So far in this little series, we’ve looked at the character of those who belong to Jesus’ kingdom. Now we turn to a blessing concerned not so much with character as with conflict. We read ‘blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness’ and we think: this is the blessing that we would rather not share. It's the blessing no one really wants. But in some ways it is the most striking of Jesus’ beatitudes: it is the last one, the longest one, the only one associated with a command, the only one repeated by Jesus and the only one addressed directly to his disciplines. And Jesus underlines his point by changing from a more general ‘blessed are those’ in verse 10 to ‘blessed are you’ in verse 11.

Why does persecution come?
At first it might seem odd that the character of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven should experience persecution. After all, we’ve been describing the character of those in the kingdom, and the different elements of the character of such people are beautiful. It might seem strange that those who are poor in spirit and meek and merciful and peace makers should be persecuted. You stop and think about it, and you’d reckon that people would think these were good characteristics shown by the sort of people they’d want to marry their sisters and live on their street. One Christian writer, Sinclair Ferguson, puts it like this:

'Isn’t what Jesus teaches here the reverse of what we would expect? Men and women who are poor in spirit, mourn for their sin, live lives of gracious meekness, long for God's righteousness, show mercy to others, are pure in heart, and seek peace between God and man - would such people not be welcomed with open arms? After all, these are the very men and women the world needs! The world in which we live assumes that it will welcome Christians with open arms - until the first time it meets the genuine article. Until then, it is ignorant of its real response to the gospel. It assumes that it is well-disposed to Jesus Christ and to God.'

So what’s going on in these verses? Look carefully at verse 10. Jesus doesn’t say that all those who are persecuted are blessed. Rather, it’s those who are persecuted ‘because of righteousness’. Verse 11 is a kind of parallel to verse 10, and Jesus says that you are blessed when people persecute you ‘because of me.’ So Jesus isn’t saying that if we just go around annoying people through our behaviour that we’re blessed when they get angry with us. Rather, he is saying that when persecution comes merely because we identify ourselves with Jesus and his righteousness, we are blessed.

We looked at the word ‘righteousness’ a couple of weeks ago. We saw that Jesus had quite a wide idea in mind here: when he speaks of hungering for righteousness, he means loving righteousness in the legal, moral and relational spheres. In other words, to hunger for righteousness is to look to the cross alone as the means of being made right with God, to strive against sin in your own life so that your heart is right with God, and to treat others in a manner that is right with God; in short, loving the things he loves and hating the things he hates. Practically, then, to treasure righteousness has wide-ranging implication: to hold firm to the gospel message, to live a life that reflects gospel realities in every part and in every environment you find yourself in.

But here’s the crucial conviction behind Jesus’ words. He speaks on the basis of a deep truth about the nature of his kingdom and the essential nature humans. Jesus is saying that there is such a tension between the message and the way of life of citizens of the kingdom on the one hand, and the mindset and way of life of the world on the other hand that conflict is inevitable. It’s as if Jesus is saying that a citizen of the kingdom, who is authentically living out their citizenship, and so who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, is a standing rebuke to the world. It’s as if they are an embodied conscience that says to the world, 'This is what it’s like to live out reality: that you are not at the centre of the Universe, but that God is at the centre of the Universe and he is rightly your King.'

And so what Jesus is saying is this: "I'll give you a gilt-edge guarantee that if you live according to the first seven Beatitudes, you'll get the eighth one automatically. If you function according to those first seven principles, inevitably, you will be persecuted for righteousness' sake." So how can we take these words of Jesus and know that they apply today? Not only because we are aware of examples around the world of different forms of persecution, but also because we know that the human heart has not fundamentally changed since Jesus spoke. And that’s why Jesus can say in verse 12 that those who are persecuted today are in the same category as the Old Testament prophets. The human heart was no different then either. And so the prophets of old and persecuted Christians today can be categorised together: each of these groups have lived by and sought to embody a message unpalatable to those around them.

