5/8/55

Scripture: Matthew 5: 38-48

Text: Matthew 5: 10 ff; “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” ---

Family occasions, among Christian folk, are usually happy times. Happy is the family that plans its work and its fun together. When a vacation is planned, each member hopes to be there to take part in, and contribute to, the joy of it. When a working decision is to be made, it is a happy family that can accomplish it together. Worship is one of those things that builds good family life. There is something dependable about the family that gets to church together -- not through any compulsion, but because all members want to be there.

Increasing emphasis has been placed, in recent years, upon Mother’s Day as a Family Sunday, when recognition is made of the participation of the whole family in the worship and activity of their church. Of course, in each family there is thoughtful regard of each other by the members. Many a son or daughter tries to show some special thoughtfulness and affection toward his or her mother on this day. Many hold in remembrance, with especial gratitude, a mother who has passed beyond this mortal life. And countless folk have remembered to send a special letter, or gift or telegram to a mother who lives far away.

No mothers are honored more than those whose families plan to be with them in a family pew at church on Family Sunday. Marguerite Harmon Bro has remarked that “Families in church are so much more than the same number of people in church.” Those who have sat together in the quiet Sunday light which comes through the church windows --- they understand. Those who have reached out to the horizons of life as they meditate in church in the presence of God --- they understand. “In spite of an assortment of difficulties about churches and Sundays and children,” and schedules, “families in church are something special.” Families who worship in church, and families who work in church, “are something special.” A lot of families in this church are undertaking something special this week, so that a significant conference may be smoothly conducted. If there are dislocations of family routine, we accept that as a part of the things we want to do in order to be good hosts to our visitors.

But for now, here at Sunday worship, let us turn our thought for a few minutes to another of those beatitudes of Jesus which we have considered during the past eight weeks. We have already found that, though each begins: “Blessed are they” or “Happy are they,” --- the reason for that happiness or blessedness is not always something we would have regarded with any elation. The one we consider today is like that. “Blessed are they who are persecuted” --- if we stop right there, we recoil and perhaps revolt from it. It takes some thinking to make any sense out of it; and I feel sure that Jesus intended his hearers to think! First, let us go on and finish his statement: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

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It is a heart breaking experience to be really “picked on.” A youngster, in a certain school where I attended as a youth, was somewhat slow of wit; he was odd in appearance; and he had a peculiarity of speech and voice placement about which he could do little. His personal peculiarities made him the butt of a great many so-called jokes. When he became a high school freshman he got more hazing, and for a longer time, than any other kid. He could accept it with a kind of good-natured, embarrassed grin. But the grin did not hide the fact that he hurt all over from the obvious fact that the others picked on him without accepting him into their group at all. That kind of treatment misshapes lives, makes them miserable, and sometimes drives them to desperation. The pain of being persecuted remains acute when one becomes an adult. We are all made to love and be loved. We like to be liked. Fellowship is the usual preferred air of our spirits. Few want to live in permanent hostility, though I suppose our pugnacious impulses may enjoy occasional excursions thereunto.

It is sometimes said of a man that he “enjoys nothing better than a good fight.” But persecuting is something different from a “good fight.” To be persecuted is to live in an atmosphere of suspicion; to have ones private castles invaded by intrigue; to be pursued by the malignant spirit of others; to be sniped at, hounded, harassed with unjust penalties for alleged offenses.

Here, in the eighth of the Lord’s beatitudes, is another of those paradoxes. “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Persecution seems more like hell. What is there, then, about it that could cause anybody to “rejoice and be exceeding glad?” This beatitude is hard to believe because, to us, persecution seems the very opposite of happiness; and also the statement comes from the lips of the compassionate Jesus who could not conceivably have persecuted anyone, who was deeply and actively sympathetic with any and all victims of persecution, and whose sternest words were reserved for oppressors of various sorts. He came to “heal the broken hearted,” to “set at liberty them that are bruised.” [Luke 4: 18]. It was he who cried out, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” [Matthew 11: 28].

But, under the conditions which he named: persecuted “for righteousness sake,” and when you may be reviled and maligned for Christ’s sake --- then it may be blessed. How are we to understand Jesus further, when he congratulates those who are persecuted and bids them rejoice in such mental and spiritual suffering? First, we had better ask why they are persecuted. The mere fact of persecution is no proof of virtue or of worthiness to be blessed. Probably more people suffer for the wrong than for the right. And their suffering may be a kind of justice for their own evil-doing.

A raw recruit may take a merciless amount of invective from a tough sergeant. But perhaps he is out of step with his squad and needs to listen more carefully to see if he be not at fault. Sometimes persecution should induce in us a self-examination to what it is that other dislike in us and to inquire of ourselves if it be something that ought to be changed or improved. The bleat of a fellow who cries that he had been fouled, or smeared, sometimes covers up what should be criticized, or even condemned, in his own conduct or character.

