Crucified Hearts

“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 5:11-12

Jesus is not saying you are blessed when someone reviles you because of your selfish petty ways, because of your bigotry or your lies, because of your pride and your vanity, because of the contempt and anger you feel towards others. You are not blessed because others revile your lust and greed and self-righteousness.God himself reviles these things.

Jesus says you’re blessed when you are reviled for your likeness and allegiance to him, when you are reviled for being good though you feel no goodness, though you feel despair over your sin, though you feel a deep longing and hunger for what you have not.

You are blessed when you are reviled for your meekness and your hungering and thirsting after righteousness. You are blessed when you are reviled for being a peacemaker among those demanding spirits who only want their own way. You are reviled because you are not like that. You are reviled for wanting only one thing, for being pure and hard. Purity of heart is to will one thing and that one thing is the will of God.

Blessed are the reviled for they alone love Christ above all things.

“And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
— Matthew 5:2-9

Do you rejoice in this?

If, for Christ’s sake, being reviled, rejected, repulsed, or replaced by the world makes you murmur and complain and grumble then you do not belong to him in spirit, but only in name. Only those who belong to him in the heart rejoice when they are reviled and rejected for his sake.

Where is your joy in suffering the hatred of those you expected to love you, those you depended on for the gifts that only God could give?

Where is your joy when everyone around you makes you afraid and feeling worthless?

“Who” is your joy?

“Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
— Matthew 10:21-22

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.
— Matthew 10:24-25

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

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.

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

“Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
— Luke 6:22-26

Pray to God that he will protect your soul from the pleasure of being a powerful, popular Christian.