5 Great is your reward in heaven
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5: 11 – 12 [NIV]
These final verses carry on the theme of the last beatitude: that disciples may face harassment and oppression because of their faith in Jesus. Christians in some countries are denied access to education, kept as bonded labourers, arrested, imprisoned, tortured and killed simply because they believe in Jesus.
Yet Jesus tells both us and them that they should rejoice and be glad because they will be rewarded in heaven. You need a lot of faith to believe that... but that is exactly what many of our persecuted brothers and sisters have.
In one of her books, Amy Orr-Ewing talks about a visit to an underground church in China.
The pastor of this church had spent 19 years doing hard labour in a camp for his faith, and the church was continuously interrupted and raided by the police who confiscated Bibles and destroyed equipment. When we asked him what the secret of his church's growth was, he said without a hesitation: ‘Persecution... Every time I am imprisoned or the building is raided, our church doubles in size again. When the police come and start harassing us we know that good things are about to happen.’
Nowhere in any of the beatitudes we have looked at this week does Jesus promise material riches or an easy life. The spiritual riches he does promise are for the future, but in the meantime we have the assurance that the Kingdom of Heaven is ours [Matthew 5: 3, 10]. We are God’s people, forgiven by him, adopted by him and precious to him.
Heavenly Father, thank you for choosing me to be your child. Help me to put my trust in you even when the going gets tough. Amen.
David Long
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