Outside the Camp

We con­tinue our dis­cus­sion of what it means to Suf­fer as Chris­t­ian. In the first part we looked at how fol­low­ers of Jesus might expe­ri­ence rejec­tion from fam­ily, friends, and even churches. In this install­ment we will con­sider two addi­tional ways a Chris­t­ian might expe­ri­ence direct per­se­cu­tion in fol­low­ing Christ.

Revile­ment and Ver­bal Abuse

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. — Jesus

A com­mon avenue for per­se­cu­tion comes from ver­bal assaults.   Even those who might be able to restrain their body may have dif­fi­cult con­trol­ling their tongues and resort to evil-speaking against us.  (See James 3:2–6) Some may find their own broth­ers and sis­ters ver­bally revil­ing and slan­der­ing them.  (James 4:11)  In cer­tain denom­i­na­tions today some who insist on fol­low­ing Jesus instead of men are slan­dered as wicked ones and apos­tates.  (Matthew 10:25)

We have pre­vi­ously noted how Jesus fam­ily said that he was “out of his mind”.  Dur­ing the his min­istry Jesus was called both a drunk and an overeater, oper­at­ing through the power of Beelze­bub.  (Luke 7:34; Luke 11:15) It is writ­ten that  even one of the crim­i­nals hang­ing next to Jesus on the cross began to hurl insults at him. (Luke 23:39)  It is dif­fi­cult to imag­ine the Son of God, the very one through whom all things were brought into exis­tence, being sub­jected to such treat­ment.   But he suf­fered this, time and time again, accept­ing this, and even bless­ing those who per­se­cuted him! (Luke 23:24)

Was does Jesus say about us?  He says it is a bless­ing when peo­ple speak evil about us on account of him.  This isn’t to say that such words do not hurt.  In fact the sting of a bit­ing tongue is often felt, par­tic­u­larly when it comes from those who we love.  How­ever reflect­ing on Jesus helps to soften to blow.  Look­ing at Jesus’ exam­ple also shows us a bet­ter way of react­ing to such assaults, as he teaches us to bless those who curse us.   In this way we can take the higher road and avoid the error of falling into evil speak­ing our­selves. (Eph 4:31) (For a more in depth look at this please con­sider , In the face of false accu­sa­tion.)

Per­se­cu­tion and Death

Then they will deliver you up to tribu­la­tion and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. — Jesus

We will round out the dis­cus­sion of the direct ways that we may be suf­fer for the sake of Christ by speak­ing of the giv­ing the ulti­mate wit­ness in being killed for Jesus.   In the early days of the Chris­t­ian con­gre­ga­tion death for the sake of Christ was a real­ity.   Dur­ing his final days on earth he pre­dicted that two of his dis­ci­ples, James and John, would share his cup of mar­tyr­dom. (Mark 10:38,39) Like­wise, after his res­ur­rec­tion, Jesus told Peter that he would expe­ri­ence cru­ci­fix­ion.  (John 21:18, 19)  Tra­di­tion holds that each of the other apos­tles like­wise suf­fered death for Jesus.

Prior to his ascen­sion back to the Father, Jesus com­mis­sioned his dis­ci­ples to be his wit­nesses to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)   The Greek word for wit­ness is már­tys from  which we get the word mar­tyr.   In the begin­ning the word sim­ply meant to give a tes­ti­mony to the truth but in the case of the early Church such wit­ness was often given when fol­low­ers of Jesus laid down their life for their faith in Christ.   For instance, in the Rev­e­la­tion, Jesus praises Antipas as being a “faith­ful wit­ness” who suf­fered death. (Rev 2:13)    From its begin­ning, the early Church was marked by peri­ods of intense per­se­cu­tion.  Rather then stamp out the faith it gave a com­pelling wit­ness to Jesus in an effec­tive way.   By the second-century, Ter­tul­lian could write, “the blood of the mar­tyrs is the seed of the church.” (Apolo­geti­cus, Chap­ter 50)

Now we are in times of *rel­a­tive peace but we do not for­get our call as wit­nesses to Jesus, even in the face of death.  While we often focus on dying to our old lives to live with Jesus in a spir­i­tual sense we do not lose that sight that those who orig­i­nally stood by Christ often phys­i­cally shared his death.    When he told us to pick our cross and fol­low him it may mean lit­er­ally giv­ing our life.   The next time you share in the Lord’s Sup­per take a moment to reflect on the cup that is passed to you as Jesus’ asks you, “Can you drink the cup I drank?”

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When I wrote this about mar­tyr­dom I used the term “rel­a­tive peace”  to describe the sit­u­a­tion that pre­vails in much of the world for Chris­tians.    In doing so I didn’t do jus­tice for many fol­low­ers of Jesus liv­ing today in other parts of the world who face extreme phys­i­cal per­se­cu­tion and even death for his name.  We do well to remem­ber our broth­ers and sis­ters that are under­go­ing such tribu­la­tion offer­ing them prayer and support.  (For more infor­ma­tion on these visit Chris­t­ian Per­se­cu­tion Blog; Voice of the Mar­tyrs)