Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile 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.

Matthew 5:10-12 ESV

In AD 64, Rome was burning. Not from invaders. That would not happen for another several hundred years. No, it seems that this was an ordinary, accidental fire. But it took six days for the people to get control over the inferno, and when all was said and done nearly three quarters of Rome had been ruined.

Nero, who was far more interested in being an artist than being emperor, may not have directly or even indirectly caused the fire, but nearly everyone could agree that his incompetence had certainly made the situation worse. His audience was turning against him, so the emperor looked for a new villain that could take the scorn of the Roman populace. “The culprits turned out to be the embodiment of everything that decent citizens had always most feared about immigration: the adherents of a sinister, not to say sociopathic, cult… Now, though, thanks to Caesar’s tireless efforts, they had been identified, and all was well” (Holland, Dynasty)

Of course, contemporary historians didn’t quite buy Nero’s theatrics. Consider the words of Tacitus, who certainly understood that Christians deserved to be exterminated:

Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.

Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car.

Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were being destroyed. (Annals, XV, 44)

In other words, Nero’s persecution was so horrendous that even the ordinary Roman pagans began to feel compassion for the Christians, who they already agreed deserved. But why were Christians so hated? Why did Tacitus simply assume that Christians were blameworthy and deserving of execution? Jesus’ words in this final Beatitude give us a glimpse of the answer.

WHAT IS PERSECUTION?

As we have said throughout this study, the Beatitudes are characteristics of Christ’s people, descriptions of the character of a citizen of heaven’s kingdom. The Beatitudes are not a program to be implemented; rather, they are a portrait by which we ought to evaluate ourselves. As Beeke and Smalley say, “Unlike the qualities highlighted in the previous seven beatitudes, persecution is not a good to be desired but an evil to be endured” (RST Vol 3, 832). Indeed, many commentators have wondered if Jesus spends more time on this Beatitude because it is so contrary to our typical understanding. Our Lord says:

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile 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.

The key word here is persecuted, which is used in each of the three verses. John Blanchard notes:

The verb ‘persecuted’ used in this Beatitude comes from the Greek dio, which carries a wide range of meanings, such as ‘to pursue’, ‘to prosecute’, ‘to persecute’, ‘to pursue with repeated acts of enmity’, ‘to drive away’, ‘to harass’, and ‘to treat wrongly’. In a nutshell, Jesus was saying that as long as they lived here on earth members of the kingdom of heaven could expect endless difficulties of one kind or another as Satan attacked them through the spiritual and human agencies under his control. (238)

Sadly, Jesus is simply giving a description of the reality for God’s people. As the final phrase of verse 12 alludes to, each of the prophets endured persecution. Abel, the first martyr, was killed by his brother Cain for presenting “a more acceptable sacrifice” (Hebrews 11:4). Moses endured the perpetual grumbling and scorn of the Israelites. David was hunted by Saul and later by his own son. Elijah endured the hatred of Ahab and Jezebel. Jeremiah lived a life of weeping over God’s unheeded words. Indeed, Stephen was right to ask the Sanhedrin: “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute” (Acts 7:52)?

Which of course brings us to the New Testament. John the Baptist was beheaded and so was James. Stephen was stoned. In fact, tradition says that John is the only apostle who died a natural death, though he too did not escape persecution.

And so it continued beyond the apostles. Christians were persecuted off and on to great and lesser degrees throughout the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages, persecution largely came from corrupt church and political officials as well as invading Muslims. During and after the Reformation, Protestants were repeatedly persecuted by the Catholic Church. In the 1900s, vast numbers of Christians became martyrs, particularly under various forms of Communism. Today, Christians are still persecuted, especially within Muslim countries.

Yet notice that persecution is not exclusively limited to martyrdom or even physical affliction. Instead, persecution may also come through reviling, which refers to any sort of verbal abuse, and through slander. Thomas Watson rightly notes that “you may kill a man as well as in his name as in his person” (287). Indeed, if we think that this is less than physical abuse, I think Calvin has a more correct view, saying:

This is perhaps the hardest thing of all to bear, since a brave person will endure beatings and even death more easily than humiliation and disgrace. Among those pagans who had a reputation for courage were noble souls who feared death less than shame and dishonour among men. We, therefore, must arm ourselves with more than human steadfastness if we are to calmly swallow all the insults, censures, and blame which the wicked will undeservedly heap upon us. That, nevertheless, is what awaits us, as St Paul declares. Since, he says, our hope is in the living God, we are bound to suffer distress and humiliation; we will be objects of suspicion; men will spit in our face. That is God’s way of testing us. We must therefore be ready to face these things and to take our Lord’s teaching here as our shield for the fight. (67)

Indeed, one such example is from the early church. Historian Nick Needham writes:

Another reason for the great unpopularity of Christians was that most people believed them to be guilty of all kinds of evil practices. Pagans accused Christians of cannibalism, incest and black magic. Some of these accusations arose through a misunderstanding of genuine Christian practices. The accusation of cannibalism, for example, was probably based on the Lord’s supper, where Christians spoke of eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood; the accusation of incest arose partly from the fact that Christians called each other “brother” and “sister” and “loved each other”.

