This is Gonna Hurt

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.

Jesus’ ministry started out all the right ways. He was baptized in the Jordan and was tempted in the wilderness. From there, he went, healing the sick and preaching good news. Then Jesus gathered his disciples to instruct them about the kingdom. Through these instructions, which we have come to know as the beatitudes, Jesus pronounced various blessings. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, and the peacemakers. As we wrap up this section of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaims a blessing on those who are persecuted for their faith.

As we get started, let’s define our terms. Persecution is hostility and ill-treatment based on race, political or religious beliefs.

In our culture, the concept of persecution is thrown around with little regard for the scope of Christian persecution happening all over the world. Is the removal of the Jesus picture in Jackson on the same level as the Muslim attacks on Christians in the Central African Republic? When a teacher tells an elementary school student that her reading of the Bible does not count as non-fiction, is that the same as bombs being thrown into a church in Kenya, injuring 15? What about those Christians in countries where Christianity is illegal, like North Korea and Saudi Arabia? Places where you can be imprisoned for owning a Bible and executed for becoming a Christian?

There are debates about what exactly constitutes persecution – that until some threshold is met, it’s not persecution. My thinking on this, however, is if you’ve been mistreated, then you find out that someone else was treated worse, that doesn’t mean your mistreatment was OK! No matter the scope, persecution is persecution.

That said, I don’t want us to go out crying that we’re being persecuted when we’re not. When we demand preferential governmental or societal treatment for being Christian, we begin to take the step from being persecuted to being the persecutors. And it is important to understand what persecution is not as we try to understand this concept.

Listen to what the Apostle Peter has to say about this: In 1 Peter 2:19-20, he is talking to slaves about their conduct with masters, both good and bad, but we can take a lot from what he says: For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for being good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

One thing he is saying is that if you are a jerk and people treat you like a jerk, that’s not persecution. That’s you getting your just desserts. If you are routinely mean to other people, don’t cry “persecution” when they are mean to you. Many people in our culture cry “persecution” when the government says a teacher can’t force a class to pray a Christian prayer, but what would happen if the teacher was Islamic and forcing our kids to pray to Allah?

Or in another scenario, what about the Christian employee who cries “persecution” when he is reprimanded at work. He says it’s because he is a Christian, but the reality is, when he gets to work, he spends 45 minutes reading his Bible in his cubicle and spends the rest of the day pushing Christian beliefs on his co-workers. No, he’s getting a reprimand because he’s a poor employee, not because he is a Christian. This summer I got suckered into a big story about Christian persecution in the US Air Force. The story indicated that a certain Master Sergeant was fired because a superior officer took exception to his opposition to gay marriage, an opposition which was based on his Christian belief. The reality was that most of the Master Sergeant’s assertions were falsified, and the Air Force reaffirmed that “He should also have known, while Air Force members do have the right to speech and religion, that right does not mean airmen can say whatever they want, whenever they want.”

There are times when bad things happen as natural consequences for our behavior. The Christian at work who was a bad employee got reprimanded because he wasn’t doing the work he was hired to do. There are other times when bad things are just part of life in a fallen world. When you get cut off in traffic, you’re probably not being persecuted for having a Christian “fish” on your bumper; it’s just because the other driver is careless. Getting a nail in your tire on the way to church just might not be spiritual warfare – it might be that you drove through a construction site yesterday!

But Peter is saying, “Don’t get yourself picked on because you’re a jerk.” Because the reality, as Jesus knows even this early in his ministry, is that persecution is inevitable. He doesn’t tell his disciples, “if you’re persecuted…” Instead he uses the word “when.” He knows it will happen because it happened to the prophets and because it would happen to himself as well. This is why Peter can write: Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. (1 Peter 4:12)

It shouldn’t come as a surprise. The prophets were persecuted, Jesus was persecuted, and his followers have been persecuted ever since, and it shows no signs of stopping. Many people would recognize the Roman persecution of Christians, where, simply because of their faith, Christians were fed to lions and forced to face gladiators in the Coliseum. But did you know that in the two thousand years of the Christian faith, 70 million Christians have been killed for their faith, 45.5 million of whom (65%) died in the 20^th century. (National Catholic Register http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=26402 )

