What should we expect when we choose to follow Jesus? This blog explores Christ's surprising promise to those persecuted for righteousness. Discover why faithfulness sometimes brings opposition, how to respond with joy rather than bitterness, and why God's kingdom promises make following Jesus worth the cost.
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The Sermon on the Mount
1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
The Beatitudes
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others 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 so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Blessed Are the Persecuted: What Jesus Says to Expect When You Follow Him
Anyone who has raised a child, coached a team, or trained a new employee knows the question well: “What did you expect?”
When you are helping someone grow, you explain how they should live and what kind of person they should become. You also tell them what will follow from their choices, both the consequences of following that path and the consequences of walking away from it. And when they are surprised by the results, you find yourself asking, “What did you think was going to happen?”
At the close of the Beatitudes, Jesus does the same for us. In the earlier verses, He describes the people who are blessed in His kingdom (Matthew 5:3–9). Now He finishes by telling His followers what to expect when they live that way. It will cost something. The world will push back. But we should also expect to receive the kingdom of heaven and to be counted among God’s faithful.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:10–12
The Bookends of the Beatitudes
This final beatitude follows directly from the one before it, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Not everyone will welcome the peace we offer. Some will refuse reconciliation and choose hostility instead, because they are offended by our hunger and thirst for righteousness. By rejecting that righteousness, they reject the Christ we follow, the One who makes this new life possible.
That is why persecution is inevitable. It is the clash of two value systems that cannot be reconciled.
Notice how the Beatitudes are framed. They open with “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” and they close with “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus came to announce that the kingdom of heaven had arrived. It is present among us now, not yet in its fullness, but truly begun. And He bookends this teaching by showing us how we take part in it.
Something else changes in these final verses. Up to this point, Jesus has spoken in general terms: “Blessed are those.” Suddenly He shifts to “Blessed are you.” He is no longer describing a category of people somewhere else. He is speaking directly to the men and women in front of Him, those who could see Him, hear Him, and reach out to touch Him. Through the pages of Scripture, He speaks directly to us.
Why the Darkness Hates the Light
Why does persecution come? Put simply, because darkness hates light.
John writes that people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil, and that “everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” (John 3:19–20). A righteous life exposes. The integrity of a godly person quietly condemns an ungodly world and draws out its hostility. People resent a righteous life because, when they look at it, they cannot help but see how far they fall short. They love their sin, and misery loves company.
Not long ago I was out to dinner with friends. We had ordered, eaten, and were thoroughly full when the server asked if we would like to see the dessert menu. I can guarantee you every person at that table, me included, wanted to see it. But nobody wanted to be the first to say so. Nobody wanted to be the one exposed.
You have probably heard about crabs in a bucket. When one crab tries to climb out, the others reach up, grab hold, and pull it back down. That is how an unbelieving world often responds to holiness. When those who embrace evil see the righteousness of God, when they see Christ in you, they fight it and try to drag you back down to their level.
Those who belong to the world have already received the world’s honor. Their reward is accolades and approval. But a righteous life threatens all of that, and so they will resist it until the Holy Spirit convicts them. A world that loves its sin will hate anything that shows it a better, higher way.
Look back over the Beatitudes, and you can see why. Poverty of spirit runs counter to the pride of a heart built on self-sufficiency. Mourning over sin makes no sense to the world. The world mistakes gentleness and meekness for weakness. Those who would rather cling to their grudges resent mercy and forgiveness. And peacemaking indicts the violence of those who would rather indulge it.
The Many Faces of Persecution
Persecution takes many forms. For much of Christian history, it has been physical and violent, and it remains so in many places today. We benefit from a long era in which Western believers have not faced that kind of hostility. But even now, on every Lord’s Day, brothers and sisters around the world gather in secret, knowing that discovery could cost them their freedom or their lives. We are called to pray faithfully for believers living in places where governments actively oppose the spread of the gospel.
Persecution can also be verbal or social. It may look like exclusion or ostracism. It may mean being passed over for a promotion because you will not endorse your workplace's culture. It may be the kind student who is left out because she will not join in the gossip. It may come as indifference, condescension, mockery, or open hostility.
Persecuted for Righteousness’ Sake
But we need to be careful here, because not every hardship is persecution. We're tempted to broaden the definition in our own favor, assuming that whenever we meet opposition, we are suffering for our faith. Sometimes, though, we bring trouble on ourselves through our own sin, foolishness, or bad habits.
