Rejoice!

Read Matthew 5:1-12.



When do you rejoice? What makes you want to jump for joy, like these folks in the picture above? I can remember certain big events when I rejoiced. I remember times of joy in the life of our family. When do you rejoice? What makes your heart leap?

As we dive into the first "big block" of teaching in Matthew's Gospel, we hear all sorts of blessings. (For some thoughts on those, check out yesterday's sermon.) But there's this strange command in verse 12: "Rejoice and be glad..." And that is in the context of Jesus talking about persecution. When the tough times come, when people are unkind—when there is the threat of death hanging over your head because of what you believe and who you believe in...that's when, Jesus says, you should rejoice. Jump for joy. Sing and shout. Be filled with joy!

Really? In our comfortable American setting, we can't imagine doing that. Suffering is not to be embraced, we think. Persecution seems like the worst thing possible. And yet, we have evidence around the world that such things strengthen the church and strengthen the Christian. When everything else is stripped away, when all certainty is gone, you have to decide what you believe and whom you will trust. Who will you depend on?

Take the story at the end of Acts 5, for instance, when the disciples are arrested and persecuted because they are preaching about Jesus. The religious leaders say to them, in essence, "We told you to stop talking about Jesus." And Peter speaks up, boldly, and says, "We must obey God rather than human beings!" Were it not for the intervention of a Pharisee named Gamaliel, the disciples might have again been arrested or worse. Instead, they are ordered (again) not to speak about Jesus (why did the religious leaders think the disciples would listen this time?) and set free. But it's their attitude at the end that catches my attention and ties into Jesus' teaching: "The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing [same word as in Matthew] because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name" (Acts 5:41).

Now, I'm not one who prays for persecution. The church ought to be free to spread the good news without hindrance (although the opposite tends to happen—freedom to speak tends to breed complacency...why is that?). But if or when it comes, the attitude of the heart Jesus is calling us to is to rejoice, to give thanks that our witness is being noticed even to the point that it stirs up opposition.

So let me ask again: when do you rejoice?

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