Part VIII, Part VII, Part VI, Part V, Part IV, Part III, Part II, Part I

Note: I trust you have enjoyed this series of posts on the Beatitudes. My goal was to make them succinct for the reader who wished to navigate that glorious sermon.

 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

This is the last of the eight beatitudes and naturally it is the culmination of them. Jesus is saying that by living in this paradigm; by embracing this approach to life you will be persecuted. But not simply persecuted for any reason, but for righteousness’ sake. True righteousness is living by this standard. This is again the paradoxical nature of our faith that in order to seek righteousness and peace we will have to fight against those who seek unrighteousness and violence and war. Jesus came to bring peace, but the result of this peace was persecution from religious leaders and society, which Jesus came to redeem. Though Jesus was pure in heart, yet he was persecuted to death.

Jesus builds on the eighth beatitude and adds something to it. He was so certain of the persecution his disciples would undergo that he gave a few examples of how this is going to unfold:

“Blessed are you when others 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 so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Even if there is no persecution for the way you live before men, there will be persecution from those who despise the gospel proclamation. Persecution is personal, but it is almost always communal. Many people are enemies of the truth and you will see their faces on the media, their writings; everything they say is in direct contrast to the truths you embrace. If the gospel is your deepest joy and living the gospel your greatest desire then it is to be expected that it will be daily mocked and scorned. One consequence of being in the kingdom of heaven is to be misunderstood by those outside the kingdom. How can they understand the culture of heaven when they have been trained by earthly teachers?

One early church father puts it this way:

“…whoever is not excited about the praise of people also is not humiliated by their accusations.”[1]

How shall we then live?

There is a strong emphasis on persecution in Matthew’s gospel, precisely because there was so much persecution occurring in the first century. I am referring to persecution in the biblical sense; that is, the kind that makes you literally lose your head. That’s the persecution the Gospel proclaims. What we judge as persecution in this country is not persecution in the Biblical sense. We would minimize the sufferings of our brothers and sisters in the Middle East if we equate their suffering with our suffering in this country over such things as abusive taxation or government intervention.  Verse 11 says they will revile and accuse you of all sorts of things because we believe and part of this new kingdom. The kind of suffering we have in our lifetime is marginalization and accusations. That is not persecution in its biblical definition. This is why Jesus expands the definition in verse 11, because while not all Christians will be persecuted, all Christians will be reviled and accused and marginalized at some time or another.

Verse 11 expands on the eighth beatitude. Jesus says that they will revile and accuse you of all sorts of things because we believe and are a part of this new kingdom. In our lifetime, the kind of suffering we have is not persecution as the prophets and disciples speak. What we have is marginalization and even isolation. This is why Jesus expands the definition in verse 11, because while not all Christians will be persecuted, all Christians will be reviled and accused and marginalized at some time or another.

The gospel and the kingdom caused the first-century society to make a decision concerning allegiance. Are you willing to be cut off from your loved ones to be connected to a new family for the sake of the kingdom? Are you prepared to be marginalized for speaking the truth in a world of lies? Are you willing to lose friends over the issues of abortion, same-sex marriage, sex outside of marriage, the authority of the Bible, and the priority of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus?

The Beatitudes are a “summons to live in the present in the way that will make sense in God’s promised future; because that future has arrived in the present in Jesus of Nazareth. The kingdom may seem upside down, but we are called to believe…that it is in fact the right way up.”[2]

[1] Ancient Commentary Series on Matthew (the incomplete version)

[2] N.T. Wright; commentary on Matthew.

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Part VII, Part VI, Part V, Part IV, Part III, Part II, Part I

Perhaps in the history of the 20^th century no one hated the idea of humility, gentleness, meekness, and peace–as described in the Beatitudes– more than Friedrich Nietzsche.[1] Though he was the son and grandson of Lutheran pastors, he rejected the Christian faith in his student days and became what one author described “the representative unbeliever of the 20^th century.”[2] Even though he lived in the 19^th century, the 20^th century was the century his works became known all over the world. And they became known primarily because of his famous declaration that God is dead. You may also be aware of the famous humorous reply: “Nietzche said God is dead; God said Nietzche is dead.”