The preceding beatitudes provide some of the searching that may answer our question at this point. Are we sufficiently “poor in spirit,” seeking to enrich life without greedily grabbing things for ourselves? Are we among those who mourn in penitence for our own sins and in sympathy for the sufferings of others? Are we so God-trained, and God-tempered, teachable and tolerant, that we can be called “meek?” Are we merciful to those in our power? Do we really “hunger and thirst after righteousness?” Are we “pure in heart,” with vision and will to that which is good and true and beautiful? Are we peacemakers, radiating the spirit of reconciliation?

When we put these questions to ourselves honestly, we frequently have to admit that it is our faults, rather than our virtues, which are responsible for much of the criticism and opposition we meet. And when that is the case, then we suffer because we are wrong, and not because we are right.

Nevertheless some are persecuted for righteousness sake. Jesus embodies this Beatitude exactly. Yet he was hounded to death. He was not like certain of the Pharisees, parading his virtues to be seen of men, but was “meek and lowly in heart.” His was not the hard righteousness of “rules-keeping,” but the warm appealing goodness of appreciation for the welfare of others. He did not get so dogmatic about principles as to sacrifice personalities. And he counseled his disciples against arousing needless antagonism. They were not to force themselves upon those who did not want them.

Yet, with all tact and self-restraint, it is frequently true that even Christ-like goodness does arouse antagonism, as it did 19 and one-half centuries ago. Some just won’t believe it. And anybody who is observed to be a “fellow traveler” with Jesus is viewed as an enemy within the gates of comfort.

Possibly a haunting sense of righteousness stirs up perversity that can not abide any idea of superior goodness. And rather than squirm in discomfort over what they will not try to attain, men demand that one come on and be a “good fellow;” use “common sense;” quit trying to be “too good to be true.”

The Jerusalem mob was better satisfied to get the freedom of Barabbas, than to have Jesus released. Barabbas had eased their consciences by stirring up their passion against a foe. Jesus had made them uneasy by putting their attention to their own evils. And so they killed the “pioneer of life” who disturbed their peace of mind with his divine goodness.

And of course, His kind of goodness does interfere with those who willfully want to be bad. Righteousness is a standing rebuke to wrongdoers. Public men who stand for great principles have to run a gauntlet of persecution and abuse. When Gladstone championed home rule for Ireland, it cost him the leadership of his party and the loss of many friends. What he stood for was later conceded -- but not until after Gladstone had been dead for a couple of decades.

There were clouds of abuse around Lincoln for half a century.

When a man sets out to live Christ’s kind of goodness, he can expect to be persecuted for righteousness sake. Methods may be crude, or refined, but the pain is real in either case.

Studdert-Kennedy pictured Jesus as crucified by neglect in Birmingham where, said Kennedy, they did not nail him to a tree but “they simply passed him by,” and left him there to die. But the generation that produced Mussolini and the Fascists, Stalin and the communists, Hitler and the Nazis, cannot claim to treat Christ with polite indifference. There is more diabolical trial of Christ today than in Pilate’s court. Prominent ideologies are arrayed, deliberately, against the principles of Jesus wherever they are espoused by Christian folk.

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Now, what are the blessings of the persecuted? For one thing, the opposition met in the pursuit of righteousness reveals whatever stuff of goodness there is in us.

A radio letter, asking how a person can know that “he is saved,” savors considerably of self-interest. Jesus did not concentrate on any such self-concern. He made clear the basic test of discipleship thus: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” [John 13: 35].

Have you ever been good enough to others to be persecuted for your goodness? Sometimes persecution almost becomes a measure of any righteousness that may exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees.

Dwight L. Moody used to say that, when any considerable time passed without someone attacking him, he became concerned about the vitality and worth of his message.

Bishop Bergrav, of Oslo, interned in Norway by the Nazis, quoted, in a little letter to his wife, the Biblical saying of Jesus: “I am come to set the captives at liberty, to bring freedom to the oppressed.” His wife was called before the police and told that her husband was henceforth forbidden to quote the Bible. “The Bible is much too topical,” said they. And Bergrav reminds all and sundry that the Bible is, indeed, “topical” for all mankind. I suppose that there must be an exhilaration felt by those who feel themselves guiltless before the condemning crowd. When Hugh Latimer and Ridley were tied to the stake to be burned to death in England, Latimer called out strongly, “Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as shall never be put out.”

Further, those who endure persecution for righteousness sake not only discover that they have some of the real stuff of goodness in them, but discover also that they can develop it further! When a man stands up to duty in the face of opposition, he cultivates a compactness of character with a solid core of reality, able to resist the temptation to sell his soul under pressure. He can become a better witness for truth, he can be creative in goodness, taking up his own cross manfully to follow the Lord of goodness.

And so, “Blessed are those that are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, May 8, 1955.