Blessed are those who persecuted because of their righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Go along and get along or stand out, and risk drawing the attention of those around you. This age old dilemma narrows our reflection this morning. The question for followers of the Savior is, do you stand out? Is there such a righteousness apparent in your life, in contrast to the world around you, that your shining light threatens to push back the darkness? Or does your candle flicker so feebly that there is little to distinguish you from the crows. Sadly, in the modern era of cheap grace, the lives of many of Christ’s followers are little different from the prevailing culture and they invite little persecution.
The radical Jesus we walk with toward the three crosses of Calvary this Lent desires radical followers. Followers whose righteousness is seen in word and deed, whose holiness is intentional, and whose sacrifice is total. He desires followers who are a threat to the unrighteousness of the dominant society and whose focus is singularly drawn toward the restoration of justice and the extension of mercy.
Lent is a good measure of how radical your commitment to Christ is. If it is a period in which your sacrifice is something you are probably better off without anyway, would you honestly say that you’ve counted the cost of discipleship? Perhaps in the remaining few weeks of this years observation it would be a good time to pull out your copy of Bonhoeffer’s work of the same name and consider how the radical pull of the Sermon on the Mount enabled him to stand up under persecution and follow the radical Jesus, even to the point of paying the ultimate cost.
LOVE | ACCEPT | FORGIVE 