Why did Jesus say to rejoice in persecutions? Can anything good come from pain?
Memorize This Week
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:12 (ESV)
Not If, But When
Are you happy to suffer? Let’s be real. I’m not.
If at all possible, I’d relieve all pain. I don’t want to hurt. I don’t want to be talked about. I don’t want to endure any of the things Jesus has been talking about in our past two memory verses (Matthew 5:10-11).
But here’s the thing. Hard things will happen. Jesus didn’t say if pains come, rejoice and be glad. He implied persecutions would come from believing in Him.
Rejoice? Yes
This week’s memory verse gives us good news though! In Matthew 5:12 we understand there is more to come. There is reason to rejoice. A reason to be glad.
Really? Why?
Because you will be rewarded. Not only a little. But a lot.
We could debate what that reward is, when that reward comes, to whom it comes, etc. But the thing we can agree on is this: if Jesus said, “For your reward is great in heaven,” we can count on it being true.
So as you memorize Matthew 5:12 this week, see if you can look forward to the reward that is coming, sooner or later.
Also read James 1:2-4 and Philippians 4:11-13.
Excellent treatment of a hard subject, Lisa.
I don’t know if I’m any kind of authority on suffering; it’s personally experiential, and though I have pancreatic cancer and non-H lymphoma with no pain-management protocol (no insurance), my words are filtered through my own experience. But it’s still a ‘beat-my-head-against-a-wall-till-it-stops’ level of, well, agony, as I write this.
If I were going through this for a future reward, I’d probably chuck it in, and sell my soul for an injection of Demerol. Not that I don’t believe, but I’m at the limit.
But there are to things that do make it worthwhile – first, that there are small gems still in life, like coloured dewdrops lit by the rising sun, and I can bear witness to these. My footsteps may be light and faint, but others can perhaps follow them, to find some joy in their own Gethsemane.
Second, I hope and pray that pain is a sort of zero-sum game, that if I have more, someone somewhere will have less…and if this is true, that my suffering can relive that of another, then suddenly I find that I can take maybe just a bit more.
Not because I’m noble or selfless or altruistic. It’s just the decent thing to do.
https://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2018/05/your-dying-spouse-477-my-reason-to-live.html
“Bearing witness” to the small beautiful gems – that is a gift, Andrew. Not everyone taps into that ability. I appreciate you sharing from your experience; it’s valuable.
Lisa, thanks.
I wonder if I might share a short poem by Henry Lee; he was an officer in the US Army in the Philippines at the outbreak of WW2. Though he did not survive Japanese captivity, some of his poetry did, including “Fighting On”:
I see no gleam of vict’ry alluring,
no hope of splendid booty or of gain.
If I endure, I must go on enduring,
and my sole reward for bearing pain – is pain.
Yet though the thrill, the zest and the hope are gone,
something within me keeps me fighting on.
Thanks for sharing this poem, Andrew. It is particularly fitting since today is Memorial Day. Jeff and I finally watched Dunkirk last night. It’s amazing how much suffering people can endure. Thankfully, though, we do have a reward to anticipate; it just doesn’t always come as quickly as we’d like….