Harassed But Hopeful
Matthew 5:10-12
April 2, 1995
by J. David Hoke
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you,
and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for
your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew
5:10-12 NASB)
Do you ever feel harassed? There are many times when I do. Life can give us quite a
headache sometimes. I'm sure many of you have seen the itemized list of indicators of a
bad day.
You know it's going to be a bad day when:
While these indicators of a bad day are funny, we have all experienced many bad days
that were not at all funny. The truth is that we encounter very real trials. In fact, you
many even have some enemies who say and do things to hurt you. You don't have to be
paranoid to feel persecuted. Indeed, you may be persecuted. All of us
experience it from time to time. You not only feel harassed, you are
harassed!
Now, you are not the first. While you may not be comforted by that fact, many of us are
encouraged by it. This is especially true when we realize that Jesus was persecuted to the
point of death. He was crucified. And He said we would be persecuted if we made the choice
to live for Him.
Jesus also gave us the model of how to respond under pressure and persecution. He told
us the truth about it and gave us the key, not only to understand it, but to rise above
it. His words are solemn indeed, but quite encouraging.
And we need encouragement in order to deal with persecution. As we have said before,
persecution comes to all of us. In fact, sometimes we deserve it. But being and feeling
harassed or persecuted can cause us to be discouraged and depressed. How can we avoid
this? How can we rise above it? Well, we need hope and assurance that this persecution is
not all there is. We need to know that there is something more. If we would be encouraged
to live for righteousness, we must have the rock-solid confidence that what we endure is
worth it.
This is precisely what Jesus gives us. Jesus gives us several considerations concerning
persecution and how to respond to it. Let's look at each of them.
The Reality of Persecution
The first consideration Jesus gives is the reality of persecution. It should go without
saying that Jesus was utterly honest. He knew that we would face persecution and told us
so. He was saying that if you and I are going to be Christians we will experience or
suffer persecution. But, He adds that we will be blessed if we are so persecuted.
Let us consider, however, what Jesus does say and what He doesn't
say. He doesn't say that we will be blessed if we are persecuted because we are obnoxious
human beings. No, if you are persecuted because you are being obnoxious, you deserve it. I
am sure you have known people like that. We would probably agree that they need a little
persecution in order to straighten them out.
Jesus also does not say that we will be blessed if we are persecuted because we are
fanatical. I mentioned this with some reluctance because I see very little danger of this
happening to most Christians. Far from being over-zealous, most Christians are
under-zealous. If many Christians decided to slow down they would be traveling in reverse.
But this is not what Jesus is talking about.
He is also not saying that we will be blessed if we are persecuted because we stand for
a cause. Now, standing for righteousness and standing for a cause may be one and the same.
It may be a righteous cause for which you are standing. However, standing for a just cause
is not necessarily standing for Christ. And we must make this distinction. In fact, some
people have almost courted martyrdom for the sake of their cause. They have seen it as a
way to bring attention and notoriety to their cause. So, they have done things in order to
be persecuted. This is not what Jesus is talking about.
Finally, He is not talking about our being blessed because we are persecuted for being
good. We may be good, or noble, or self-sacrificing and not be righteous. As a matter of
fact, the world generally praises good and noble and self-sacrificing people. In fact,
they're generally thought of as fine Christian individuals. But the fact that the world
praises them should perhaps raise a flag of warning to us. This is not what Jesus is
talking about.
What is He talking about? When He talks about righteous, what does He mean? The
answer is probably found in verse 11 where He says that all of this persecution comes to
us "on account of Me." To be righteous simply means being like the Lord
Jesus Christ. Indeed, those who are like Him have always been persecuted.
Listen to Jesus' own words in John 15:18-20: "If the world hates you, you
know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would
love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not
greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they
kept My word, they will keep yours also."
Christians have a long history of persecution. Think about life in the early church.
Suppose a stone-mason had come to know Christ. Then he was asked to build a temple to a
pagan god. What should he do? Suppose a tailor had become a Christian. Then he was asked
to make garments for pagan priests. What should he do? What would you do? Well, whatever
you would do, they refused. We tend to be far too willing to compromise.