And this brings with it an important lesson: if you attract persecution and this is because we identity ourselves with Jesus and his righteousness, it doesn’t mean that we’re doing something wrong. In fact, this is the response we are to expect. One writer that I read put it like this:

True believers have never been popular with the people of the world. Our righteousness intimidates them, our boldness annoys them, our refusal to participate in their sin infuriates them, and our love for God mystifies them. Because they don’t understand us, they hate us. Because they hate us, they oppose us. We seem like subversives, dangerous enemies who must be hunted down and destroyed.

What forms does persecution take?
Jesus describes the forms persecution can take in verse 11. Firstly, he says it takes the form of insults; secondly, the form of persecution - the word ‘persecute’ in Greek was derived from being chased down by a dog or wild animal; and thirdly, it takes the form of lies about us - as Jesus puts it, ‘people falsely say all kinds of evil against you’.

I guess we’ll all be aware of examples of these different forms of opposition. Sometimes it’s just straight insults. I was called ‘the godchild of Osama bin Laden’ once for telling a student at Lancaster University that I believed that Jesus was the only way to God. The guy went on to spit in my face.

The second form of opposition that Jesus speaks about is physical persecution. I heard this week of three Bangladeshi evangelists put to death recently for showing the Jesus film. In September, ten Christians were left severely injured after being beaten unconscious as a mob of 400 people dressed as police stormed a site in Shanxi Province, China, where a new church was being built. Or, again in Bangladesh, a woman called Khainur and her daughter Arifa were recently brutally beaten by her husband following their conversion to Christianity. These things should rightly appall us - these are brothers and sisters who are being persecuted merely for righteousness and because they are ultimately allegiant to Jesus.

But it’s not just the high-profile violence Jesus has in mind here. It’s any form of persecution that takes a physical form. It’s when the Christian student who writes a well-argued essay is penalised merely on the basis of writing what they believe. It’s when a school decides not to let a church family meet in their school hall any more just because they don’t like their premises being identified with Jesus.

The third form is perhaps the most subtle form of persecution, and in our context perhaps the most common. It’s the rumour. It’s when at work our motives are impugned; it’s when our actions are deliberated misrepresented; it’s when malicious stories or emails are circulated about us.

What if I’m not being persecuted?
But this might be leading to a question in your mind: I’m not being persecuted. Where does that place me in Jesus’ teaching?

One answer is that your light is, as Jesus will put it, under a bowl. You are keeping the message of the cross, which some find so offensive, well hidden. You are not letting gospel values of righteousness show - in fact, those around you aren’t particularly aware that you have different values at all.

But the other answer is that you are holding forth the message of the gospel as you have opportunity, and that you are seeking to let these different values of righteousness show. And that means that those around us are noticing that we’re different, that we’re living for a different hope. And, in response, that means that ultimately these people will be forced to deal with these gospel claims; either, they will bow the knee in submission and worship to Christ, or they will harden their hearts and reject him - in which case persecution of true believers will follow. But neither of these responses inevitably happens immediately.

There are all kinds of factors that can hold back expressions of persecution. We see these often in the gospels when the Pharisees were angered by Jesus but were held back from expressing their anger in outright persecution. Neither persecution nor conversion will always happen immediately. In fact, many people are torn inside themselves, partly hating the claims of Christianity in the lives of their Christian friends, and partly attracted by them. Perhaps that will be the experience of some people here before their conversions.

So we should all examine ourselves to see if we are playing a game of cowardly Christian incognito. And if so, we should repent and resolve to be more sincere in the expression of who we really are. But we must not assume that, because there is no persecution happening to us right now that the fault must lie with us. Authentic Christian witness will always demand a response, but this response may currently still be forming in those amongst whom we are living.

What is the promise here?
But regardless of the response we receive, genuine believers can be very content. And that leads us to our final question: what is Jesus’ promise here to those persecuted because of righteousness?

