Advent - Matthew 5:11-12

Context

To drop some context that I'm familiar with, this is from a famous section of Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" called "The Beatitudes". A little unknown fact in a lot of Christian circles is that these phrases from Matthew 5:3-12 are derived from some ancient Jewish wisdom (esus didn't come up with these on the fly). Most of these saying come from something called "The Book of Wisdom" and they had a history of being used as a way of defining who was close to God and who wasn't. Jesus takes the ancient and perverted pseudo-wisdom here and turns it on its head. He's not giving instructions, he's giving correction to people who have been abused by civic and religious powers at be.

Reflection

So I know Jesus is not saying I should go out and pursue persecution and slander. Nor is he saying that just because someone might be mean to me for my faith, that I'm practicing my faith in an appropriate way.

But what Jesus is doing is acknowledging that the world fundamentally does reject him. Ultimately, at a level more foundational than the atoms that make up the universe, creation is broken right now. It's being redeemed, but it's also broken. In its broken state, like a body that is sick, it might reject things that are good for it.

Humans are apart of creation, humans are apart of what is broken, and humans, in our brokenness, reject ultimate goodness by our very broken nature. Jesus says that when the world persecutes us because of him, it's a simple truth made manifest... The broken world continues to reject Jesus, and as you or I are brought further into the fold of God's family, then those outside, those still under the crushing, oppressive thumb of sin and death, can not help but carry out their natural inclination against that which is good. It is quite literally only natural.

So should I find myself offended when someone naturally rejects me on account of Jesus' presence in my life? I think I should instead almost pity them, and pray that Jesus calls their name too.