The early Christians knew where their loyalty should be. Perhaps a hundred years after
the early church a man came to Tertullian, one of the church fathers, with a business
problem. After he explained his difficulties, he said, "What can I do? I must
live!" The godly Tertullian replied, "Must you?" We, like Tertullian,
should know that the primary concern of the Christian is not living but following Christ.
Likewise, following Christ made a real difference in the early Christian's social life.
Most feasts were held in the temple of a god. Even a meal in an ordinary house began with
a cup of wine poured out in honor of the gods. Should a Christian share in that? The
answer was clear to them. The Christian had to cut himself off from that, and consequently
from some people he had known.
Again, following Christ impacted many Christian's home life. Often, father and mother
and brother and sister would shut out the family member who made a commitment to Christ.
And finally, following Christ in that time could bring the gravest of all consequences.
Many Christians forfeited their very lives rather than compromise their Christianity. In
that day Rome ruled the world. The Emperor came to be regarded as a god. Every year a
person had to go and burn a pinch of incense in honor of Caesar and say, "Caesar is
lord." It was simply a test of political loyalty. After the person burned his pinch
of incense and received a certificate called a libellus, which said he had
done so, he could then worship any god he liked. The Christian refused to do so. Thousands
were tortured and killed for their devotion to Christ.
One of the most famous martyrs was Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna. He was dragged
before the Roman authorities and given the inevitable choice - make his sacrifice to
Caesar or be burned to death. Listen to what he said: "Eighty and six years have I
served Christ, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved
me?" They brought Polycarp to the stake and he prayed his last prayer; "Oh, Lord
God Almighty, the Father of thy well beloved and ever blessed Son, by whom we have
received the knowledge of thee . . . I thank thee that thou hast graciously thought me
worthy of this day and of this hour."
Listen to the way one writer has described the persecutions Christians have suffered.
All the world knows of the Christians who were flung to the lions or burned at the stake; but these were kindly deaths. Nero wrapped the Christians in pitch and set them alight, and used them as living torches to light his gardens. He sewed them into skins of wild animals and set his hunting dogs upon them to tear them to death. They were tortured on the rack; they were scraped with pincers; molten lead was poured hissing upon them; red hot brass plates were affixed to the tenderest parts of their bodies; eyes were torn out; parts of their bodies were cut off and roasted before their eyes; their hands and feet were burned while cold water was poured over them to lengthen the agony. These things are not pleasant to think about, but these are the things a man had to be prepared for, if he took his stand with Christ.
We can conclude, in light of our commitment to Christ, that we will suffer persecution.
But in light of what others have suffered, ours should seem like a very slight thing
indeed.
The Response to Persecution
The next consideration is how we should respond to persecution. Jesus said that we
should "rejoice and be glad." Quite a statement, isn't it?
It should be obvious that Jesus was not implying that persecution itself makes us
happy. Persecution is difficult. It is hard. Persecution hurts. Jesus obviously was not
saying that we should rejoice because of the persecution. Rather, He was saying that we
should "rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great." We
rejoice because of our reward.
It is interesting that the word used here, which is translated "and be
glad", literally means "to leap for joy." What is in view is an
excitement over great news. You see, there are different levels of gladness. If you
receive a phone call from someone announcing that you have won a hundred dollars, you
might look over at your spouse and with a smile say, "Honey, I've got some good news.
We've just won a hundred dollars. I'm glad, aren't you?" But if the phone rang again,
and the person said that there had been a mistake - that instead of winning a hundred
dollars, you had won a hundred million tax free dollars - what would you do? Well!!! This
would call for an entirely new level of gladness, don't you think? Instead of looking over
at your partner with a smile, you might well leap to your feet - even leap around the room
a few times. Your spouse may have to tackle you in order to find out why you are so
excited. You see, there are different levels of gladness.
This should give us an idea what Jesus was speaking of when He said that our reward in
heaven would be great. He means that those who are persecuted for righteousness sake have
a reward that is worth leaping and shouting about. This is His promise.
This is something of what James speaks of when he says, "Consider it all
joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials" (James 1:2 NASB). We
consider it joy because God is at work in us.
Paul said, in Romans 8:18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to
us."
If you are harassed, hang on! The glory to come will come soon.
Copyright (C) 1995 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of
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