The Choice

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, August 23, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 5:10-16.

            I like compliments.  Maybe you do, too.  I like to hear people say good things about me.  I like it when someone says I’ve preached a good sermon, or written a good song.  I like it when someone thanks me for something I’ve done.  Those things make me feel good.  They make me feel like I’m doing things right.

            I don’t like criticism.  I don’t know very many people who do.  I don’t like it when people tell me I’m making mistakes, that I’m messing up.  I tend to automatically get defensive.  I resist criticism.  Maybe you do, too.

            Now, there are times when the criticism is entirely justified.  And sometimes, after I calm down a little and drop my defensiveness, I can see that.  In fact, I can think of times in my life that I’m very fortunate that someone cared enough about me to criticize me.  There are times when people said things to me that I did not want to hear, and things they probably did not want to say.  But they were things they knew I needed to hear, and they loved me enough to say them anyway.

            But you know, it’s one thing to get criticism that we know is legitimate and justified.  But have you ever been criticized that you knew was not justified?  Have you had a time when you knew you had absolutely done the right thing, and yet people criticized you for it anyway?  Or, have you had a time when people just made up stuff about you, stuff that had not the slightest resemblance to the truth, and criticized you for that?

            I suspect some of us have.  If it’s you, how did that make you feel?

            Probably not very good.  It probably made you mad.  You were probably hurt.  And the hardest thing of all was that some people you knew believed the criticism.  In fact, maybe some people you thought were your friends, people who you thought knew you and cared about you, believed the unfair, unjust, untrue criticism of you.  That goes beyond feeling hurt.  That’s a betrayal.  And a betrayal is one of the worst hurts of all.

            And yet, here’s Jesus.  He’s giving what we commonly call the beatitudes.  And as some of you know, Jesus is stating that lots of groups of people are blessed.  He’s saying things like “Blessed are the poor in spirit” and “Blessed are the merciful” and “Blessed are the peacemakers”.  And we read all that, and we nod our heads in agreement.  Probably his original audience did, too.  After all, all that makes good sense.

            But then, Jesus says, “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.”

            Now, I’ve been insulted plenty of times in my life.  After all, I used to be a lawyer.  And probably you’ve been insulted plenty of times in your life, too.  You get used to it after a while.  But I don’t think I’ve ever felt blessed by those insults.  And I have certainly never rejoiced about them.  But that’s what Jesus tells us to do.

            But of course, Jesus does not tell us to feel that way about just any insults.  Jesus says we should feel blessed when people insult us because of him.  We should rejoice when people insult us because of our faith in Jesus as the Savior.

            And that makes it make a little more sense, I guess.  But still.  We’re trying to bring people to Jesus, right?  We’re trying to spread the word about Jesus, so people can believe and have salvation and eternal life.  Why should we rejoice when our efforts meet with criticism and insults?

            Well, let’s look at the life of Jesus.  He was trying to bring people to God.  He was trying to spread the word.  He wanted people to believe and have salvation and eternal life.  And yet, what happened to him?  He was insulted.  He was persecuted.  His enemies made up all kinds of stories about him.  They were so desperate to find a way to bring him down, to stop him, that if they could not do it with the truth they would do it with lies.  In their minds, the end justified the means.  Whatever they had to do was okay, as long as it would stop Jesus.

            How did Jesus react to all that?  Did he get mad?  Did he fire back at his accusers?  No.  He really did not do anything.  He pretty much ignored his accusers.  He just kept doing what he did.  He just kept speaking the truth.

            I don’t know if the Bible tells us of a time when Jesus actually rejoiced when these things happened to him.  But I think he may have found satisfaction from it, in a way.  Jesus knew that what he was doing and what he was saying was going to upset people.  Jesus knew there were people who did not want to accept him, who did not want to hear the truth.  And so, when those people attacked him, and insulted him, and persecuted him, I suspect Jesus took that as a sign that he was doing things right.  He was doing what God the Father wanted him to do and saying what God the Father wanted him to say.  And that had to make Jesus feel good, to know that despite everything, he was following God the Father.

            You know, we think of Jesus sometimes as being kind and loving and peaceful.  And of course, Jesus was all of those things.  But Jesus was more than that.  Jesus had courage.  Jesus wanted peace, but not peace at any price.  Remember, Jesus is the one who said “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

            It’s not that Jesus wanted trouble.  But again, he knew that there were people who would not want to hear what he had to say, and who would do anything to silence him.  And so, he had to make a choice.  He could back off, back down, keep quiet, get along, and go along.  Or, he could stand up for God, stand up for the truth, and deal with the consequences that he knew would follow.

            And of course, the second of those is what he did.  Jesus stood up for God.  He stood up for the truth.  And he dealt with the consequences.  And in the end, I suspect that he did rejoice, knowing that he had stayed faithful to God the Father and had done what he had been sent to earth to do.

            And that is what Jesus tells us to do.  We are supposed to be kind and loving and peaceful, too.  God wants us to be all of those things.  But God wants us to be more than that.  God does not want us to settle for peace at any price.  God wants us to have courage, the courage to speak the truth.  God wants us to speak the truth about Him, and the truth about Jesus Christ.  

            And in our society today, that’s going to cause trouble, just as it did in Jesus’ society in Jesus’ day.  If we speak God’s truth, there will be people who do not want to hear what we have to say.  There will be people who will want to silence us.

            Sometimes we think, in our small towns here in central South Dakota, that we’re isolated from that.  We think, well, standing up for God is not going to get me into trouble here.  Not in our little town.

            But it will.  Or at least, it can.  Not to the extent that it can other places, probably.  At least, not yet.  But even here, there are people who do not want to hear God’s truth.  And some of them will do what they can to silence us.  They probably won’t try to do us any physical harm.  But they may shun us.  They may mock us.  They may talk about us behind our backs.  We can lose friends by standing up for God’s truth.

            And when that happens, we’re going to have to make a choice.  We can back off.  We can back down.  We can keep quiet, get along, go along.  Or, we can stand up for God, stand up for the truth, and deal with the consequences that will follow from that. 

            That’s our choice.  You and I can be that salt of the earth Jesus talked about.  We can be that light of the world.  Or, we can lose our saltiness, and be good for nothing but to be trampled underfoot.  We can put our light under a bowl, where no one can see it.  

It’s the choice each of us has to make.  And I know some of us already have.  If you have not, at some point you will.  And if you have, at some point you’ll have to make it again.  Because every survey shows that in this country, people are less and less interested in hearing God’s truth.  In all kinds of ways, large and small, you and I, as Christians, are told that we should keep our faith to ourselves.  Even here, in small town South Dakota.

So, that’s our choice.  Keep quiet, go along, and get along.  Or stand up for God’s truth.  And rejoice at the criticism and the insults.  Because we know we are staying faithful to God, and that we will get our reward in heaven.

We know what choice Jesus told us to make.  We know what choice God wants us to make.  The question is, will we make that choice?