….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.
We come now to the eighth (and some might argue ninth) of Jesus’ “blessed are…” statements.
Up until this point, the previous seven such statements have promised good news to those who are likely to be seen by the wider world as weak or as having failed at life – for example those who lack confidence in themselves, those who do not put themselves forward, those who would rather forgive a wrong than capitalise on it, and those who would seek peace rather than try to profit from conflict.
The eighth statement tells us that such people will not simply be written off or ignored. They will be hated and various forms of suffering will be inflicted upon them. By adding “…because of righteousness” Jesus makes it clear that this will happen specifically because they display the qualities listed in the other seven.
Two questions may immediately be asked:
Firstly, why would this happen? Why would Jesus’ followers be hated for displaying what would seem to be at best positive and at worst harmless attitudes and behaviours?
Secondly, if you’re a Christian, how does this apply to you? Should you expect to be persecuted? What might it look like? What if you’ve already experienced persecution? Or what if you haven’t? In either case, what should you do?
I’ll deal with the first question in this post and the second one next week.
Why persecution?
It’s important to re-iterate that Jesus is referring to those being persecuted “because of righteousness“.
Leon Morris in the Pillar NT Commentary writes:
[Jesus] does not speak of persecution as such, but of persecution for the sake of righteousness. People may suffer for doing evil, but such suffering is punishment, not persecution, and in any case believers are not to suffer that way (see 1 Peter 4:15). Jesus is speaking of those committed to God’s cause, and righteousness is the kind of conduct appropriate for those who have been given right standing before God.
Michael J Wilkins in the NIV Application Commentary adds:
Persecution for one’s own sin or foolishness may be deserved … but these people have been persecuted because of their stand for righteousness.
So Jesus is not referring to people being punished for e.g. criminal or anti-social behaviour, getting their just desserts for making a mistake or a bad decision. He means people who have tried to do the right thing in God’s eyes and been hated for it.
But why would that happen?
R T France in the New International Commentary on the New Testament explains it like this:
The pursuit of “righteousness” (see verse 6) can arouse opposition from those whose interests or self-respect may be threatened by it. Already in the commendation of the merciful and the peace-makers these beatitudes have marked out the true disciple not as a hermit engaged in the solitary pursuit of holiness but as one engaged in society, and such engagement has its cost. As the following verses will spell out more fully, to live as subjects of the kingdom of heaven is to be set over against the rest of society which does not share its values, and the result may be — indeed the uncompromising wording of this beatitude suggests that it will be — persecution.
It’s crucial to understand that as Christians we are meant to be active in the society in which we live. Jesus did not intend for us to hide away in some cloistered community, basking in our holiness and rarely interacting with the outside world. He meant for us to get our hands dirty (whether literally or metaphorically) showing the world what he is like.
Now you might be thinking that this scarcely answers the question. Why would showing meekness and mercy and a desire for peace cause such a problem? How could telling people about God’s love and caring for their needs be seen as anything but good?
Why would people hate you or want to persecute you for behaving like Jesus?
For the same reason they did it to Jesus himself.
Jesus explained to his disciples as follows:
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’ (John 15:18–25)
People are unlikely to hate you simply for doing deeds of kindness or giving them hope. The hostility will come when they learn that you are acting in Jesus’ name and that your loyalty lies with him rather than with the established leaders or manmade ideologies that the world follows.
Wilkins in the NIVAC describes how this might have applied in Jesus’ day:
Persecution can take the form of physical or verbal abuse, or both, but it especially points to the way that the religious leaders hounded the populace and excluded from their fellowship any who did not meet up to their standards. Sadly and ironically, the religious leaders were persecuting in the name of their self-righteousness the very people who stood for true righteousness.
…
Jesus here gives hope to the people of his day who have stood up and contended for God’s form of righteousness against the self-righteousness of the religious leaders. Although they have been persecuted for it, Jesus says that the kingdom of God belongs to them, not the religious leaders, and all they need to do now is to respond to his invitation to join the kingdom.
The religious leaders of his day saw Jesus as a threat to their own positions.
For the Sadducees, who were comfortably collaborating with the colonising Roman forces, the idea that Jesus was Israel’s God-anointed deliverer and true king was an obvious political danger. They had a lot to lose if anyone were to stir up a revolt against Caesar.
Likewise the Pharisees, who were no friends of Rome but enjoyed a reputation as almost spiritual superheroes in the eyes of the ordinary Jewish people, saw an obvious religious threat in Jesus’ demonstrations of what righteousness truly looked like, as well as his willingness to call out their hypocrisy and point out the fact that their faith often didn’t go any deeper than looking good on the surface level.
Anyone who stood with Jesus was clearly inviting extreme hostility from both of these groups. You only need to read the book of Acts to see how the Jewish leaders gradually led the ordinary people to an intense hatred of the followers of Jesus.
Likewise today, anyone in a position of political or religious or cultural power who sees your loyalty to Jesus as a threat to their own authority or reputation may seek to persecute you, sometimes even to the point where you must choose between Jesus or your own safety.
Next week we’ll look in more detail at how this might manifest itself in your life or mine.
Nihilist to Christian 