Matthew 5:10-16
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Salt and Light
13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Unlike the other beatitudes, which has only one verse for each of them, the final beatitude has 3 verses because it is so important.
Living in a healthy relationship with God and others is Jesus’ definition of righteousness. In the previous stages we have strived to do so, and we also have begun bearing fruits as peacemakers to help people make peace with God and one another. We are now at the center of God’s will. People often say that the safest place is being at the center of God’s will, yet in fact it could be the most dangerous place depending on how we perceive it.
We usually say “what goes around comes around.” So when we strive for righteousness and do the good deeds as peacemakers, we expect good rewards from the world. However, more often than not, the peacemakers get persecuted because there are many people in the world that don’t want to have peace, or embrace the light—Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14) They would find all ways to put off the light so that they can continue living in the darkness.
After retiring from his business, my father started a drug rehabilitation ministry called the Operation Dawn Myanmar. A large number of young people in the Northern Burma were in drugs, and still are. The totalitarian nation does not give the young people a good future to hope for. Therefore, many of them submerge themselves in drugs to ease the pain of meaninglessness. Most of the existing rehabilitation centers have not been effective; within six months after they leaver the rehabs, most of their clients went back on drugs.
The Operation Dawn ministry was different, it does not use any medication, but pure spirituality, combining prayer, scripture, and peer support. However, no one was required to be converted to Christianity in order to participate. The success rate was overwhelming. Filled with meaning, hope, and the Spirit, the young people never again have the desire to escape back into drugs. Witnessing the miracle of transformation, the parents claimed, “Jesus changes lives! Jesus changed my son’s live!” Many families ended up becoming followers of Jesus Christ.
The Operation Dawn Myanmar soon accumulated a two-year waiting list. My father opened another one farther north, but soon it drew another two-year waiting list. As my father planned for another expansion in 1999, the military regime raided the rehab center and arrested him as a political prisoner. They then destroyed both rehab centers. In a country where prisoners are treated like animals, my father found it hard initially to believe that he deserved such treatments for doing good deeds, but later he experienced God’s blessing during the persecution, the story of which will be for the next meditation.
When you strive for God’s righteousness, you are rescuing souls from the devil’s hands and he doesn’t like it, so he will persecute you for doing peacemaker. Congratulations! You have made the homerun; the kingdom of heaven is promised for you when you started out as an awakened person with poverty in spirit, and now it is for you because you have manifested the future kingdom of God in the present. You have made the “righteousness at home.” (2 Peter 3:13)
There are many saints in the history that has gone through this path. Learning from them, we have at least three important reminders that we need to remember when you go through a tough time.
1. Remember God will Protect You
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” Isaiah 43:2
In early December, 1999, my father was sentenced to fifteen months in prison for two charges that never existed in the Burmese law books. The first charge was for violating the census law. They found a Taiwanese tourist staying overnight in the camp during the raid. The camp was often visited by tourists for pilgrimage. Legally, the tourist was supposed to be fined for not staying in his hotel, but this time they put the blame on the owner of the property.
The second crime was political. They saw my father had a huge Burmese flag behind his office desk right in the middle, with a cross on one side and the logo of the organization on the other. They charged him for insulting the nation by putting the cross at the same level with the national flag. The anti-Christian movement has escalated since the military regime took over in 1988. Such persecutions had been taken places in rural regions, but now it had reached the cities.
The backlash of my father case was that every civilian in the region or those that read the news took down their flags, fearing that they might be arrested for hanging the flags inappropriately, since is now arbitrarily determined by the regime. For a long period of time since my father’s arrest, the entire Upper Burma had no flag hung on the civilian properties.
After sentencing, they drove my father to Mandalay Prison. When a new prisoner is admitted, he or she is usually beaten up to near death by the current prisoners, almost as a ritual. My father was expecting that as he arrived at the prison. As soon as he entered the door, he saw a man that he had treated well in the past. He was a very tough and rough policeman in town and was sentenced to life in prison years ago for terrorism.
