Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: Be glad when others treat you badly

Let me start by reading in Matthew 5:11-12,

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Jesus teaches his followers that they should be glad when people do awful things to them, mistreat them, and attempt to discredit them with lies.  When people treat them like dirt because they are believers, they are blessed.

Well, how do you figure that!?  How do insults, or backbiting, or even assault because of my faith equal my happiness and personal enrichment (that’s what blessed means).  The reason Jesus says that we’re blessed when we’re persecuted is because when we are  persecuted because of our association with Jesus, we have a great reward in heaven just like the prophets who were persecuted before us.

And when it comes to the reaction that one has when persecuted, there is a sharp divide between those who belong to God’s kingdom and those who belong to the world.  When a person of the world is treated badly, what do they tend to do?  They try to get revenge (how can do to them what they did to me (or worse), how can I make them feel what I feel (or worse), they try to pay back the mistreatment.  Or they become bitter and bad tempered.  The world reacts this way because they have no promise of a life beyond this one. 

But those who follow Christ should think differently about persecution and they should react differently.  There is no need for us to seek revenge in this life because we have a Father in heaven who loves us dearly and sees everything.  He will judge the wrongdoer, whether in this life or in the life to come. - For example, we have rules at our house.  My kids know the rules and they also the penalties for disobeying the rules.  They trust that Sharon and I are going to enforce the rules fairly.  When my son is mistreating my daughter, she knows not to go off and punch him in the mouth.  What does she do?  She calls to me or to mom instead, “Mom, Dad, Asa’s being mean to me!”  She understands that whatever the problem is, we’ll straighten it out.  She’s satisfied (most of the time) that we can assess the situation and she’s confident that we’ll give a fair judgment.  This should be the attitude of Christ’s followers.  In Christ, we are God’s beloved children, and we should trust that God sees our mistreatment and that he will make things right in his own time.  We trust him and are confident that he’ll do that because of our relationship with him.    

Jesus’ teaching on this goes a step further though -Not only should the kingdom-minded person be satisfied that justice will be done, but they should also glad because they’ll have a reward!  Paul wrote to the church about persecution in 2 Cor 4:17, saying, “For this light momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”  The mistreatment that God’s children endure because they believe in Christ and strive to do what’s right is producing for them a great reward, so not only can we be confident of God’s attention and his action on our behalf, but we can rejoice in persecution for being counted worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ! 

But when’s the last time you were persecuted for Christ?  Be honest?  I don’t mean being persecuted for being a jerk because you didn’t speak the truth in love.  I mean genuine persecution because of what you believe, because you chose integrity over corruption, you chose to do the right thing, you choose to speak up.  I’ll be honest, I believe persecution of this sort is rare actually in our cultural context, meaning Atlanta, Georgia.  Even if our culture is increasingly post-Christian, we’re not often persecuted, mistreated, lied about because of our commitment to Christ.  I’ve lived 10 years in a majority Muslim context.  In these cultural contexts, followers of Jesus, especially if they’re recent converts, are often facing persecution. 

So, what does this passage have to teach us, in our context right now?  Well, although believers in our cultural context aren’t often persecuted for their faith, I believe that our fear that we could be persecuted or mistreated affects us in more ways than we imagine.  -For example, if you assume that your collogues are going to be offended if you mention church, or something you learned at church, or if you say anything related to Christianity and that keeps you from speaking the truth in love to those coworkers, your assumption that they’ll react that way is keeping you from being a good, honest witness for Christ.  In this example, how can what Jesus teaches here change our perspective?  Here’s how: So what if it comes up in conversation that you’re a committed follower of Jesus and people are offended?  They’re probably not going to be.  But so what if they are?  If they are offended by Christ because of you, guess what, you’re blessed.  You should count yourself as fortunate.  So what if one of your family members makes a rude comment about you behind your back because of what you believe?  So what if someone at your job is angry and threating to bust you down a promotion because you won’t be dishonest, because you choose to act with integrity?  You’re blessed.  Those who spoke for God before you were treated the same way.  And the Lord saw their mistreatment.   Romans 12:19 says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”  God sees you.  He’ll act and he’ll do it with all fairness.  You can be assured.  And what’s more, you can be glad in it, because you have an eternal reward. 

Let’s be honest, much of the persecution that stops us from speaking and acting in-step with the Holy Spirit is imagined persecution.  It’s persecution that may happen, or that probably isn’t going to happen.  But here’s the thing, even if it does, even if your worst fears of persecution are imagined, you still have every reason to be confident that God sees you and that he’s for you.  So, don’t be afraid.  The most prevalent command in Scripture is “Fear not” because fear keeps us from living out our faith in a crooked and broken world.  So, let Jesus’ words here dismantle your fears of persecution.  Next time you fear offending your neighbor, or mistreatment, or slander against you, remember Jesus’ words here.  You’re blessed.  So, be bold and courageous.