God’s Favor Is on the Persecuted

I’ve used this quote from Stanley Hauerwas a few times already in this series, but it continues to be relevant:

“The basis for the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount is not what works but rather the way God is.”

That’s a necessary reminder as we move into the final Beatitude, one that comes as a natural result of living out the other seven.

God’s favor is on those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In the last session, we talk about how God puts the responsibility for peacemaking in the hands of the persecuted. This final statement reminds his listeners that the persecuted have God’s favor. The persecution of Christians is a hot topic in modern Christianity. The religious liberty organization Open Doors compiles an annual watch list of countries where Christians face the most persecution and their conclusion is that, in 2024, in the three decades since their work started, persecution of Christians has never been worse. Their conclusion:

“More than 365 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.”

1 in 7 Christians are persecuted worldwide. 1 in 5 Christians in Africa. 2 in 5 Christians in Asia. Nearly 15,000 churches or church properties were attacked in 2023. And digital surveillance of Christians continues to grow. In one Chinese province, Christians must register on an official app with the provincial government in order to attend the state-sanctioned church.

This sort of persecution is one that the early church would become familiar with. Read the book of Acts and see the level of persecution from both the religious and secular realms. In Acts chapter 4 and 5, Peter and John are arrested by the religious authorities. In Acts 6, Stephen becomes the first martyr for the faith. The Apostle Paul, before his transformation, intensely persecuted Christians. Luke writes that “Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.” Paul becomes a Christian and the persecution turns toward him. In Acts 12, Herod Agrippa murders James and imprisons Peter. In Acts 14, people try unsuccessfully to stone Paul and Barnabas. Ruminating about his sufferings to the Corinthians, Paul writes:

I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.

Move into the second century, and we have a letter called the Epistle to Diognetes that reads:

They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

The life of a Christian, in the first century and in many places throughout the world is one of persecution, difficulty, and hardship. Persecution, all too often, is the consequence of following Jesus. And that is because Christians should be a living indictment of the systems of empire. God’s favor is on those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. That is to say, God’s favor is on those who stand against the principalities and powers of empire and demand justice.

If you are poor in spirit, then your lifestyle will be an attack on the system of empire that calls for richness, fullness, and excess in all things.

If you mourn over inequality and injustice—if you cry out against police brutality or the evils of the carceral system that imprisons so many or the death penalty that murders those made in the image of God, your lifestyle will be an attack on the violent, racist, systems of power and subjugation.

If you are oppressed and cry out for justice, then your lifestyle will be an indictment on the hierarchical systems of power that explicitly or implicitly value some bodies over others.

If you hunger and thirst after justice—if you protect the health of gender and sexual minorities, if you care for creation, if you demand a living wage—then your lifestyle will be an indictment of the capitalistic consumerism that consumes us.

If you are merciful, then your lifestyle is an indictment of our so-called systems of justice that focus on retribution and violence.

If you are pure in heart, then your lifestyle is an indictment of the worldly-mindedness of the systems of empire that only seek after status and power.

If you seek peace, then your lifestyle is an indictment of empires where trillions of dollars are spent not on the flourishing of all life, but its destruction—and all that done in the name of peace.

Our lives should be incomprehensible to the systems of empire. And what empire doesn’t understand, it kills.

And this is where we pause for a moment and consider whether or not our faith, our beliefs, our Christianity is part of the kingdom or part of the empire. Is our persecution because of righteousness or is what we call persecution simply pushback against American Christianity’s grasping at the power of empire?

I would make the case to you that a good contingent of American Christianity finds itself firmly associated with empire. That like Pharisees and the teachers of the law in the day of Jesus, there are contingents of the faith that have allied themselves with the empire and found themselves the ones doing the persecuting. What many Christians in America consider persecution, is not persecution. Rather, it is a pushback to their attempts to control the empire.

Relevant Magazine recently ran a headline that said, somewhat sarcastically:

“59% of American Christians Say They’re Persecuted, May Not Understand Real Persecution”

You cannot be persecuted if you are empowered. The message of Jesus in the sermon on the mount is to lay down the quest for power and to pick up the kingdom-minded humility that calls systems of power to account and demands justice.

Jesus then breaks his pattern of beatitudes and makes it personal.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The upside-down kingdom community of God laid out in the Sermon on the Mount isn’t one that is easy, but is the life that Christ sets before us. It is the life he modeled. We know the way because he went there first. When you call out the systems of empire, the empire responds in strength and violence. Jesus calls us to respond with humility and peace. We follow Jesus:

We follow him in calling out sin—privately and corporately.

We follow him in pursuing justice—in our homes and in our nation.

We follow him in demanding righteousness—of ourselves and our institutions.

We follow him in making peace—even if that places us between people at war.

We follow him in nonviolent resistance—we take up our crosses and follow him.

And when we do these things, then:

We will inherit the earth and the kingdom of heaven. We will be comforted in our emptiness and filled with God’s goodness. We will be shown mercy and we will be called his children. We will be brought into the presence of God and we will be part of God’s kingdom community.