Just as they needed to create false charges in order to arrest Jesus, so Christ’s people have continuously been accused falsely of wickedness that they did not commit. Sadly, this can just as easily come from other’s who claim the name of Christ. Lloyd-Jones writes:

By whom are the righteous persecuted? You will find as you go through the Scriptures, and as you study the history of the Church, that the persecution is not confined to the world. Some of the most grievous persecution has been suffered by the righteous at the hands of the Church herself, and at the hands of religious people. It has often come from nominal Christians. Take our Lord Himself. Who were His chief persecutors? The Pharisees and scribes and the doctors of the Law! The first Christian, too, were persecuted most bitterly of all by the Jews… I have often been told by converts that they get much more opposition from supposedly Christian people than they do from the man of the world outside, who is often glad to see them changed and wants to know something about it. Formal Christianity is often the greatest enemy of the pure faith. (135)

Thus, we should also consider the warning of Watson:

Let us take heed of becoming persecutors. Some think there is no persecution but fire and sword. Yes, there is persecution of the tongue. There are many of these persecutors nowadays who by a devilish chemistry can turn gold into dung, the precious names of God’s saints into reproach and disgrace. There have been many punished for clipping of coin. Of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy, who clip the names of God’s people to make them weigh lighter! (288).

WHAT PERSECUTION IS NOT

Now that we have considered what persecution is, we would also do well to note what Jesus does not consider persecution here. Specifically, Jesus gives three qualifiers. The first is found in verse 10 in the phrase for righteousness’ sake. Peter’s first epistle has much to say about suffering and persecution, but he too gives this qualification. In 2:19-20, he says, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”  

Suffering, in general, is not a noble idea; suffering for righteousness is. Any affliction that we endure that is directly caused by our sin (all sin, of course, is indirectly caused by sin) is not worthy of a reward in heaven; rather, it is a gracious discipline from our heavenly Father who is molding to be more like Himself.

The next two qualifiers are found in verse 11. The first is that the slander we endure must be false: and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely… For an accusation to be slander, it must be a lie. If a Christian’s reputation is ruined through an accusation that happens to be true, it is not persecution; it is justice.

The third and final qualifier is Christ’s words: on my account. Again, we can hear from Peter’s first epistle, in 4:12-16, which says,

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you ay also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirt of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.  

The name Christian means little Christ and was very likely first used to mock believers, yet Peter embraces the label, saying that it is an identification with Christ. If we suffer specifically because we are identified with Christ, we are blessed. But R. Kent Hughes warns:

Sadly, Christians are very often persecuted not for their Christianity, but for lack of it. Sometimes they are rejected simply because they have unpleasing personalities. They are rude, insensitive, thoughtless—or piously obnoxious. Some are rejected because they are discerned as proud or judgmental. Others are disliked because they are lazy and irresponsible. Incompetence mixed with piety is sure to bring rejection. (73)

That is not the kind of persecution Jesus means here.

THE CAUSE OF PERSECUTION

It is worth pausing for a moment to ask why being persecuted is a characteristic of the Christian. Indeed, the shift from third person plural to second person plural in verses 11-12 is jarring and emphatic. We get the feeling that Jesus wants to make sure that we do not take any of the Beatitudes but particularly this one as a theoretically about the blessed ones… whoever they might be. No, with verses 11-12, Jesus leans in, looks us in the eye, and says: blessed are you when other 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 telling His disciples, which includes us today, that this will inevitably happen them. Of course, persecution will occur to greater and lesser degrees between individual Christians, let alone between regions, nations, and time periods. But one thing cannot be avoided, Christians will be persecuted.

But why? Why are poor in spirit, mourning, meek, desperate for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers hated by the world (and sometimes by each other)?

There are many valid reasons. All tend to distrust at best and hate at worst those who we do not understand. If that is true of earthly foreigners, we should certainly expect it toward those who are citizens of heaven. Of course, lifestyle then factors into this as well, for Christians do not follow the habits and vices of the world around them. For example, in the early church, Christians generally refused to watch gladiatorial combats and to participate in various feasts and festivals to the Greek and Roman gods. Thus, Tertullian said, “We have a reputation for living aloof from crowds.”

