A weekday morning devotional series written by Aaron Marcarelli and hosted by Chad McBeam
“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in this same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Matthew 5:10-12 NASB2020
Jesus says many things that are difficult to hear or do not make sense to us in the Western World. These couple of verses in particular are difficult to hear. Because we all want to get along and because of the fact Jesus just said we are to be peacemakers. Who wants to be persecuted? Who wants to be made fun of and ostracized for what we believe?
Again context is valuable to understand. Jesus is speaking to Jewish people. They have been used to persecution and being separated from others. It had been happening since Moses. They knew it was part of being Jewish and following The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The people that Jesus was speaking to would have known about the persecution of the prophets they knew about Jeremiah; Jeremiah 20: 1-2 tells us “When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief overseer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the Lord.”
But They also knew about Zachariah and what God told him would be their reward for facing so much persecution in His name. Zechariah 2: 8-10 says “For the Lord of armies says this: “After glory He has sent me against the nations that plunder you, for the one who touches you, touches the apple of His eye. For behold, I am going to wave My hand over them so that they will be plunder for their slaves. Then you will know that the Lord of armies has sent Me. Shout for joy and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” declares the Lord.”
We Christians in the west want the Kingdom without the work, without the hardships, without the persecution. When the difficulties, struggles and discourse come, so many western believers tap out and move on.
Jesus says we are blessed when we go through persecution, hardships and the difficulties of life. We are blessed so much that our reward is the greatest kingdom ever built. A kingdom created by the maker of the universe. A kingdom that has no boundaries and that is as far as the east is from the west.
If we are following Jesus we will have difficulties and strife. We will be persecuted for what we believe. In fact it is how we know that we are truly following Him.
Lord, we thank you and we praise you for your gift of an eternal kingdom. Help us to navigate through the storms of persecution and strife that come with being a follower of you. We pray all these things in Jesus Name Amen.
Shalom Blessings and Press In and Press On!