10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
(Matthew 5)
In what we call The Beatitudes, Jesus has been reeling off one-liner promises one after another - until He gets to this one. He now pauses and gets personal. He moves from third person to second, from "those" to "you." He knew. He was already beginning to taste persecution Himself, and knew much more was to come. Very few of us reading this words have experienced persecution anything like what Jesus was referring to here. Most of our suffering is due to stupidity. When someone slanders us we can always sue. We rarely speak up and speak out the Word of God publically, causing negative response. But if and when we do, we share in the promise many throughout history and many in the less-than-free nations of the world do today: We will have true happiness and a sense that all is right and well, despite the physical and emotional pain that is experienced. I do not wish such pain on anyone, but if we are not willing to be the recipients of persecution for Christ's sake, will we ever know the blessings Jesus is talking about here?
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