10 Blessed are those
who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed
are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against
you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for
great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets
who were before you. Matthew 5
Persecution
of Christians is not something that most people associate with America. There
is a different type of persecution in America for those who follow Jesus.
Christians in other countries can face imprisonment, and even death, for simply
being associated with Christ. In America, persecution comes from following
Jesus’s teachings.
Often
in America the type of persecution we see is subtle. Teenagers get shunned from
the “in” crowd for taking a moral stand for Jesus Christ. Adults in the business world can be passed
over for a promotion for taking an ethical stand for Jesus Christ. These
examples may not sound subtle, but the persecutors rarely tell the persecutees
that “we don’t want to be around you because you are following Christ’s
teachings” or “we will not promote you because we need a liar to fill the
position for our own financial gain.” They are just left out or passed over. In
that way the persecution is subtle.
The
promise of Jesus is that He will more than make up for what we lose out on here
on earth by rewarding us in heaven. (vs. 12) To a teenager, acceptance by their
peers is everything, and social scorn is devastating. To a parent trying to
provide for their family, the money that comes with a promotion could help meet
the family’s needs. However, Jesus actually tells us to rejoice when
persecuted, because great is our reward in heaven. Most people do not realize that God actually
rewards us in accordance with our faithfulness, but He does. Here in Matthew 5,
Jesus says that our reward will be “great” (see also Matt 25:14-30, 1 Cor.
3:13-15). Both the teenager that is left
out now and the business man who loses out now will be rewarded in heaven, and
that reward will last forever. That is great incentive when compared to the
earthly treasure that does not last and never really satisfies anyway.
There
is a saying that you can’t out give God. God is the greatest giver there is.
When you lose out on the American Dream, which is vanishing anyway because you
are persecuted for following Jesus, rejoice because God has so much more in
store for you!