We in the Western world--in the United States particularly--don't know persecution. It's not part of our daily existence to know what it's like to live in a way that fundamentally and in almost all areas of life swims against the stream and, because of this, brings persecution. Not just difficulty. Persecution.
In my experience, it just has not been part of our reality to know what it's like to create small clusters of relationships with others, hiding under the radar, using special signs or signals to remind each other of our solidarity in Christ. We don't know what it's like to struggle deeply between following the way of Jesus or remaining in good standing with our family; to struggle about our jobs because they cause us to participate in ways of life that go against Jesus' Beatitudes; to risk losing business, not just on the basis of where we stand on one issue, but on the basis of how we operate, or on the basis of those with whom we associate. We don't know the anxiety of wondering when we'll be turned in or ratted out because we follow the way of Jesus.
Some might say "and thank God we live in a country where we've had it well." There is truth to this. I am very thankful that we have not had to deal with real persecution. But I also have to wonder at what point living for Jesus' kingdom and living in another kingdom where we might be all too comfortable might be a problem. Many people in our culture see Christians as "different" because of certain tenets of belief, but we're not persecuted. We're just (sometimes) seen as people who look at some things differently. Maybe made fun of on occasion. Other than that, we really don't look or act all that differently. Not enough to bring about persecution.
It's no secret that we're moving into a post-Christian culture (through there's good reason to question if it ever was "Christian" in the first place, at least in the Beatitudes' way of defining things). This means persecution may be on the horizon, if not for us, for our children or grandchildren. Call me crazy, but this might actually be a good thing.
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Jesus and the early church did not experience persecution because they told people that Jesus loves them. And they were not persecuted because of the stance they took on a particular "moral issue." They were persecuted because they announced something so different that it had the potential to really upend things. Kingdoms and societies and economic systems don't like to be upended.
I think of the story in Acts 18. Paul and his friends came into the town of Ephesus. They proclaimed the Lordship of Jesus. People got angry. Why? Because it messed up the economy of Ephesus. If Jesus is Lord, and if people started believing this, and living according to this reality, then the economy based on the worship of Artemis would certainly take a hit.
For the early Christians, this was no matter. Their lives were not founded upon the economy; they were founded upon Jesus and his kingdom. Nevertheless, persecution came because the world that worships something other than Jesus and finds its existence based on these other "gods" is threatened when Jesus becomes Lord.
Are things that different today?
One is not persecuted because one keeps quiet. Following after the righteousness of the kingdom is no private affair. Jesus' world had no sense of private and public lives, where faith was private and rarely affected one's public life--jobs, politics, economics, etc. It should be inevitable that people would see us as different precisely because following after Jesus rearranges the furniture in every aspect of life. The life of the kingdom--the way of the Beatitudes--has to play out in our public lives. If the early Christians would have just kept faith to themselves, they would have avoided all kinds of trouble. If they would have only kept to themselves we might not have had the faith passed down. This is how God has worked to pass on the faith--through struggle and persecution, not through just easy times.
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All of this persecution is "because of righteousness/justice." Remember back to the post about "righteousness." Righteousness refers to God's creational intent for humanity and the world. It's interesting that the "good news" would bring persecution. It also does not take long to see that the world operates in ways very different than God's ways outlined in the Beatitudes. The standard operations and ways of living do not bring God's goodness or good news, though the world convinces us that it does. This is the subtle danger--when we think they do. But the good news of the kingdom often can mean bad news for the ways of thinking and living that have been running the show.
New Testament scholar Warren Carter puts it this way:
The just way of life envisioned in (the Beatitudes) challenges the status quo, its commitments, power structures, and beneficiaries. God's reign of justice/righteousness seeks different societal relationships (and ways of thinking and living)...The empire will certainly strike back. (Matthew and the Margins, 136)It's not that followers of Jesus should go looking for persecution or cause trouble. Difficulty and persecution will inevitably find them as they live out their calling as people of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
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Why would it possibly be a blessing to be persecuted? Because this is a sign that one's life is aligned with the ways of God's kingdom. If the life of the Beatitudes is just a blip on the radar, no reason for persecution. But if it's a significant movement that stirs up things in a world where the patterns of life are not "Beatitude ways"--then consider yourself blessed. You are not participating in the ways of death that continue to fuel human relational brokenness and alienation from God. You are among the reconcilers (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). In contrast to the pursuit of earthly rewards, it's the heavenly reward that we seek.
Jesus also goes on to say that the reason for blessing is because the prophets were treated this way. The prophets of old, the greats--Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, Hosea, Micah--had a tough hand dealt to them. They all had some degree of persecution or difficulty because they lived and announced a message that called people back to God. But--get this--their audience was not "outsiders." Their audience was God's people--the people who should have known better. But God's people were too comfortable with their complacency.
Persecution does not necessarily come from only the "outsiders." It can and often does come from those within the fold, who claim to be on God's side. In our day this would be the church. None are immune from being swept up by the easy ways of the kingdoms of the earth and resisting the ways of Jesus. No one holds the upper hand. We must always be intentionally questioning our ways, opening ourselves to the ways of Jesus, keenly aware of our own capacity for the easy life of the old, dead humanity. We must be seeking the way of the Beatitudes, even if persecution follows.
It's really not that difficult to see why persecution might arise in our culture. I'm afraid that too often Christians sweep things under the rug. But ours is a culture that loudly preaches the opposite of everything Jesus mentions in these Beatitudes. We all know it. Sure, sometimes someone who is genuinely poor in spirit, meek, or merciful might make a news headline.
It's nice.
But the way of the Beatitudes do not move you ahead, and they do not drive the engine of our culture. Ours is a culture of violence, competition, striking back, and making a name for one's self. We thrive on self first above others, and we justify this stuff as if it's how God made us to be. We charge ahead on the fuel of being self-made and rulers of our own kingdom. Everything from school instruction to politics to the economy tells us this is what it means to be human.
The Beatitudes say otherwise.
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Think, Talk, Apply
How have you experienced persecution? Have each person in your family share an experience if they have one? Have you thought of yourself as "blessed" because of it?
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