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.