Jesus qualifies this promise. He says, “persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” and “on my account.” It does not apply every time someone disagrees with us or simply does not like us. Opposition can come from an unpleasant personality, rudeness, insensitivity, pride, laziness, or a judgmental spirit. None of that is persecution for Christ.
We also need to be careful not to confuse our politics with our faith. Our faith should certainly inform our politics, but the two are not the same. Opposing a political position is not automatically opposing the gospel.
So when does this beatitude apply? It applies when opposition comes because of the life God has called you to live. If you cherish God’s ways and live them out publicly, those who reject them will oppose you. If you love the orphan, the widow, and the sojourner in a way that transcends your political tribe, it will offend people. If you hold to a traditional, biblical understanding of the body and sexuality, you will be at odds with those who embrace the sexual ethics of our age. If you commit to simple living, you will unsettle those whose lives are built around ease and luxury. If you are compassionate, the bitter and jealous will resist you. If you insist on mercy and modesty in your business dealings, you may be left out of the circle because they see you as weak.
Rejoice and Be Glad
So Jesus has told us what is coming. What do we do when it arrives?
Let’s be honest about our natural responses. In our flesh, we get angry and strike back. We plan how to get even. Or we swallow the hurt and let it fester into bitterness. Or we turn inward and grow discouraged.
Jesus says there is another way: “Rejoice and be glad.”
That sounds almost unreasonable. And notice what happens in the grammar. Until now, every beatitude has been a statement describing what is true. Here, Jesus shifts from a statement to a command. He is no longer only telling us what is. He is telling us what to do.
How can anyone be commanded to be glad while being persecuted? In a natural, worldly sense, it makes no sense at all. But joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Jesus is calling us to let the Holy Spirit produce that joy in us, especially when we suffer for His sake. The early apostles understood this. After being beaten for preaching Christ, they left “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41).
And Jesus does not simply command joy. He gives us reasons for it.
You Are in Good Company
The first reason is this: “for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” You are not the first. This has always been the case.
Read the Old Testament, and you will find that the prophets were almost always rejected. The writer of 2 Chronicles summarizes the pattern: “The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets” (2 Chronicles 36:15–16). Out of compassion, God sent His messengers again and again, and they were mocked each time.
Yet that is the family you are being welcomed into. When you suffer for Christ, you are counted alongside Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and all the faithful prophets.
Jesus warned His own disciples plainly: “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9). He knew what they would face, and He was preparing them. Tradition tells us that of the apostles who first heard these words, only John lived to old age and died of natural causes. The others gave their lives for Jesus' name.
What did you expect? Jesus told us exactly what would happen, because it happened to Him first. When we confess in the Apostles’ Creed that He “suffered under Pontius Pilate,” we remember the scene Matthew records. The soldiers stripped Him, dressed Him in a scarlet robe, pressed a crown of thorns onto His head, and knelt before Him in mockery, crying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat on Him and struck Him, then led Him away to be crucified (Matthew 27:27–31).
He bore every insult we might bear for His name first, and He bore it perfectly and without sin.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and theologian who was executed for his resistance to the Nazi regime, put it this way in The Cost of Discipleship: “Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master.” It should not surprise us that Christians are called to suffer. Just as Jesus endured it, so can we, for the reward is great and the company is holy.
Jesus went first, and Jesus went for us. He took the ultimate rejection so that you and I would never be rejected by God. So when the world turns its back on you for His sake, remember that it cannot take what has already been given and secured: the forgiveness of your sins, peace with God, a new heart, a new spirit, a new life, and a mission worth living for.
Your Reward Is Great
The second reason Jesus gives is the reward itself: “your reward is great in heaven.”
Compared to what we stand to gain, what we lose is almost nothing. Paul weighs it this way: “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18), and our “light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). The hurt is real. But set beside what is coming, it weighs almost nothing. And the reward Jesus promises is nothing less than the kingdom of heaven: life with God, His presence, and being called His children.
That pressure also reveals something. Peter writes that believers can rejoice even while grieved by trials, “so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6–7).
Persecution reveals whether our faith is genuine. So when you are squeezed, what comes out? Is it discouragement? Bitterness? Anger and retaliation? Or is it joy, a gladness at being counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ?
Squeeze an orange as hard as you can, and the juice that runs out reveals what was inside all along. The same is true of us. When life puts you in the crucible, what flows out?
Blessed to Be a Blessing
One more thing to see here. This blessing has a purpose beyond us.