Being a tough guy, this former policeman had subdued the entire prison. As soon as my father walked in, he recognized him with great surprise, and declared to everyone, “This is my father, no one dare to touch him!” (The Burmese usually call someone of their father’s age “father.”) Thus my father avoided the ritual of being beaten up.
Everyday after lunch, the man ordered some prisoners to come and give my father a massage. Even though the prisoners normally had very limited amount of water for shower, he ordered them to come and bathe my father, daily. My father later told us his experience like a cosmic joke that we don’t know if we should cry or laugh. I knew the rough policeman and it was not a big surprise for me when I heard that that he was imprisoned for terrorism. But I was amazed to hear that God used a terrorist to protect his servant.
It is surely a blessing to personally experience the deeper meaning of King David’s psalm, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4
2. Know What You Want to Die for
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” Matthew 5:11
Edwin H. Friedman once said that the most important thing in life is to know what you want to die for, and it is connected to knowing what you believe and being able to articulate your belief. He said that it would take a person twenty to twenty five years to get to that point and if you didn’t begin when you are twenty or twenty five, you wouldn’t be there when you are forty or fifty. Therefore, it is a great blessing for those who start early in their age on their spiritual quest, and they should not stop until they reach a point when they know what they want to die for.
When he was twelve, Jesus went to Jerusalem with his family for the festival of the Passover and was left behind on their way back. Mary found him three days later at the temple learning the scriptures from the teachers, “After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” (Luke 2:46-47) He obviously had started early in his spiritual quest and attained full spiritual maturity at the age of thirty when he started his ministry.
I grew up in church, but never realized the importance of continuous spiritual quest and ended up wasting some precious time on unimportant things. Now, I have noticed that my nine-year old daughter is already ahead on her journey for her age and she thinks she already knows enough for confirmation and communion, and have been bugging me to allow her to do so.
There are spiritual heroes and heroines in the history that knows early what they want to die for. One of them is Joan of Arc who was burned at the stake at the age of nineteen but never wavered in her faith to the end. She knew what she wanted to die for, she knew what she believed, and she knew exactly how to articulate her belief intelligently:
The trial record demonstrates her remarkable intellect. The transcript’s most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. "Asked if she knew she was in God’s grace, she answered: ’If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.’" The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God’s grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. Notary Boisguillaume would later testify that at the moment the court heard this reply, "Those who were interrogating her were stupefied." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc)
It is knowing what we want to die for that allows us to face persecutions with courage. Jesus spent three verses on this important final beatitude because ultimately every peacemaker will go through this to some degree. The Prince of peace was crucified. If everything goes smoothly in our lives, we have every reason to doubt that we are following Jesus Christ.
3. Don’t Give Up!
“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:12
Winston Churchill went to Harrow school in England where he nearly flunked out three times. After Churchill had become Prime Minister of England, Harrow invited him to give their commencement address. It was during the war time and everyone expect this powerful leader, who had held his country together against Hitler, to give a very inspiring speech. However, Churchill walked up to the podium and said only three words: "Never give up!" Then he paused and said: "Never give up!" And he paused even longer and said: "Never give up!" And then he returned to his seat.
Now Jesus spoke the third verse on the final beatitude. He said you are not alone because there were many prophets in history that were misunderstood and persecuted in the same way. One of the ways that helps us face the trials in life is to read the biographies of the saints. Reading and learning the lessons that other people spent a life time to learn can save us some significant frustration in life. I like to watch biography movies of the great people in history.
Following the Beatitudes, Jesus said that you are the salt of the earth, and the light of the world. After facing persecution some people become afraid of being light and salt. That’s why Jesus reminds us not to lose our taste, and not to hide our light. Hiding the light under the basket is equivalent to giving up. Like Churchill said, “Don’t give up!” Jesus said, the light doesn’t belong under the basket, but on the lamp stand. “Let your light shine before others.”
Those who come to the light will eventually give glory to your Father in heaven. So don’t give up! May God bless you abundantly! Amen!
