When I was 13 years old, I met a preacher from Romania.
He was unable to stand. So he used to sit while preaching. The reason behind
that is, at the age of 40 he was imprisoned for proclaiming the gospel in a communist
country. During his 8 and 1/2 years of imprisonment he suffered a lot. The
soldiers beat him brutally and asked him to deny Jesus Christ. They also
tortured him by making him hear “Communist is the best and Christianity is the
worst”. In that situation also he was strong in faith and proclaimed the Gospel
to the soldiers. As a result, they understood that he will not deny Christ, so
they added again 25years of imprisonment.
After his release he preached all over the world. The man tortured for
Christ is none other than Richard Wurmbrand.
For Such A Time As This: Discerning Christian
Public Witness
John
Chrysostom described the beatitudes, "as a kind of golden chain."
Like the Ten Commandments, each stands alone. Mat 5:11-12 is the concluding
part of the beatitudes. The first four beatitudes describe the heart of the
person who is rightly related to God. The remaining beatitudes describe how
such a person relates to other people. Each of the beatitudes consists of two phrases:
the condition and the result. This beatitude is
in present tense, just like the first beatitude. Here Jesus speaks in the second person “You” and directly addresses
the person before him. This saying is peculiar to Christianity. Jesus encourages his disciples to see their
current suffering as an honourable tradition. I would like to explain it under
two aspects.
1. Faithfulness towards Happiness
In Greek, the
word 'persecute' comes from the root 'to pursue', it means to chase after
something. A good translation of this word is to 'harass'. In the centuries
before Jesus, the Jewish prophets followed the way of righteousness and were frequently persecuted for their
faithfulness. For example: Elijah was driven into exile; Jeremiah was
imprisoned in a cistern; Zechariah was stoned to death in the court of the
Lord. Shortly before Jesus delivered these words, the disciples of John the
Baptist suffered and he was murdered. Jesus’ disciples also underwent similar suffering.
In the history of the church of martyrdom, both men and women have undergone
ultimate sacrifices for God. However, such persecution is by no means a thing
of the past but it happens even today in our faith journey. As a Christian
community, whatever hurdles or struggles come on our way let us try to stand
firm in our faith. Faithful Christians are faithful in their trials. Faithful Christians
are faithful in their testimony. Faithful Christians are faithful with their treasure
& talents. Let us be a witness not just as human beings on this planet, but
as cloud of witnesses that have gone before us that remain here upon the earth,
as faithful children of God.
2. Walk Worthy towards Reward
“Reward” is more a promise of “future recompense
for a present condition of persecution and reproach” than a reward for
goodness. There is no comparison here with a lesser reward and a greater
reward. If the idea of a reward sounds strange, one should realize that it is a
reward of God’s grace. And it is not merited, but it is God’s will to give to those
who serve God faithfully. The disciples are urged to "walk worthily of the
vocation wherewith they are called." So the reward should be thought of as
heaven, and not for some particular status in the life to come. “Walk” is
frequently used in the New Testament to refer to daily conduct. “Worthy” has
the idea of living to match one’s position in Christ. We should generate other
believers by our walk. It is a life filled with good works and Christ-centered.
This is not a job chosen to make a living by, but to make a life by. Sufferings
have been much more strongly spoken about in verses 11 and 12.We are part of
the army of God, engaged in battle; we are part of the body of Christ; we are
Christ's ambassadors representing God in this world. We are branches and Christ
is the vine. We are the bride of Christ. As Christians we are trained not only
to achieve a goal, but to become like Christ in the process of living in this
world. We need to rejoice in the Lord always, not only when things are going well,
even when the world is putting us down. So let us try to walk worthy to get the
reward.
There was a small boy who was a rag picker. One
day he found a wrist watch in the garbage. The boy understood that somebody
would have lost it. So he took it and went house by house to find the owner of
the watch to give it to the respective person. At last he found the owner of
the watch who was a Muslim. The Muslim man asked the boy, what made him to
bring the watch which costs around 4 lakhs. The boy replied I am Isawa. This
means I belong to Jesus Christ. The boy also added that our scripture tells us
to remain truthful and faithful in our words and deeds. By hearing the boy’s
words the man’s heart was touched and was eager to know about Jesus. Finally he
accepted Jesus and became the pastor of a church in Egypt. Like the boy in the
story we are called to remain faithful and walk worthy to discern Christian
public Witness. May God bless us through these words. Amen.
A. JOHN WESLEY
B.D. II
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