blessed by being hated?

Yesterday, I stumbled across a familiar passage which I often pass through far too quickly. It is found in the gospel of Luke. It is (likely) Luke's shorter account of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew. The passage which jumped out at me was included in the section commonly referred to as the "beatitudes."

Blessed are you, when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. Luke 6:22-23

Today's political and cultural climates do not look too fondly on the followers of Jesus. In fact, many of very little nice things to say about us. 

Some of what people say is warranted. Our practice does not always coincide with our theology. We are worse than what we believe. And for that, we should be repentant and thank God that His Spirit works in spite of us.

Some of what people say is unwarranted, and rather nasty. It is said in anger. It is insulting. It is extremely unflattering and more often outright lies.

And sadly, we are far too quick to respond in the exact opposite manner Jesus exemplified and commanded. We do not rejoice or "leap for joy." We get angry. We fight back with "righteous nastiness." We play dirty alongside of those who ridicule us.

If we are being faithful to the gospel (and all of Scripture for that matter), we will rub up against our culture. The two do not uphold and value the same things. The two serve two completely different masters. The two are headed in two different directions.

We should be aiming to redeem our culture through the transforming power of the gospel, while recognizing it will not and cannot be received with the influence of the Holy Spirit. This should drive us to pray. Pray that the Holy Spirit will move in the hearts of the people who create, engage, and value our culture as it is currently. Pray that we can respond with joy knowing this is our calling to follow in the footsteps of our Savior.

For it was He who endured the greatest ridicule and hatred in order to bring us back to God.