The Beatitude of persecution.
"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This eighth Beatitude joins hands with the first in that part which may be called the "sanction" of the Beatitude, i.e. its promise, or the authoritative assurance attached to it. It also may be looked upon as closing the number of the general Beatitudes; for we find that the only remaining one, the ninth, turns from the use of the third person to a gracious personal address to those who were the listening company: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you" etc. On the other hand, it is possible that the explanation of this lies in the juxtaposition of these two Beatitudes, making one by antithesis, as suggested by the stricter rendering of the Revised Version, e.g., "Blessed are they who have suffered persecution: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed (in like manner) are ye when … Rejoice … for great is your reward in heaven." Under any view, this present Beatitude may well be held to have been itself to a large degree a reminiscence. Persecution for righteousness'sake could be no absolute novelty for the time of the promulgating of Christ's religion, for the great Captain himself or for his apostles and first servants. None the less true, however, was it that a fresh force of goodness, and the greatest force that could be, must avail to stir up direr opposition on the part of the powers of darkness. The Beatitude stands like a repromulgation of one great law of suffering, with its attendant "great reward." And it had its special call at the time. Notice—
I. THE BOLD FORMULATING OF THIS GREAT HUMAN PRESENT FACT, VIZ. THAT RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL DRAW UPON ITSELF THE WORLD'S PERSECUTION. The thing has of a truth been known; but it has been partly disguised, partly accounted for, by merely side issues, and as far as possible has been minimized, e.g. by methods (analogies to which are now not. unfamiliar to us) such as this, that "it must be confessed there were faults on both sides;" or this, that the right side was not perfect; or this, that it was a shade too uncompromising, or unnecessarily trenchant and thereby gratuitously provocative; with much else. In all such instances the end has not sanctified the means, even though the end was as genuinely as it gave itself out to be, the desire to shield the fair fame of the right, which it might antecedently have been supposed could not get its votaries into harm's way. All these cobwebs and this shallow sophistry the unconcealing voice of the utterer of this Beatitude blows away. This world is not yet the habitat of righteousness. Righteousness is not yet so at home in it that all men are its friends, or anything like all, or anything like the majority. Envy, jealousy, dislike of standing reproof in the shape of that condemning contrast, which stands stationary as a statue, if silent as a statue, as well as such hatreds as come of the more active witnesses and zeal of righteousness—all these are sworn foes to it and its devout followers. "In the world ye shall have tribulation." "What glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye take it patiently? but if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God." The untoward fact has got its footing in the world and made its place here, and Righteousness does not on that account hide her face or lower her flag. She accepts it all as another task to do, another war to wage, another usurpation to overthrow. But there shall be no disguise about facts, nor shall the sufferer be left without help of promise, without fair consolation. Christ asks none to join his ranks ignorant of his claim, or without cautioning them to count the cost.
II. THE EQUALLY UNQUALIFIED CONDITIONING OF THE BEATITUDE THAT PROFFERS THE ANSWER TO THAT DISASTROUS FACT. The Beatitude is definitely for those who, through their fidelity to righteousness, become the objects of persecution. The scope of the Beatitude would be easily enlarged to the degree of latitudinarianism. It should easily become vague, and its value dissipated in a dubious comprehensiveness; or it might be made to put its most royal stamp on what should least deserve it. The two leading and determining words of the Beatitude are easily susceptible of being wrested from their just application. Righteousness must not be claimed to be a synonym with mere rightness, or what each and any individual may assert to be such by the so-called light of his "own conscience." It is, in point of fact, this very latitude that has been persecution's charter, and the plea for an incredible amount of cruelty and outpouring of blood, which still cries from the ground to Heaven! Righteousness must mean fidelity to moral right or law, or, as we might now more pronouncedly word it, to revealed spiritual law, and to the Revealer of it. It may be quite true that there is other very real rightness, very praiseworthy adherence to it, and very cruel persecution, incurred by and on account of that adherence. Only this is not what is here spoken off Uncovenanted blessing shall alight on this, or blessings covenanted on other promises. Note also that the Beatitude did not in its day mean something more exclusive than already was; on the contrary, while something more clearly defined indeed, its grand point of view was so high that it was vastly larger and more comprehending. The Beatitude is for this very reason most catholic, because its promise is to the citizens of the kingdom ever on the growth, the kingdom in which "dwelleth righteousness." Note also the caution necessary respecting the application of the word "persecution." It must not count in those occasions of suffering due to a variety of very mingled cause, which have really been largely the result of individual fault—perhaps as much so as of the animus of persecution and the persecutor. In corresponding manner, the work of great reformers has sometimes been grievously tarnished by the personal faults of the reformers. The clear significance of the closing verses of the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews guides us well in the discrimination required here.
