Rejoice and be Exceedingly Glad

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:11-12).

At the end of what has come to be called the Beatitudes, in what we have come to call the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that we are blessed when we are reviled and persecuted for His name’s sake. We should be glad and rejoice when we are so treated, because we are in the company of the prophets and Apostles, who were persecuted and martyred for the name of Christ before us.

Coptic Christians beheaded by ISIS in 2015 for their faith.

Jesus spends a lot of time talking about how the world will hate Him, His Word, and those who confess it. Jesus says: If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.[1] He tells His disciples that there will come a time that whoever kills them will think that he offers God a service.[2] All of the Apostles, except for John, saw that time and were martyred for the name of Jesus. The continued persecution of Christians, and their gruesome beheading at the hands of men shouting “god is great”, testifies that we are still in that time. It shall remain so until Christ returns to judge the living and the dead.

So, how can we rejoice in the face of such a dismal prognosis? Peter tells us: Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.[3] Our reproach is to Christ’s glory. We must understand, as those who have gone before us certainly did, that here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one that is to come.[4] Remembering this we can, as the author of the letter to the Hebrews directs, continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name, not forgetting to do good.[5]

The Beatitudes are not a quid pro quo that we must do in order to get the blessings Jesus describes. We understand, rather, that the blessings Jesus describes belong to His disciples already through faith in him, according to our new nature. We were washed, we were sanctified, we were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.[6] This is how we can rejoice in the face of suffering, persecution, and death because of the name of Jesus that we bear through our Baptism. We have as our present possession, through faith in Christ, the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. And we have for our examples in that faith all those brothers and sisters in Christ who have endured persecution and suffering to the end, and have fallen asleep in Jesus. And, if Our Lord should tarry, we will also go to our rest in Christ to await the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting in the new heavens and the new earth.

Despised and scorned, they sojourned here;

But now, how glorious they appear!

Those martyrs stand a priestly band,

God’s throne forever near.

So oft, in troubled days gone by,

In anguish they would weep and sigh.

At home above the God of Love

For aye their tears shall dry.

They now enjoy their Sabbath rest,

The paschal banquet of the blest;

The Lamb, their Lord, at festal board

Himself is Host and Guest.[7]

---

[1] John 15:19

[2] John 16:2

[3] 1 Peter 4:13

[4] Hebrews 13:14

[5] Hebrews 13:15-16

[6] 1 Corinthians 6:11

[7] The Lutheran Hymnal. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1941. Hymn #656, “Behold a Host, Arrayed in White”, stanza 2.

For All The Saints

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:13-17).

“…while worms and rottenness are before our eyes, we cannot be unmindful of them, nevertheless there will be a time when God will wipe away every tear, as is stated in Rev. 7:17. Therefore faith should begin to forget tears and dishonor which it does not see. Although the eyes see the rottenness, the ears hear the complaints and sobs, and the noses smell the stench of the corpses, nevertheless it is the part of faith to say: “I do not know this. I see nothing. Indeed, I see a multiplication and a brightness surpassing the sun itself and the stars.” Therefore such examples are set before us in order that we may learn that God is the Creator of all things, restores the dead to life and glorifies worms and the foulest rottenness. And He wants this to be acknowledged and celebrated by us in this life in faith. Later, however, in the future life, we shall experience it in actual fact.”[1]

For all the Saints sung by the Choir of York Minster, England.

From album "Best loved hymns from York Minster"

"For All the Saints Who from Their Labors Rest"
by William W. How, 1823-1897

1. For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confess,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest,
Alleluia! Alleluia!

2. Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

3. Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
And win with them the victor's crown of gold.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

4. O blest communion, fellowship divine,
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

5. And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

6. But, lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of Glory passes on His way.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

7. From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Alleluia! Alleluia!

8. The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon, to faithful warriors cometh rest.
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Hymn #463
The Lutheran Hymnal
Author: William W. How, 1864, cento
Composer: R. Vaughan Williams, 1906, arr.
Tune: "Sine nomine"

------------------

[1]Luther, M. (1999, c1965). Vol. 7: Luther's works, vol. 7 : Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 38-44 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (Ge 41:53). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.