
blessed. Being maligned or imprisoned or disadvantaged for doing the right
thing or believing in Jesus does not readily sound like something to rejoice
over, party down about, it seems far from being blessed.
Jamie Arpin-Ricci asks the obvious question “why would we be persecuted? Why should our faithful
commitment to build a kingdom characterized by humility, mercy, peace,
reconciliation and justice cause people to hate us and harm us?” It’s a good
question isn’t it? His response is that “the sad truth is this: Injustice is a
profitable venture.. the power structures of the world, be they political,
economic, military or even religious have a long history of establishing their
power base through the casual neglect or blatant exploitation of others, all
too often the poor as we become a people characterized by making justice in the
world, calling other to join us, we actively threaten those very systems and
powers of injustice.”
I really struggled with this beatitude maybe it’s because I’m
not sure we really know what it is to be persecuted here in the New Zealand. It
does happen at low levels. I remember
friends of mine way back in high school being very upset after their first
sixth form Biology class when the teacher had said that any creationist should
leave then and there as they had no place in that class. Last year a student at Uni came and talked to
me one night as she didn’t really know what to do. She had gone to see a
lecturer and when another lecturer came into the office she had found herself
being belittled by both of them because of her faith. She wanted to know was it
a Christian thing to lay a complaint? 
According to various
sources more Christians were martyred for their faith around the world last
century than the previous 19 put together. In a magazine that came across my
desk this week there was a short update on what is happening in Northern Sudan.
IT read “Christians in North Sudan are
living beneath a blanket of fear since South Sudan seceded on July 9 2011. Just one month after the South voted
for independence, pressure increased on churches and Christians, with Muslim
groups threatening to destroy churches, kill Christians and purge the country
of Christianity.”
You’ll note that the promise attached to the first part of
this beatitude is the same as the first beatitude blessed are the poor in spirit;
there’s is the kingdom of heaven. I think it means two things; the first is
that just like recognising our spiritual poverty is a prerequisite to entering
the kingdom of God, so too is willing to suffer for righteousness or justice.
Those who do that, identify with the poverty of others, will find the kingdom
of Heaven because they have gone out into the world and found where God is at
work and joined themselves in a costly way to seeing that kingdom come. I’m not
talking about salvation by works here, rather that such people are aware of
God’s reign, they too are to be included in God’s revolution of Grace. Dietrich
Bonheoffer says “ It is important that Jesus gives his blessing not merely to
suffering incurred directly for the confession of his name, but to suffering
for any just cause’.
Secondly, it adds an
almost cyclic nature to the beatitudes, those who know their spiritual poverty,
who mourn, who are meek and humble before God, who are merciful, are pure in
heart; they have had their hearts waster clean by Jesus and are singleminded
about following him, who are peacemakers, seeking the wholeness of the world, will
be prepared to suffer for righteousness. It stops this last beatitude being a
salvation by works but also shows that for those who follow Jesus they should
put seeking justice and righteousness before their own wellbeing, trusting in
God to take care of that… later in the Sermon on The Mount in teaching on the
economics of the Kingdom of God, Jesus will say not to worry about what we wear
or drink but rather to put first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Jesus then links being persecuted for righteousness with
suffering for him and in doing so the beatitude becomes very personal, he moves
from the third person to the second person from those to ‘you’. He points to
three types of suffering, being insulted; this is something that most of can
relate to, persecuted; which is specifically physical opposition and being falsely
accused; being lied about. One of the chief complaints in the laments in the
book of psalms, like psalm 31, is very much the false accusation, that people
would say of the psalmist that they have done evil when they know they were
Innocent. When you have a look at these we need to acknowledge that Jesus
suffered all three forms of opposition, they point directly to the cross. That
in its self is reassuring for us as Jesus is not asking us to face anything he
hasn’t already faced. It is echoed in Jesus words in Matthew 10 and in John’s
gospel that Jesus disciples will face suffering because the student is not
greater than the master.
Like the university
friends I talked about its hard to know how to handle these things, how do we
react?
Jesus says we are to rejoice. The early apostles in Acts
are a good example of this in acts 4 when Peter and john are whipped and told
to stop preaching they give thanks that God has seen fit for them to share the
suffering of Christ, likewise Paul and Silas in prison in Philippi, bring the
place down with their raucous singing of praise. Jesus give us two reasons to
rejoice… The first is that our reward is great in heaven, and while the rest of
the promises in the beatitudes are benefits from Jesus presence in the world
here and now, now we see with this one the reward is in heaven. The joy of
being with Christ fore eternity well outweighs the suffering we will face in
this life. Karl Marx called this Christian hope an opiate for the masses,
because he thought it was designed and used to keep people quiet and content
with their lot. But that’s not the case as Jesus second reason for us to
rejoice shows, Jesus says we should rejoice because we are in Good company,
that’s how they treated the prophets that had gone before us. The prophets in
the Old Testament were often maligned and persecuted. What the prophets did was
that they challenged Israel about the injustice in their society, calling them
back to going God’s way, which is anything but an acceptance of the way things
are like a drug induced indifference. I don’t think either of these things deadens
the pain of suffering or persecution but they put it into perspective.
Dallas Willard in his book the Divine Conspiracy talks about
what he calls the puzzle of the Beatitudes, and I hope I haven’t added to you
being puzzled about the beatitudes. He says that in Jesus ‘blessed are
sayings, like many great teachers before him and after him Jesus is answering
the puzzling question ‘which life is the Good life?’ and his answer is puzzling
as it goes totally contra to the way we think about the good life.
WE are used to thinking that the good life is only available
to the select few, the elite, the fortunate, the deserving, or those who have
earned it. But Jesus beatitudes are
saying that God’s blessing is available to all. Willard puts it like this, even
spiritual zeros enjoy heaven’s care, not just the spiritual hero’s however you
would define it. It’s a revolution of grace, the great invitation that in Jesus
the kingdom is for everyone. Paul Simon captures this well in his song
‘blessed’ where he says blessed are the sat upon, the spat upon and the
ratted upon.” And goes on to talk of the street people he sees round him on the
streets of New York City, people left out and side-lined by the western
materialistic dream of the good life, just like those thought beyond God care
by the religious people of Jesus day.
We may also think the good life is defined by what we have,
our standard of living and our state of mind, or what we do (and in the rest of
the Sermon on the Mount Jesus does answer the question who is truly good), but
in the beatitudes Jesus says that the good life is not dependant on our
circumstances and situations; rather it is from the presence of Jesus and his
kingdom.
The spiritual poor are blessed because in Christ the kingdom
of God is theirs
Those who mourn are blessed because in Christ they will be
comforted
The meek and humble are blessed in Christ, they will inherit
the land, a land of Gods promise
Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they are
blessed, in Christ, the righteousness of God , they will be filled
Blessed are the merciful, because in Christ the merciful one
they will receive mercy
Blessed are the pure in heart, the will see God. Jesus has
washed their hearts and in Christ, Immanuel God with us, we will see God
Blessed are the peacemakers, they will be called the sons of
God, they share the peace they have received in Christ, they show that by
Christ they have been adopted into God’s family.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Christ has prepared a reward for them and they
are in good company even Christ’s company who also suffered for Righteousness.
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ReplyDeleteNo Problems Suzanne.
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