CONCLUSION. Dwell again (as under first Beatitude) upon what lies in and under the pronouncement, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." By such suffering men are, so to say, made baptized members of that kingdom. Because they are humbly in sympathy with it, they may throw themselves back upon all the sympathy it has to offer, and most effectually to give to them. And they are entitled to remember and to prize the faithful saying, "If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him." And this is indeed the very essence and glory of all "kingdom."—B.
The Beatitude of suffering for the sake of Jesus.
"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall 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." It cannot be denied that we have here before us a Beatitude, and one warm with life and comfort and love. It is, however, particularly addressed to the disciples present, face to face, with Jesus. As the foregoing Beatitude seemed to be in the mind of St. Peter (1 Peter 3:14), so his words, as written in the same Epistle (1 Peter 4:14), seem the very reminiscence of this ninth and closing Beatitude, which his ears had heard more than thirty years before. Notice how, by this kind, direct appeal, Christ betokens his forethought for those on whom should fall the first severity of trial, temptation, and suffering "for his sake." Notice—
I. THE THREE FORMS OF TRIAL PREDICTED FOR THE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST. They are, reproach or railing; persecution; and "falsely saying every evil thing about them," i.e. all kind of slanderous abuse. Even so in all these respects "Christ suffered for us in the flesh." The parallel suggestions in the second, third, and fourth chapters of the First Epistle of St. Peter are frequent (1 Peter 2:12, 1 Peter 2:19-23; 1 Peter 3:9,1 Peter 3:13, 1 Peter 3:14,1 Peter 3:16-18; 1 Peter 4:12-19). They are great types of the wounds the world inflicts. They are very liable to be successful assailers of our peace and of our principles, of our temper and of our steadfast endurance. To be forewarned, in order to be forearmed, was never a wiser precaution to take, nor a more gracious one to give. As St. James says," If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body;" so in most manifest harmony must it be true, that if any man can silently, patiently, forgivingly stand against and withstand the sort of darts described above, he has not in vain learned of the Lord Jesus, whether of his word or his deed—that one perfect Man!
II. THE FIRST RECORDED USE ON THE PART OF JESUS CHRIST OF THAT SUPREME CLAIM OF HIS, WITH ALL ITS SPLENDID SIGNIFICANCE, "FOR MY SAKE." Note:
1. How sovereign this claim is!
2. How the more remarkable from the known "lowliness and meekness" of Jesus Christ!
3. How deeply imbued it is with faith in the force and fidelity of affection—what a condescending bond as between Jesus Christ and any man! And, once more:
4. How wonderfully it has shown itself equal to all whatsoever that it has been called to bear or to do! Granted that love is a strong principle in human nature, the mightiest of its forces, yet what surpassing strength, continuance, inseparableness have through Christ been made all its own, for all its service of him and for all his requirement of it! So still the gift from him has exceeded infinitely all the gift to him, though he speaks of those that are "reproached, persecuted falsely, evil spoken of, for his sake."
III. THE ENERGY OF JOY WHICH THE CASE JUSTIFIES AND WHICH CHRIST ENCOURAGES. How few things to be had on earth, or even to be begun on earth, do warrant such energy of joy; and how utterly averse the verdict of the world from this of Jesus Christ! But the grounds of this joy are real, and they look far, far on; they command a prospect bounded by no earthly horizon. And the bright joy and succeeding gladness will do much to revive the soul, vexed, humbled, worn by the evil speech of the world. This contrast and the effect of it can hardly have been undesigned, in the merciful calculation of the Lord and Master of souls. Nor undesigned the combination of the joy, of "the glorious company of the apostles" with "the goodly fellowship of the prophets." For is not this the inspiriting outcome of the last sentence, "For so persecuted they the prophets, which were before you"? "Their reward great in heaven" had already been ascertained. And apostles now in their earliest training, putting on of the armour, and young fresh aspirations, emulate their historic renown, their everlasting reward.—B.