Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Matthew 5:11,12 April 5, 2007

The Beatitudes #9:
Persecuted for You and Me
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer

Maundy Thursday

Matthew 5:11,12
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

Jesus caused trouble for people from his birth. King Herod searched for the Child after hearing about the vision of the Magi. In his effort to rid the world of this potential threat to his power, Herod ordered the murder of all boys 2 years old and under in and around the town of Bethlehem. What if you were one of the parents of one of those slain children? What if you found out that your little boy had been killed because he might be this one called Jesus? What if years later you heard about, even saw this Jesus walking around among the living? How would you feel about him? Would you want to kill him for the pain and loss your family had endured on his account? You wouldn’t be alone. Many wanted to kill him.
In John 5 we read that after Jesus healed some people on the Sabbath because, “not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God,” some of the Jews tried to kill him. (John 5:17,18) If you go just a little further in John’s gospel, you see some of the Jews with stones in their hands ready to stone Jesus because he claimed to have seen Abraham. “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham!” they asked? “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am.” “At this they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.” (John 8:58ff) They also picked up stones, as we read, in John 10:31. And Jesus asked them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
Jesus was persecuted for righteousness’ sake. He was persecuted for standing up for what is right and true. He was persecuted for being a genuine peacemaker – not willing to settle for false peace – completely focused on establishing the reign and rule of God’s peace.
There are so many places in the gospel accounts of his life that he told his disciples he was going to be killed. They heard him, sort of. They believed he was in danger of being killed. When he was called to go see Lazarus, his disciples warned him not to go. “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?” (John 11:8) They knew he was in constant danger. They also knew, because of their association with him, that they were in constant danger. When Jesus truly did head towards Bethany to Lazarus’ home, Thomas said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16) They didn’t want to die with him, but they surely had figured out that they didn’t want to live without him, either.
Did you notice in this last beatitude a shift in the way Jesus was addressing this crowd of people? In all the previous beatitudes, Jesus says, “Blessed are those or they…” He starts this last beatitude the same way. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.” But then, he changes from the third person to the second person. “Blessed are you, and you, and you.” Now that might make those in the crowd sit up a little straighter. Wow, he’s talking right to me now. It might make us sit up a little straighter, too. But, did we hear why we will be blessed? “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”
From the history of the Old Testament, we know that the prophet Zechariah was killed by King Joash (2 Chron. 24:21), Isaiah, according to tradition, fled for the hills outside Jerusalem, but he was tracked down and sawed in two (Heb. 11:37). The prophet Uriah was executed by King Jehoiakim. Jeremiah was ridiculed and imprisoned and many believe he was stoned to death in Egypt.
By the time Matthew wrote down what Jesus said, verbal abuse against Christians was flying. Many connected to the Christian movement called The Way, had suffered physical harm, and the danger was mounting. John the Baptist had been beheaded, Jesus was gruesomely crucified. Stephen, whose face shone like an angel, was the first to lose his life because of Christ, stoned by a surging mob that included Saul, who later became Paul. Herod Agrippa had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword. (Acts 12:2) Paul and Silas arrived in Philippi and preached – and were thrown in jail for “disturbing our city” (Acts 16:20). Paul eventually made it to Rome, where he was executed around the year 64. Peter was also executed, crucified, upside down.
It is a matter of historical fact that the people in the early days of the church experienced persecution. Christians were put to death as blood sport at the Roman coliseum. There are countless Christian martyrs. The story of Agnes reflects many stories. She was born to a rich and noble family in Rome. She was beautiful and attracted the interests of many suitors. But, her calling and vocation as a Christian was to be more than a Roman wife. One of the rejected suitors denounced her as a Christian, and she was brought up on charges that she would not offer prayers or incense to pagan gods. Because of her defiant resistance, the Roman governor condemned her to a house of prostitution where she would be kept in sexual slavery. Because of her holiness, it was said that no man would go near her. And so she was condemned to die. It is said that Agnes greeted the sentence of death joyfully and went to the place of execution more cheerfully than others go to their wedding.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”
Jesus knew that living God’s way was the only way of peace. We talked about this last Sunday. Genuine peace can only come hand in hand with truth – and Truth has a name – his name is Jesus. When we will choose to defy the rolling streams of culture and walk only in the light of God’s perfect will and purpose for us, we will be accused, reviled (which means to be detested, despised), and we will be persecuted (mistreated and ill-treated). People will speak evil of us falsely. But when we do it for Truth, for Jesus, then he promises us we will be blessedly at peace no matter what comes our way.
When Jesus sat around that table in the Upper Room for the Passover meal with his beloved disciples, he showed them in as graphic a way as he could in that moment, that he was going to be reviled and persecuted, that he was going to lose his very life for the sake of Truth. “This is my body, broken for you. This is my blood poured out for you.” I know what loving the world is costing me, but I cannot do otherwise. And so he knelt before them, took a basin and a towel, and washed their feet. He alone knew where those feet would take each one. He alone knew what their own futures would bring – knowing the persecution they would face in the coming days and years. He showed them, and he shows us, how not to compromise. He shows us how we are to take blows for others who cannot take them on their own. He shows us how to live by faith and how to die by faith. We can never repay him for being the kind of teacher who was willing to die in order to teach us the most important lessons of all.
We cannot repay him – but we can show him our gratitude by choosing to worship him by living this earthly life his way – with honesty, compassion, mercy, humility, biblical integrity without compromise, in truthfulness, and in genuine peace. We can stand up for what’s right. We can stop giving in to all the events and excuses that take us away from Bible study, prayer, Sunday school, and regular weekly corporate worship just because we haven’t been willing to trust God enough to say ‘no’ to the ways and wiles of the world.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Blessed be our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who was reviled and persecuted and slandered falsely on my account. On your account. And you, and you, and… Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

04-05-07