In other words, in the past 100 years, more Christians were killed for their faith than in the previous 1900 years put together. Some of you are probably thinking, “I’d rather not be persecuted.” To be perfectly honest, I think that’s a valid point of view. Persecution isn’t fun. It’s not glorious or glamorous. Even Jesus seems like he would “rather not” have gone to his death for us. He prayed to God, saying, “Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.” But the fact was, that wasn’t his final word. He continued by saying, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)

We can, however, escape persecution if we want to. If you want to escape persecution, just live like the world lives. Jesus talks about a broad and a narrow road – make sure you stay on the broad road. Make frequent use of the phrase, “Everybody else is doing it…” Let the world’s standards be yours. If the culture says you can’t pray in school, then pack it up and stop praying. Don’t ever take a stand for Jesus. Make sure nobody really knows if you’re a Christian or not. Be nice and friendly, but make sure never to mention the name of Jesus Christ because that might offend somebody, and don’t spend that much time with him because somebody might see your Bible and think you’re one of those Jesus Freaks.

You don’t have to be persecuted. But remember Jesus’ words from Luke 9:26 when you choose this path. “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

If nobody knows you’re a Christian, they will never persecute you for it. But just as a brilliant light is painful to the eye, so also the light of God’s holiness is painful to a sinner and he seeks to hide from it. And human response is to lash out against that which makes them uncomfortable. Once someone complained that I talked about running too much. Why was this a problem? Because that person said it made them feel fat and lazy. So instead of doing something about feeling fat and lazy, they attacked me. The same thing happens on a greater scale for followers of Jesus Christ. Even when you’ve done nothing negative toward someone, they see that you’ve been with Jesus and the Holy Spirit begins to nudge them, and they don’t like it. They don’t like being wrong. And they will lash out. The truth is, they aren’t even really attacking you; Jesus says, “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, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19) You are hated because of Jesus.

And so the question becomes: how do we respond to persecution? Our response to persecution is important. Jesus tells us to rejoice when we are persecuted. 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 5:12) When we are persecuted for our faith, we have a great reward awaiting us. So rejoice and be glad. You might be saying, “Wait a minute, I can’t do that.”

That may well be true, but with God all things are possible. So what is impossible for us is not impossible for God. And the Apostle Paul, when he was imprisoned and writing to the church in Philippi, did it, so we know it is humanly possible. He gives this instruction: But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

Look toward the reward, not at the circumstances. God might be using unpleasant circumstances to mold you into what he created you to be and toward Christlikeness. Some Christian philosophers pose that God allows suffering in the world because this is God’s process of “soul-making.” If there weren’t hardships and struggles, we would have no reason to ever change or grow. If you look back over your life, it’s the difficult times when we see the most growth. And the book of Hebrews goes so far as to say that even Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered. (Hebrews 5:8: Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered).

Not only do we grow through times of suffering, the Apostle Peter tells us that through our suffering, we can relate to Jesus himself. Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. (1 Peter 4:12-16)

Some people question: Why does God allow bad things to happen? Why doesn’t God intervene and stop these God-haters from hurting, torturing, even killing Christians? Couldn’t God do this soul-making in another way?

The first answer is God doesn’t because of God’s ultimate love for us. In a fallen world, we still have the choice to love God or not, and God won’t force us to love him – forced love is not real love. And so we have the choice to do what we want to do. And in the free choice that God gives us, God allows us to choose whether or not to follow him. Romans 1 says that because humanity refused to glorify God or give thanks to Him, God gave us over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. God basically said, “you don’t want to follow me? OK, you can do what you want. But don’t be surprised at the results.”

When we do bear up under persecution, however, not only do we relate to God and not only do we grow in Christlikeness, we are given new opportunities to witness. Did you know that the Greek word for witness is martyr? Yes, the world martyr is simply a transliteration of the Greek. Francis Chan tells the story of pastors of unregistered churches in China who were persecuted by the government. They were stripped of their jobs and made to go door-to-door collecting garbage. Do you think this was an easy, cushy job? I don’t. But here’s what it did: it put them in direct contact with all sorts of people who they would have never met had they not been punished as garbage collectors. They praised God for the opportunities they got!

The Apostle Paul says the same thing in Philippians 1:12-14: Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.

Paul took the opportunity to preach the gospel to everyone, especially his guards!

Finally, when we endure persecution, Jesus promises the reward of the Kingdom. The way Paul puts it in his second letter to Timothy is: We will reign with Jesus (2 Timothy 2:11-12): Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us.

It’s our choice. Reign with him or not. And the final word, from 1 Peter 4:19: So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.