But Bruce Shelley points to a fundamental point of conflict:

Fundamental to the Christian lifestyle and the cause of endless hostility was the Christian’s rejection of the pagan gods. The Greeks and Romans had deities for every aspect of living: for sowing and reaping, for rain and wind, for volcanoes and rivers, for birth and death. But to the Christians these gods were nothing, and their denial of them marked the followers of Jesus as “enemies of the human race.”

One simply could not reject the gods without arousing scorn as a social misfit. For the pagan every meal began with a liquid offering and a prayer to the pagan gods. A Christian could not share in that.

Yet we can also broaden the scope that say that it is the rest of the Beatitudes and the godliness that they picture that provokes persecution. Paul tells us in Romans that God has placed His moral law within every human’s heart and that every person knows that God the Creator exists. But we run from that knowledge and run from our own consciences because we all follow the original lie and attempt to become gods ourselves. The fool says in his heart that there is no God because he is a fool who rejects wisdom and instruction. The fool is a fool precisely because he tries to convince himself that God does not exist.

A truly godly person shatters that self-deception. Through their lives, the character of God is reflected, and consequently the truth of those who reject Him is reflected back to them. That is ultimately why Christians are persecuted. Jesus said, “And this is the judgment: light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant to be like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matthew 10:24-25).

As John Stott puts it, ‘Persecution is simply the clash between two irreconcilable value-systems.’ The only way for a professing Christian to escape persecution in any form is to go along with the world, raise no objection when it mocks God, laughs at sin, glories in self-indulgence and deifies materialism; but in doing so he forfeits any right to be called a Christian. By the same token, the professing Christian who never faces persecution of any kind should ask why this is so when persecution is guaranteed to the godly. (247)

REJOICE AND BE GLAD

Generally, it is not the promise of persecution that shocks us about this Beatitude. After all, plenty of other places in Scripture give us that same promise. Instead, it is Jesus’ audacious claim that we are blessed whenever we are persecuted. Indeed, that we ought to rejoice and be glad for such suffering is what is so difficult to understand. Of course, as with being blessed, this rejoicing and gladness are not momentary, fleeting emotions. Peter uses the same words when writing of our salvation and says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9). It is the kind of joy that leads martyrs to pray for those who are torturing and killing them. It is the kind of joy that the author of Hebrews said his own readers experienced, writing: “For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one” (10:34).

How then does Jesus expect us to actually rejoice while being persecuted? And what about persecution actually leads to joy and gladness? Again, persecution is an evil that must be endured. We do not need to pretend that persecution itself is a good thing. Rather, what good does Christ bring from persecution that is so great that He calls the persecuted blessed? That is the question. And we find a number of answers in our text.

We rejoice because persecution numbers us among God’s people. So they persecuted the prophets who were before you. The reviled Christian reads Jeremiah in a distinct light, for he knows the sorrow of the prophet. Indeed, the persecuted read Hebrews 11 as stories of their own ancestors and take Hebrews 12:1 to heart: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

We rejoice also because persecution gives us a greater assurance of our salvation. Notice Jesus’ wording. The persecuted are blessed for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Their persecution is testimony that they already belong to Christ’s blessed kingdom. For this reason, Beeke and Smalley note that “enduring persecution is a mark of grace because it shows that God’s people do not belong to this world but to Christ, whom the world hates (John 15:18-20).

Jesus also tells that our reward is great in heaven. While might have expected Jesus to use the future tense (your reward will be great in heaven), that is not what He says. He uses the present tense. The Christian’s reward is already secure and established, but it is within the heavenly realm, the same place as his true citizenship. Indeed, Hebrews 11 talks about the Old Testament saints dying without receiving the promises made to them, but Christians do actively walk in the spiritual blessings of our salvation, blessings that will be fully seen and know with Christ’s return. They are, as the hymn says, “victors in the midst of strife.”

But perhaps most importantly, we rejoice in persecution because it identifies us with Christ. In Acts 5:41, the disciples were beaten before the Sanhedrin, but “then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” Or consider Paul’s words in Philippians 1:27-30:

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. (ESV)

Paul viewed suffering for Christ as a grace to be received just like our belief in Him for salvation. Indeed, in both of those passages, the Greek hyper is used, which is same preposition that is often used to describe Christ dying for us. Romans 5:6-8 is a wonderful example:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for [hyper] the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for [hyper] a righteous person—though perhaps for [hyper] a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for [hyper] us. Because Christ died for us, it is the Christian’s joy to endure persecution for Him. He died for our sake, and it is a grace to suffer dishonor for His sake.

Let us look, therefore, upon our Lord and His death in our place through the bread and cup before us. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross in our place, giving His body and blood to redeem us from all our sin. Let the bread and cup be a sign for us to endure every reviling and slander with joy in Him, for they reminders that our Lord has already conquered the world and that we too are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.