If you know the story of Nietzche you know that he went mad; insane. But a year before he went insane, he wrote one of the most violent and polemic works against the Christian faith entitled The Anti-Christ. “In answer to his own question: “What is more harmful than any vice?” he replied, “Active sympathy for the ill-constituted and weak – that is, Christianity.”[3] Christianity, according to Nietzche, was a religion of pity instead of power. He believed the Christian God was the god of the sick and weak. Further he writes: “I condemn Christianity,” he wrote. “…it has made of every value a disvalue.” For all his ferocious antagonism for the Christian faith, he understood that the values of the kingdom of heaven are completely different/opposite to the values of the world he envisioned. In Nietzche’s world, only the strong and powerful and those possessing authority were valued; those who cannot help themselves have no value in his world. Adolf Hitler took these ideas quite strongly and the application of Nietzche’s philosophy led to the barbaric slaughter of millions of Jews in the 20^th century. Ideas have consequences. It is no wonder that Nietzche’s madness became a perfect demonstration of where worldly values must eventually lead.[4] In Nietzche’s world, only the strong could reign, where mercy and meekness were mocked. The kingdom of heaven through its great message in the Beatitudes created an entirely different world; a world that is upside-down to those who are perishing.

We will see once again the upside-downness of the kingdom and the heavenly nature of it when we see that the way we are called to live is in direct confrontation to the way the world lives.

Jesus says in verse 9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (more…)

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My friend Fred Thompson made a tremendously illuminating comment about baptism recently. With his permission (thanks Fred) I wanted to say a few words about it. Here’s what he said:

“I keep thinking of the Red Sea baptism, a baptism of a nation, a mixed multitude, a nation that did not know where she was going, a nation that did not understand baptism. It was a new nation that left Egypt and she needed grace above all else, grace given through water and manna to all”

Fred has in mind the well-known typological connection between baptism and the crossing of the Red Sea during the exodus (e.g. 1 Cor 10). Pressing this point, it becomes obvious that many evangelical assumptions about baptism are at best only a part of the biblical picture.

For example, we readily treat baptism as an expression of our faith towards God, part of our response to him. But baptism is in the first instance an act of God’s grace towards us. Though of course Israel was called to trust the LORD, it would be a strange reading of the Red Sea crossing that placed the emphasis on the faithfulness of the Israelites’ response to God. (more…)

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Guest post by Jared Lovell (part 2 of 2)

In the previous post, we looked at the context in which Constantine ruled by highlighting the significant events of his rise and reign. 

Constantine’s Reforms

Having set out the events that shaped Constantine’s historical context, the reforms and policies of his reign must be considered in this light. First, Constantine made reforms in the law that lessened the cruelty and recognized the dignity of human beings. From constant foreign and civil wars, to gladiatorial entertainment, to infanticide, to merciless punishments for criminals or political prisoners, Rome was a harsh and violent environment. Constantine began to reverse this trend. Most famously, he ended the persecution of Christians and extended tolerance to all religions in the empire. Constantine outlawed crucifixion as a means of execution and prohibited the use of torture to a person’s face, believing that the face reflected the image of God in man. The bloody spectacle of the gladiatorial games were also outlawed. Laws were also passed that expanded the property rights of women as well as affording them more protection against sexual depredation.¹⁵ The practice of infanticide, which had always been condemned by the church, was largely undermined by a combination of laws which prohibited parricide (the hastening of the death of a family member), provided assistance to desperate mothers unable to take care of their children, and incentivized adopting parents to claim unwanted children as free or slaves.¹⁶

