“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:10)
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you…If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” – Jesus (John 15:18-25)
I have always been unnerved by the intensity of the anger and hate of the crowd toward Jesus during His trial. All four Gospels make me squirm in discomfort as I hear their shouts, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Where does such a bloodthirsty passion come from…and why…why point this poisonous attitude toward an innocent man? What kind of world do we live in?
Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised that we persecute righteousness. After all we live in a society that has to pass laws protecting people who want to do the right thing. People who see wrong and want to speak out are ridiculed. Those who want to help others in trouble are under threats of lawsuits. Why do we have such a problem which righteousness?
Even as children we ridicule those who want to follow direction and do the right thing as “teacher’s pet” or “goodie-goodie two-shoes”. As we grow older we use terms like, “whistle-blower” or “holier than thou”. What is wrong with us? We applaud those who are unrighteous and we minimize those who attempt to live a better life.
Jesus gave the disciples a heads up…some insight…in the upper room just hours before they would witness the gross injustice of the cross. “People hate Me and people will, therefore hate you”. You see, everyone is OK until righteousness shows up. When the light is turned on we are exposed and the filth of our sin is revealed. This does not feel good. We have two options…resist or repent. To resist means that we somehow have to put out the light. We must eliminate the righteousness that highlights our shortcomings. To justify our selfishness and pride we must deny the truth and crucify Jesus. Or…we can repent.
To repent is to admit that we are lost and that we are headed to destruction without the intervention of a holy God. It is humbling ourselves before our Creator and calling out to Him for forgiveness and rescue. This is the hard choice. This is the narrow road less traveled. Otherwise, we are more inclined to stand in the crowd and shout with them…”Crucify Him”.
Before we can begin to unwrap the meaning of this next beatitude we must first realize that the cross reveals that we are first guilty of being the persecutors of this righteousness.
Today, let us humble ourselves before God and ask forgiveness for persecuting Him and those who strive to be like Him.
Blessings!