Someone is always watching how you suffer. When Paul and Silas sat in a Philippian jail singing hymns at midnight, the other prisoners listened (Acts 16:25). Before the night was over, the jailer and his whole household came to faith. We are one candle lighting another in a darkness that cannot overcome the light (John 1:5).
The prophets never existed for themselves. They were sent on a mission for others. In the same way, when God blesses us, He blesses us to be a blessing, so that others might come to know the goodness of the gospel.
So when you are opposed for Christ’s sake, Jesus says: yours is the kingdom of heaven, your reward is great, and you stand in excellent company with the prophets, the apostles, and Christ Himself.
Counting the Cost
Jesus asks us to count the cost before we follow Him. Bonhoeffer observed that with each beatitude, the gulf between the disciples and the world widens, and their call to come out from the crowd becomes clearer.
So come out. Live the life Christ calls you to: poverty of spirit, mourning over sin, hunger for righteousness, and humble work for peace. And when the world turns its back on you and tries to take everything else, remember that you keep what it cannot take. Everything else will pass away. You have nothing of eternal consequence to lose, but your sin and its grip on your life, and you have everything to gain: Christ and His kingdom now, and Christ in glory forever.
Christ will disrupt your life. He will ask you to do things you may not feel ready to do. Let Him. You will find yourself living differently, and the world will notice. It always has.
Think of those who first heard Jesus on that hillside. A stonemason might be asked to help build a shrine to a pagan god. A tailor might be hired to sew robes for a pagan temple. Early believers wrestled with whether they could eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols (1 Corinthians 8). Faithfulness meant saying no, and saying no meant being pushed to the margins.
Sometimes the cost hurts most at home. Jesus warned that following Him could divide fathers and sons, mothers and daughters (Matthew 10:35–36). Even within our church family, some believers have come to Christ from other faiths. Through friendships with people in this congregation, they heard the name of Jesus, and they surrendered their lives to Him. For some, that decision meant being disowned by their families, losing the support network that helped them navigate life in a new country, and being forced out of their homes.
Their world has turned against them. But we are their family now, bound together not by blood relation but by the blood of Jesus Christ.
For some, the cost will be severe. The early church writer Tertullian once answered a believer who said that following Christ had cost him his livelihood and asked, “But I must live.” Tertullian’s reply was piercing: Must you? Do you love that life so much that you would hold on to it and let go of Christ? Jesus told us plainly, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25).
The Power That Raised Jesus Sustains You
When you decided to follow Christ, what did you expect? An easy road? That is not what He promised. He promised something better. He promised that following Him would cost you something, that you would be blessed in the cost, and that He would be with you through it all. He is worth it.
John Wesley described the Beatitudes not as an entrance exam for the kingdom but as a gracious invitation to true holiness and true happiness. In these words, Christ invites you to share His own life. He lived the perfect human life, fully God and fully man, showing us exactly what God intended humanity to be. And the world despised Him, rejected Him, and nailed Him to a cross.
But on the third day, God the Father raised Him from the dead. And that same power is present and available to sustain you when the world rejects you.
If you are a believer, take heart and stand firm. What the world did to Christ, it may well do to you. But He was faithful and endured, and by His power, you can too.
And if you are not yet a follower of Jesus, you may be wondering why anyone would willingly enter a relationship that could cause the world to reject them so strongly. Apart from God, it makes no sense. But He promises His presence, His peace, and His faithfulness. He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). If you want to know Jesus that way, our pastors would love to pray and talk with you about who He is and what He can do in your life.
And if you are not facing any opposition for your faith, it may be worth asking why. That question isn't in the text, but it follows naturally. Perhaps the next step is to live a more wholly devoted life, in the world but not of it, letting your light shine so that others see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).
Heavenly Father, thank You for the life You call us to through the words of Your Son. When we face opposition for Your name and Your righteousness, remind us of Your presence and Your promises. Count us among Your faithful, and give us the courage to say yes to Your invitation, leaving behind this world's empty promises for the new life You offer. Thank You for Jesus Christ, for the love You have shown us in Him, and for the love that binds us together as one body. In His name we pray, amen.
TL;DR
Following Jesus comes at a cost. A life shaped by the Beatitudes will sometimes face opposition from a world with different values.
Not every hardship is persecution. Jesus specifically blesses those who suffer for righteousness and His name—not for their own pride, foolishness, or behavior.
Christ calls us to respond with joy. When we suffer for His sake, we stand alongside the prophets, apostles, and Jesus Himself.
Our eternal reward outweighs the cost. God's kingdom, His presence, and the promise of eternal life give us courage to remain faithful.
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