The Bliss of a Martyr’s Way

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and 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

In the beatitudes Jesus says a Christian’s pilgrimage is much like climbing up one side of a mountain and then descending the other side. One begins with a sense of his own abject spiritual poverty before God. Then he learns to care, to grieve over sin. Next he is meek, filled with humility. Finally, the Christian reaches the peak of the mountain he has hungered and thirsted to attain. And he is satisfied.

But God will not allow us to sit upon the heights savoring our relationship with Him alone. He directs us down the other side of the mountain. Hence the next four beatitudes deal specifically with our relationship with people. The first step down is mercy. As I have myself received mercy, I am urged to offer mercy to others. Next my motives are called into question. Are they pure? Downward I climb to be a peacemaker, to be a nurturer. And finally I come all the way down among sinful humanity to where I am persecuted. The thanks I get for my trouble to be merciful, pure, and a peacemaker is to be misunderstood, slandered, rejected, imprisoned, and perhaps slain.

The eighth beatitude is the odd one in that it is not a description of some positive character trait found in a Christian. It is rather the Christian life: suffering at the hands of people.

Ah, but one must marvel at the sheer honesty of Jesus Christ. Today, many preachers tell us that if we believe in Jesus our sins will not only be forgiven, but we’ll become a king’s kid– prosperous, never sick, always loved and appreciated. But this is not what Jesus told the twelve at their ordination. Quite the opposite! Our Lord said we’d be “reviled,” “persecuted,” and victimized by people “uttering all kinds of evil against” us.

This is not exactly a popular message to preach. But Jesus is honest. He tells us up front what to expect. And that is that the Christian life is not only hard, it is unpopular and will likely get you in at least as much trouble as it will get you out of in this life! So all through our life with Christ, we must remember that God is not so much interested in making us comfortable as he is in making us holy.

None of us wants to be hurt, rejected, tormented, misunderstood, or jailed. When we are, what’s our reaction?  Some opt for avoidance, wallowing in the fear of involvement. I like the cartoon that has a Roman Christian being led out to the lions in the arena. “Okay,” he says to the guards, “I’ll admit to being a Christian. But I never served on any boards or anything like that.”  Shame is another response. “I must be a bad person if this is happening to me. Then there is anger at God. “I deserve better than this. What sort of father are you if you can’t take any better care of your children?”

I could go on chronicling pity, depression, and all manner of retaliation. But the text says our response should be to “rejoice and be exceedingly glad.” In the Greek it means “to leap up exceedingly high for joy!”

Why?

“For so men persecuted the prophets before you,” Jesus said. In the early church, to suffer for Christ was considered a privilege, a badge of honor which men like David, Noah, Gideon, Elijah, Stephen, Paul and Jesus wore.

Jesus said we could also rejoice because “great is your reward in heaven.” This world is not all there is. For there is an afterlife, a heaven, a paradise with Christ. One may take my life, my car, my job, my loved ones, my reputation, my money, but no one can rob me of Jesus and my reward. “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.”

The Reverend Stephen Crotts is the director of the Carolina Study Center, Inc., a campus ministry, located in Chapel Hill, NC. Pastor Crotts may be reached at carolinastudycenter@msn.com.