I remember once a guy laying in to me on the train because he knew that I was a Christian. When I got off the train, I texted a friend explaining what had happened, and he texted me back with the reference to these verses. I didn’t feel very blessed at the time, far from it. So when we attract persecution, what is the nature of our blessing? How can the words of Jesus help us?

Well, first let’s remember, this is Jesus speaking. This is not some pastoral novice that blunders into a funeral home slapping people on the back, saying, "Praise God, anyhow." This is Jesus. And he says to his disciples, most of whom will themselves be martyred, "Rejoice and be glad" when you are persecuted, when you suffer. How can he say this?

Jesus can say these words - challenging as they are - because as great as the persecution may be, they indicate a greater blessing still.

Firstly, Jesus says that when we suffer persecutions for his sake, we can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we belong to him. Verse 10 says: ‘for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’, just as we saw in verse 3; this is a blessing in the present tense. Persecution is the result of a change in character and desires so that we are poor in spirit - and that is only possible through responding to the gospel and therefore belonging to Jesus. And so when we are persecuted for Jesus, we can be absolutely certain that we belong to him. And when we are persecuted, it becomes clearer and more vivid that we belong to Jesus forever.

Secondly, Jesus says that great is the reward of those that are persecuted. Now we tend to get jumpy at the idea that Jesus speaks about reward - it sounds as though he’s lost sight of salvation by grace alone. But I think we needn’t get too concerned. Here’s an example that helped me. A man who marries a woman for her money is ‘rewarded’ by her money, but they are normally viewed with little regard because the reward isn’t naturally linked with love. We’re cynical because the reward seems to be more important to the man than his action. But on the other hand, we wouldn’t say that an unmarried man that is in love with an unmarried woman is wrong to want to be married to her, because love and marriage are naturally linked. The gift of companionship is a suitable reward for love. And when Jesus talks about reward, it’s in this second sense: as we serve and love him wholeheartedly, we experience more of the blessings of living in relationship with him. We may lose everything - and yet through losing everything, we learn that life in relationship with him is supremely valuable. As one African bishop put it, 'I didn’t know Christ was all I needed until Christ was all I had.' In that respect, that African bishop was rewarded for his suffering.

Many Christians down through the ages have counted the cost and were willing to stay faithful to Jesus and pay the price of persecution as they have reflected on these words and been reminded of what is truly valuable in eternity. At one time in his life, the preacher Charles Spurgeon was so intensely criticized that he became deeply depressed. So his wife printed this verse on a large sheet of paper and placed it above their bed. It was the first thing Spurgeon saw in the morning and the last thing at read at night.

John Chrysostom was an eloquent, uncompromising voice for the cause of Christ in early Church history. But his rhetoric against sin offended the Empress Eudoxia. When John was summoned before Emperor Arcadius, he was threatened with banishment unless he ceased his Bible centered preaching. Instead, he replied in this way: "Sir, you cannot banish me, for the world is my Father’s house."
"Then I will have you put to death," Emperor Arcadius said.
"No, but you cannot, for my life is hid with Christ in God," said John Chrysostom
"Your treasures will be confiscated!" the Emperor threatened again.
"Sir, you cannot do that either. My treasures are in heaven, where no-one can break through and steal," said John.
"Then I will drive you away from men, and you will have no friends left!" was the Emperor’s final, frustrated threat to which John replied, "You cannot do that either, for I have a Friend in heaven who has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you."

John Chrysostom was banished for taking a firm stand for righteousness, first to Armenia and then he died on his way to a farther place of exile on the Black Sea. But the things that he valued most highly could not even be taken away by a Roman Emperor.

We started by saying that this is the blessing that we’d rather not have. But I hope you can see that, properly understood, this beatitude and related instruction means that we can give ourselves to wholehearted submission to Jesus and his righteousness, whatever happens. When we are persecuted, we need not despair - indeed, we can be freed to keep putting Christ first, regardless of our circumstances.

Lighthouse