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Introduction
The Sermon on the Mount is arguably the loftiest, the purest instruction ever given in the history of mankind. But for that same reason, it is also the most difficult and potentially disconcerting instruction ever given. These renowned words of Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, comfort, reassure and strengthen us, but alternately convict, challenge and alarm us.
Talk to any Christian or Messianic Jew, and they’ll gladly tell you what some of their favorite Bible verses are. But have you ever noticed that when politicians are put on the spot about what their favorite Bible passage is, they’ll typically say how much they admire the Sermon on the Mount. But considering how difficult a teaching it is, and how far we fall short of living up to it, you have to wonder if they’ve ever even read it. Humanly-speaking, it is far and away the most unattainable teaching ever given.
And yet, there it is; unavoidably confronting us.
Across history, certain renowned rabbis have been known for their particular teaching; notable perhaps for emphasis on a particular aspect of the Torah or a unique interpretation on an historical event. Disciples are supposed to be able to articulate their rabbi’s distinctive teaching. More than that; their lives are supposed to reflect that teaching.
Yeshua was far more than an ordinary rabbi, but as a rabbi He too has a distinctive body of teaching attributed to Him. The essentials of it are contained in what we commonly call ‘The Sermon on the Mount’. Understand that Yeshua spoke these truths more than once. From what we know of First-Century rabbinical practices, He would have spoken one or several of these teachings on multiple occasions, as a situation called for it. It’s possible that Yeshua gave this extended sermon all at one time, or it may be that Matthew, guided by the Holy Spirit, chose to assemble them and record them as an extended sermon given at one time. In either case, what we have in Matthew chapters 5-7 are Messiah’s signature teachings. These are words that those who are His disciples are expected to have committed to memory and to put into practice daily.
Overview of the seven-part series:
I. Blessed are they… (The Beatitudes, part 1) (5:1-9)
II. Blessed are YOU… (The Beatitudes, part 2) (5:10-12)
III. Who we are and who we aren’t (5:13-20)
IV. You have heard… But I say (Yeshua’s Torah) (5:21-48)
V. Whenever you… (give, pray, fast) (6:1-18)
VI. The futility of materialism (6:19-34)
VII. Things that could keep you out of Heaven (hypocrisy, following the crowd, false teachers, refusing to act on Yeshua’s teaching) (7:1-29)
Today we will consider the second of this seven-part series. May the Lord God of Israel give us the insight, and the courage, to take what we hear and put it into practice, so that we may be wise and not foolish, and that our lives in this world and in the World-To-Come will be fruitful and secure.
II. Blessed are YOU… (The Beatitudes, part 2) (5:10-12)
Verse 10
“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Let me remind you that the word ‘blessed’ in Greek is makarios which, like the Hebrew word ashrei in Proverbs 1, conveys the idea of happiness, good fortune – a truly enviable state of affairs; not in the shallow, worldly sense of being comfortable and entertained. It has a godly connotation of knowing that you are favored and well-positioned relative to His Kingdom.
So happy, blessed, truly enviable are those who ‘have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness.’ Really? How on earth is it blessed or enviable to be persecuted, to be singled out for attack or discrimination or exclusion? The Greek word is actually the participle form of dioko, which can mean “to chase or drive out”. So how are we supposed to understand this?
Well, I’m sure most of you are familiar with the old saying: “If God lived on earth, people would break his windows” (a Jewish proverb). Why such a cynical thought, one which, deep down, we instinctively know is true? To both conundrums, why people are persecuted for doing what is right, and the inevitable unwelcome God would receive on earth the answer is one and the same: there is something terribly wrong with us. The human race is broken. We’d all like to believe that people are basically good, and that it’s really only a few and far-between ‘bad apples’. But that sentiment just doesn’t square with day-to-day reality.
From the moment that Adam and Eve (two very real people) rebelled against the single command of God, and ate what was forbidden, sin entered the world. And much like a deadly virus, sin spread rapidly, causing sickness, discord and death. Suddenly there was fear and embarrassment, excuse-making and blame-shifting, and in the very next generation, murder.
Sin continues to spread throughout humanity, and though, like a virus, it is invisible, its effects are seen and felt everywhere; they are on display every day in the headlines. It’s why you lock your door when you leave the house, and lock your car when you park on the street; it’s why you can’t just walk into any bank and cash a check without showing ID. It’s why you need passwords for your computer, PIN numbers for the ATM and a 3-digit security code on the back of your credit cards. For that matter, it’s why credit card companies have “fraud departments” each staffed by hundreds of people working full-time to track down thieves.
Sin is why most people won’t stop to help someone whose car is broken down on the street, but will slow down grotesquely so they can see how bad an accident was. It’s why there are hundreds of thousands of laws in countless volumes on the weight-strained shelves of millions of lawyers’ offices. Because of sin, all these laws and regulations are necessary, as are the police who enforce them. Even traffic lights and stop signs are essential in a world where self-interest reigns.
Sin accounts for every act of selfishness; for the callous disregard for the well-being of others; for every theft and form of fraud, for every expression of greed and every act of vandalism or violence. Sin is at the root of people’s cavalier indifference to the plight of those who suffer; for every betrayal of vows and every act of violence that has ever taken place on planet earth to this very hour!