Such laws as those aforementioned would not be found objectionable by today’s secular-minded critics. But what of Constantine’s favor toward the church which shocks the conscience of modern notions of separation of church and state? The second kind of laws to be considered are those in which Constantine sought to defend the church and to restore to it what had been taken during the persecution. In this regard, he was not acting outside of his duty as a magistrate to see that justice was preserved by applying standards not inconsistent with laws concerning restitution in the Lex Talionis. Constantine began by extending exemptions from taxation to churches as were already enjoyed by pagan priests. He then went further by returning lands to churches that had been confiscated from them by the state. Property that had been forfeited by martyrs was also returned to family members or to the church if no family members survived. But Constantine went even further when he began to donate money from the public treasury in order to restore churches that had been destroyed or neglected as well as constructing new churches and chapels. Yet, it may be argued that this action did not constitute state favor toward the church as much as it did the application of restorative justice. Constantine sought not merely to reimburse the church for its losses, but to restore them to the position that they would have held had the state not made war against them. Finally, Constantine also extended power and influence to the church by opening up the courts for the bishops to act as judges of disputes. While such action may seem to demonstrate an unhealthy union between church and state, it actually served as a check upon the power of the state that would have major implications for the development of law in the west.¹⁷ It has been typical throughout history for the state to try to accrue to itself a monopoly on administering justice. By allowing bishops to render judgment on civil disputes brought to them, pressure was taken off of an overburdened court system and resolution to conflict could be brought more quickly to the parties involved.¹⁸ It also served an educational purpose as people would not look to the state alone as the sole source of legal authority. (more…)

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Part VI, Part V, Part IV, Part III, Part II, Part I

We celebrate today the Epiphany of our Lord. The Epiphany refers to the visit of the magi to the Christ child, which is the appearance, epiphany of Christ to the Gentiles. Christ’s introduction to the Gentile world does not come as a teenager, but as a little babe; a stage of purity, and so it is appropriate that we meditate briefly on this portion of the Beatitudes.

Jesus says: [8] “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

The source of purity, according to Jesus, is not what goes into the mouth, but what is impure is what comes out of the mouth. Biblically, what defiles a person comes from the heart. To be pure in heart is very much connected with hungering and thirsting after righteousness, as our Lord has taught us. To pursue righteousness is to reflect the purity of God because God desires His image-bearers to be his reflections on earth. When impurity proceeds from our mouths, we are betraying our very image as those created in God’s image. (more…)

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Guest Post by Steven Wedgeworth

The Christmas season concludes with Twelfth Night.  Associated with merrymaking and even mischief, Twelfth Night serves as a bridge between Christmas and Epiphany.  It seems appropriate then to finish up our survey of Christmas Carols with a wassailing song.  Wassailing was a practice that, in some ways, goes back to pre-Christian Europe, but took on most of its popularity in the middle ages.  It involved door-to-door caroling and, of course, the drinking of wassail.  “Wassail” is actually an expression, of Anglo-Saxon and possibly older Norse origins, which means “be hale” or “be healthy.”  The name was transferred to the drink, typically a hot mulled cider, over the years as people would offer “Wassail” as a toast.  And so the tradition of wassailing was that of door-to-door caroling with the drinking of wassail and the wishing of God’s blessing upon the residents of the house, and it was typically done on Twelfth Night.

Of course, wassailing also took on some other associations.  Much like certain later Halloween customs, the wassailers began asking for gifts and treats in return for their well-wishing.  They wanted more wassail, some beer, and even that famous “figgy pudding.”  The gift was a sort of reward for the singing, but it also became an incentive and attracted more and more children from about the town.  And you can imagine, as the night went on and the wassail drunk more and more, the carolers could become a bit rowdy.  Indeed, they might start demanding more and more treats, threatening violence and proclaiming, “We won’t go until we get some, so bring it right here!”  This led to a moderate amount of social unrest, and it gave the end of the Christmas season and Twelfth Night a rather sordid reputation. (more…)

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