Persecution

In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul writes, 

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. - Romans 12:9-21

I have to admit I can’t recall ever being persecuted.  Or at least not the way I understand the meaning of the word.

Miriam Webster defines persecute as:

1: to harass or punish in a manner designed to injure, grieve, or afflict specifically : to cause to suffer because of belief

2: to annoy with persistent or urgent approaches (such as attacks, pleas, or importunities) : PESTER

But, if you do a search on Google, the definition that comes up takes it a step farther.

to subject (someone) to hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of their race or political or religious beliefs.

That definition and the specific reference to belief in the first definition apply motives to the action.

Persecution, the definition implies is focused harm based on a reaction to one’s belief or position.

On the road to Damascus, Saul heard the voice of Jesus, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

Saul was attacking people who believed in Jesus, and Jesus was so hurt by that, he felt personally targeted by Saul.

The thread that binds the two together, Saul’s actions and Jesus’ response is the motive, the underlying belief that makes certain people a target while others are not.

If someone attacks us because of race, religion or political belief, we most likely will be hurt.  And if it happens repeatedly from the same person, so that we are made to feel targeted by them, that persistent behavior constitutes persecution, just as Miriam Webster defines it.

It is the repeated, persistent pestering that makes us feel we have been made a target, that someone is out to get us, to inflict harm on us, one way or another.

But what if the persistent harm is not coming from one person?  What if a series of people act the same way, inflicting harm on us and attributing it to our beliefs, or views, or race?

Just as one person doing it to many constitutes a persistent pattern of behavior we can call persecution, so too may many people doing it to one person constitute the same pattern.

The pattern is what we see, and it is the pattern that sticks in our minds.  So, members of the group become one persecutor, and every new incident just adds another member to the group, until everyone is included.

This is where we are today.  We see patterns of persecution toward and among political, religious and racial groups, so much so that we have lost the ability to tell who is on what side.

So, how could we bless the persecutor?  

I saw a post on Facebook that said if I don’t raise a fist or take a knee I am a closet racist.

The message is clear.  If I don’t want to be labeled a racist, I need to do what people expect me to do to show I support them.

That’s intimidation.  All that accomplishes is that people will pretend to support something they secretly don’t agree with, which means they put their real feelings in the closet and throw away the key.

Once we do that, who can believe anything we say or do?  

Jesus chose the path of blessing his persecutor when he sent Ananias to Saul to heal him.  He returned his sight to him, giving him the ability to see what the targets of his persecution were really like.

Jesus found a way to change the heart, soul and mind of the persecutor, and that is an example that is really hard to follow.  

But bear in mind, the letter to the Roman Church which tells us to bless our persecutors was from Paul, who used to be Saul, the one who persecuted the believers.

If anyone understands how hard it is to bless those who hurt you, it is someone who used to be the intimidator, inflictor of pain and murder.

I bring all this up today because we have an example in today’s Old Testament reading of God asking Moses to use persistent appeals against a persistent persecutor.  As we follow the story forward, Moses will go in God’s name before Pharaoh many times making the case to free the ones being persecuted and abused.

Each time Pharaoh’s heart was touched, it became hard again and the waves of destruction continued, but Moses kept going back and trying again.  

That’s what we can do.  If we believe God is on our side and we are doing what is right in His eyes, then we should do as Paul says and have faith in God to help us make a difference.

Saul the persecutor of the faith became Paul the defender of the faith.

He couldn’t do that on his own.  He didn’t want to, because he believed he was right.

Saul needed a time out to rethink his approach, and he got that by being blinded on the road to Damascus.

But God proved He is willing and able to send someone to help the persecutor see the light.

Let us pray He is still working on that for us now. 

More to come...