11“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
12“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)
I was meditating on this scripture today and the thought occurred to me that if I were to preach the pure, unadulterated Word of God the way that Jesus preached it, many people would not like me. Jesus uttered these words out of a foreknowledge of what his disciples would go through. Many would be crucified, beheaded, burned, tortured, murdered and exhiled for preaching the pure Word of God and the good news of the resurrection of Christ. Do we really think so much has changed in the past centuries?
The only thing that has changed is our gospel.
Of course the Gospel of the Kingdom has not changed, but we have changed it into a thing that is less offensive, more culture-friendly, more politically correct, and infinately less powerful. Damon Thompson put it like this:
“If you’ve been preaching for 20 years in your town and you’re the most popular guy around, you’re doing it wrong.”
Now there’s a thought. Jesus preached for three years and made enough enemies that he was brutally beaten, rejected by the masses, and crucified, mostly just so he would shut up (at least from the perspective of the religious leaders). What effect should the truth have on our culture after an additional two thousand years of humanistic degradation? I submit that truth applied to our culture will elicit at least as violent a response as it did in Jesus’ time.
That begs the question: what are we putting out there in our sermons? Every time I see Jesus preaching the word, people are leaving with all sorts of emotions. Some are happy, sad, glad, mad, and overwhelmed. And we think we’re being radical when we challenge our Sunday morning congregations to tithe or pray? We think we’re being radical when we slip in an off-hand remark about the homosexual agenda or abortion? Please. Our people aren’t even challenged enough to be uncomfortable. They aren’t even complaining.
Hear me, the goal is not to cause people to be uncomfortable or complain against us, but Jesus put it out there like it was an obvious and unavoidable side effect of preaching truth. So, where is your persecution? Where’s mine? Are we really as radical as we think we are, or is there yet another layer to the faith onion that needs to be peeled away?
Back in WWII, when pilots would go on bombing missions over Germany, there were times when the crew would go on a mission and receive very little anti-aircraft fire… the inexperienced crewmen would be relieved, but the old dogs knew better. They knew they were not hitting any vital targets, they weren’t on the objective. Other missions, when the wings were almost getting shot off and the crew went through a nightmare of enemy fire, the crew knew they were hitting their target. The enemy will leave you alone if you keep bombing cornfields in the country, but when you hit the war factories, the enemy comes at you full force to protect his interest. So when things get rough, it’s okay, as long as you are in God’s will, you are doing something right.
The Struggle Continues
Good point. Anti-aircraft fire in this case is a good metaphor for persecution, hassles, temptations, etc brought about by the enemy when we start getting close to preaching the unadulterated Word of God.