The “Why” of Persecution for the Sake of Righteousness

In the Epistle reading today, the Holy Apostle Paul tells Saint Timothy, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” This statement reminds us of the Lord’s own exhortations: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven,” and “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil word against you falsely because of Me.” Indeed, the Scriptures and the lives of the saints give us abundant examples and information concerning persecution for the sake of righteousness. Let us therefore open the Scriptures and have them teach us concerning the reasons why the world will always inevitably persecute us as followers of Jesus. Why is it important for us to understand the reasons for our persecution? Because with this understanding we are able to make sense of our experience and we are strengthened in hope for every eventuality.

The Bible proposes to us three paradigms for persecution for the sake of righteousness: the Holy Prophet, King David, the Holy Prophet Jeremiah and a simple but godly man named Naboth of Jezreel. Each of these paradigms reveals to us aspects of our own experience as followers of the True God, persecuted for His sake.

First, let’s consider the life and work of the King David. He is an example of patience in suffering, because he was relentlessly persecuted by the previous king of Israel, Saul, and Saul’s family. The reason that Saul persecuted David so harshly, making him fear for his life many times and forcing him to flee to safety in isolated desert places, was the fact that God’s grace was very, very apparent in David’s life. It was clear in David’s actions and conduct that God was blessing him and David was grateful to the Lord for all his kindnesses. Saul, on the other hand, had been abandoned by God because of his disobedience. He had been turned over to demons who tormented him. Thus, Saul was deeply envious of the grace of God living and active in David’s life. Saul felt that the only way to kill the sorrow in his heart from being abandoned by God was to snuff out the life of David, who was favored by God.

Second, there is the example of the Holy Prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah is singular even among the prophets for his depth of suffering under the persecution of the powerful. At the height of his sufferings, he was imprisoned and tortured, thrown into a muddy cistern and left to die. The prophet of God sunk into the mud even up to his neck. Only after a long while, when he was only skin and bones, did a sympathetic member of the royal court lower a harness to pull him out of the mud. Why was Jeremiah so deeply hated, so that he is such an example of patience in time of persecution? Because he dared to reproach the world around him, even the powerful, for their sins. He told them many things they did not want to hear, because he not only rebuked their sins, but he foretold the consequences they would suffer if they continued in their cherished sins. The Lord Jesus could easily have said to Jeremiah as he said to His twelve Apostles, “If you were of the world, the world would love what is its own, but I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the world hates you.”

Third, we have the example of Naboth the Jezreelite. Naboth wasn’t a prophet, a king or anything very important. He was only a man who owned property, a vineyard. His vineyard adjoined the grounds of the palace of the king of Israel, Ahab. Ahab wanted to purchase the vineyard to convert it into the kitchen garden for the palace. Naboth, however, had inherited the property from his ancestors. Out of respect for his ancestors and love for his children, to whom he hoped to hand on the vineyard, just as his father had handed it down to him, he desired to retain ownership of it. Ahab and his queen, Jezebel, conspired together to accuse Naboth of treason and blasphemy. For these crimes, he was taken away by the authorities of his township and stoned to death. As soon as he was dead, Ahab got on his horse and went to take possession of the vineyard. Ahab had nothing against Naboth personally. No, the king hated him because of his inheritance, just like the tenant farmers in the Lord Jesus’ parable of the vineyard, who said, “Look, this is the one who will inherit. Let’s kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.”

Inevitably, the world hates us, the followers of Jesus for just the same reasons. Like King David, the world hates us because it sees and envies the living and active grace of God that is poured out in our hearts. It seeks to stamp that out, because its very existence is a reproach to the world’s godlessness. On the other hand, like the Holy Prophet Jeremiah, we are also hated and persecuted because we speak the truth. Out of a sincere love for our neighbors we must reprove their sins, and, not only that, we must warn them of the approaching justice of God. A just God cannot tolerate sin forever, not ours or theirs. Finally, the world hates and persecutes us because we are the inheritors of the Heavenly Kingdom, of which the vineyard is an image, as in the Prophecy of Isaiah and the Gospels. Ultimately, all of us who dwell in this world are aware of its brokenness and decay. Only those who possess the promise of the Heavenly Kingdom can raise their minds and hearts up out of the stench of that decay and hope in that inheritance.