We kind of wrapped up Wesley's teaching on being blessed in persecution. This beatitude is treated by Wesley in that same heading, but I wonder if Jesus saying it twice, or expanding on it means it has some extra weight?
I find some of Wesley's thinking about the matter of being spoken against, persecuted, etc intriguing. Part of this is because my grandfather told me something like, "You can tell a lot about your character [i suppose for good and ill!] by who doesn't like you." That is, if everybody likes you, you're doing something wrong!
And yet, I have found that many Christians want a good reputation. No doubt, we want to be sure that we are not evil-doers, but I wonder if we secretly want ourselves, the Church, Jesus to be thought of positively?
And yet, Jesus has here said it won't happen. And at the end of the day, it is because of the Cross.
The Cross is ugly, nasty, torturous death.
The Cross means we are sinners.
Neither of those things are appealing.
And there is this other offensive thing about us: we have found the way to Heaven, without which all go to Hell. To pronounce this is to invite anger and scorn from many, even though some will rejoice.
Maybe this is why as churches we try to do "nice things" in our communities and avoid the work of evangelism?
The crazy thing is, in all this talk about blessings, Jesus is right! They don't sound like blessings! I suppose even after we dig and discover what it means to be meek or a peace-maker, even though that mitigates some of our notions, it still does not seem like a blessing. But... when you live with it for a while... you find indeed, it is a blessing. But more than that, it's out of your hands. If I throw in my lot with Jesus, these characteristics will flow out of me. And where my carnal mind saw mourning as bad, bad, bad, I will find the blessing in being comforted by Him!
Can you tell I have struggled with the Beatitudes for a long time? I always wanted them to mean something other than what they do... And even when I did the word study and Scripture study to ferret out things like meekness, it simply was not until in deepest mourning I was comforted by the presence of my Lord.
I love those moments, where Jesus breaks in and reminds me to trust and obey.
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