And that is why so many righteous men and women have been, and are, persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Righteousness, defined, is doing what is right in the eyes of God. Righteous men don’t remain silent in the face of wickedness. They call it out; they urge people to turn from it. But that same internal condition called ‘sin’ causes us to prefer “self” to God; our ways over His ways. And just as the law of gravity makes it much easier to pull a person down than to lift them up, the law of sin and death makes it much easier to pull others ‘down’ than to be lifted up in the direction of righteousness. It causes us to feel revulsion, contempt, hostility toward righteousness, and to anyone who represents it.
People who do wrong don’t take kindly to words of correction. Yeshua put it this way, “This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). The fact is, we bristle when we’re reprimanded. So when the light of God’s truth is shone on us, we tend to run the other direction, or else to react in hostility.
Israel’s history is replete with just such examples of men and women who stood up for what was right, and were treated with outright contempt for it. The author of The Letter to the Messianic Jews (Hebrews), extolling the great men and women of Bible history, included this observation:
And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:32-40).
No doubt the author had in mind the Jewish prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elijah and Elisha; perhaps also John the Baptist – those sent by God in order to beckon the people to return to Him. All of them righteous, yet each one treated with ridicule, hostility and violent opposition. Yeshua called the sanctimonious religious leaders of His day ‘hypocrites’ for building and adorning the tombs of the prophets, claiming they would never have taken part in the shedding of their blood if they had lived in those days. Yet it was these same men who orchestrated the execution of Messiah Himself!
You’ve probably heard it said many time, “No good deed goes unpunished.” All too often, good and wise deeds go unappreciated, even at times being met with hostility. If you are making the proclamation of the Good News a priority; if your aim is to be faithful to the God the Father and Yeshua the Messiah, don’t expect to win any popularity contests. By advocating for righteousness, we are swimming upstream; we are the loyal opposition, speaking out precisely because we care. But don’t be surprised when you find yourself misunderstood, ridiculed, marginalized and lied about. And why not – should we think we deserve better than our Master?
The life of a disciple has never been easy. A disciple of Yeshua has the added hardship of following the One who was (and is) despised by the very nation to which He belongs. A servant is not greater than his Master. Those who hate Him will hate you, too. Look, not everybody is cut out for this. We may not be ‘the few, the proud, the marines,’ but life in Messiah isn’t for the fainthearted, either.
But what did Yeshua say about those who suffered for righteousness’ sake? He said, “…theirs is the kingdom of heaven”! In other words, whatever they suffered, it was worth it!Exchanging popularity and acclaim in this fleeting life for everlasting joy – now that’s a good and wise investment. Talk about buying low and selling high! Anything you might forfeit here is meager and transitory compared to what you gain. Yeshua urged us not to labor for the things that perish; that wear out; that rust or can be stolen; but to labor for the things that lead to everlasting life! That’s why He could say to us…
Verses 11-12
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Have you ever been insulted for being a Jesus person? Have you ever been cursed at or gossiped about, or been accused of doing evil because you’ve made known plainly your faith in Him? Have you ever had lies published about you for it? Has your faith in Messiah ever cost you a friendship? A job promotion? Your reputation? As strange as it may sound, Yeshua says you are makarios – happy, blessed, truly to be envied for it. People should wish they were you! Why? Because when you are maligned or persecuted, ridiculed or even physically assaulted on account of your loyalty to Him, it increases your standing in Heaven; you are walking in the footsteps of the prophets, the men who are forever memorialized in the pages of Scripture. You are in the best possible company – those called tzadikim – the righteous!
I suppose I should make a point of saying that the presumption is that the evil things said about you are false. If you are suffering for wrongs you have committed, you can just forget about all the reward stuff. And I should add that He isn’t speaking about suffering in the ordinary sense of life’s aches, pains and disappointments. This is a very specific and targeted persecution. And you’re not allowed to start it. If someone gets in your face because you called them hateful names, you can also forget about the reward. The implication is that we didn’t pick a fight. Believe me, Rev. Fred Phelps and the people at Westboro Baptist are not at all the kind of people that Yeshua is describing.
But if you suffer specifically because you maintain your loyalty to Messiah Yeshua, you are greatly to be envied. Yeshua says, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in Heaven is great!” I don’t claim to know exactly what that reward looks like. Personally, it would be enough for me just to be in God’s presence, reunited with so many friends and loved ones. But think of all the people we will meet, whom we’ve only read about. Imagine the fascination of learning and discovering new things that never ends. Picture life without pretense, without pain, without weakness, grief, fear or disappointment. Scripture declares, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived of the things that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9, paraphrased from Isaiah 64:4).
As I stated in part one of this series, one thing is certain: each one of these “beatitudes” goes completely against our natural inclinations, and each one illustrates how the Kingdom ofHeaven stands ideologically in opposition to life in this fallen, sin-saturated world. But it is my Master’s instruction, and if you are a follower of Yeshua, it is His instruction to you.
G. K. Chesterton wrote: “Christianity hasn’t been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and not tried.” These ‘Beatitudes’ may be simple to understand, but to live them out – that’s another thing altogether. May the Lord God give us grace and strength and courage to embrace Yeshua’s instruction completely; without excuse and without compromise.