Persecuted

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10

Persecuted – What does “persecuted” mean to you?  Prison cells?  Torture chambers?  The rack?  Burned at the stake?  Fed to lions?  Maybe you think less graphically.  Maybe “persecuted” is about being turned down for a promotion because you’re too “religious”.  Maybe it’s about being the object of slander or gossip.  If you are a present tense living by gift Christian, you have certainly encountered some of this.  But Jesus had something else in mind, something that may not be so obvious but is far more devastating.

This translation of the last Beatitude makes us think of people who suffered for their faith.  But the real Greek words don’t display an image of completed suffering.  The Greek text really says, “those being persecuted” (the word is from the Greek dioko).  It is a perfect passive.  That means it is an action that happened in the past but continues to have present effects and it is done to you.  Jesus’ Beatitude is for those who are suffering right now.  The amazing thing about this word is that it comes from the idea of driving away or pursuing with the intention of doing harm.  Someone with evil intention is chasing you.

No one on that hillside on the day Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount was being tortured or imprisoned or beaten.  No one was being slandered or insulted or passed over.  But many, many people were being persecuted.  Why?  Because this verse is also about men who drive away God’s righteousness by inserting their own rules and requirements between you and God.  That is persecution.  They want to drive off God in order to make you conform to their “religion” instead of accepting God’s gift.  And Jesus says, “The men who do this are guilty before God.”  There is no condition on God’s invitation.  It is a gift, not a reward.

Yesterday we discovered that no rule-keeping behavior could make you good before God.  God grades on the cross.  Today we see that those who teach rule-keeping as part of God’s solution to our sin are persecuting us.  They want to keep God’s free gift out of reach.  When you are faithful in spite of efforts to separate you from the life of “God’s gift”, you experience the happiness of this Beatitude.  And God smiles.   Paul said it another way.  “Nothing can separate us from the love of God.”

Today:  Today is fearless inventory day.  Do I act as though God has rules I must keep before He will love me?  Write them down.  Cross them out.  Redemption is His gift, not my getting.

If you want to gain a deeper understanding of all the Beatitudes, see my book on the web site www.atgodstable.com under the Gourmet Dinner menu.