The Sermons of Jesus, Part 5

Jesus concludes His poetic blessings with a combination blessing and warning in verse 11, then encourages us in verse 12: “11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” These two verses go together. Let us take a closer look.

The word translated revile is ονειδίζω, which derives from the Greek όνομα, which means name. Basically the word translated revile denotes a slandering of the name of the object person. We covered the word translated persecute in yesterday’s article, it denotes chasing, running you down as you flee. The word translated “all manner,” πάν, is literally “all and every possible.” The word translated evil in this verse, πονηρον, is from the same base as the word, πονηρός, used in the prayer Jesus teaches to us in the next chapter to describe the evil from which we want to be delivered. This shows that the evil that we shall ask for deliverance from in the prayer is not just a person, but words and acts too. The word translated “falsely,” ψευδόμενοι, literally means “false sayings,” or “lying.” The words ενεκεν εμοϑ, translated “for my sake,” literally mean “on account of me.”

So this blessing applies to us whenever these people, under the influence of dark spirits, act against us because we serve Jesus. In verse 12, Jesus tells us to rejoice, χαίρετε, and be exceeding glad, αγαλλιάσθε, because we have a great, πολυς, Heavenly reward. Jesus then compares us to the prophets of the Old Testament in their persecution. The same spirits of darkness that drove people to harm the prophets of old are driving today’s persecution of the followers of Jesus Christ.

We will be hated by people who are deceived by those same spirits, we will suffer persecution, slander, lies, and worse. But Jesus lets us know the end result is in our favor. As long as we keep our eyes on the prize, we won’t be overcome by the pressure to conform. It may end our Earthly sojourn, but it won’t hinder our ultimate journey. Stay the course.

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