 |  |
The believer then, who is reflecting His Lord, must not be surprised if he is
misunderstood and is treated with coldness, contempt or ridicule; for this is just the
treatment that his Saviour experienced. In this Beatitude there is another seeming
paradox, but the blessedness here, as the next verse shows, leads to God's commendation
at the end, with reward that lasts for ever. The pathway of the believer is much the same
whatever calling and whatever time we are dealing with; it is never a way of ease and
freedom from trouble. Later on, the Apostle Paul stressed this when he said "we must
through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14: 22).
The next verses in Matt. 5:, verses 11 and 12, are companions of the one we have
been considering:
"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" (Matt. 5: 11, 12, N.I.V.).
This Beatitude amplifies the one given before, but one thing must not be missed, and
that is the words "for My sake" or "because of Me". There can be no reward for
suffering for one's own wrongdoing. The slanderous treatment of the above verses must
not be true, but must be entirely for Christ's sake. The Lord can never commend any one
who deserves all the evil said of him and done to him here.
We have seen that the kingdom which John the Baptist and Christ proclaimed was the
great Messianic kingdom so graphically described by the O.T. prophets. Peter in his
sermon recorded in Acts 3:, does not hesitate to link this kingdom, this time of
refreshing and restoration from the Lord, as the time described by all the prophets from
Samuel onwards, for they foretold of these days, he declared (Acts 3: 19-26). The point
at issue is this, is the Sermon on the Mount describing this kingdom? Is it a time of
persecution, reviling and slandering of God's people? Is it a time of enduring all the
losses and crosses of this sermon? Is evil still going to abound? Will it be a time when
God's people will be hated of all nations? (Matt. 10: 22 and 24: 9). The kingdom in
this great address is looked on as future:
"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven" (6: 10).
"The meek shall inherit the earth" (5: 5).
"They shall be filled" (5: 6).
"Many will say to Me in that day" (7: 22).
When at last the Lord's prayer is answered and that kingdom becomes a reality, it will
be a time when God's will is done perfectly, as it is done in heaven. Does the Sermon on
the Mount describe such a time we ask again? And the answer must be "no", or the
Word of God absolutely misleads. What we do see clearly is a persecuted, waiting
people, suffering in the absence of their rightful King, sustained by the hope that, when
He comes and the kingdom is set up, they will receive their great reward when they, the
meek, shall inherit the earth and receive the rich blessings of this great kingdom.
Once we recognize this, we are better able to decide whether the Sermon on the
Mount was addressed to the Church which is His Body or whether, as some maintain, it