Today's text contains a promise and a warning. First, the bad news: The warnin is that the Christian life is not easy. Our Lord Himself says:
"I have said these things to keep you from falling away. They will throw you out of the synagogues, and the hour is yet to come whenever whoever kills you will think he is rendering service to God."
Because of the nature of our fallen world, there are many difficulties and challenges in life. Sickness, war, economic instability, for example .. everyone suffers from these things. But also, as Christians, we suffer some things solely for the sake of Christ, as our Lord has said.
It was not long before these words were proven true. The first Christians were raised as Jews and worshipped God in the holy places of their people, the synagogues and the Temple of Jerusalem. For a time, they continued in this custom, but their own people rejected them as they had rejected Christ. They threw the Christians out of the synagogues and the Temple because the Jewish Christians did not reject Christ.
Why? The Christians affirmed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior promised to Abraham, Moses, David and others. However, the other Jews did not believe in Christ as the Promised One.
Furthermore, the pagans rejected and persecuted the Christians because the Christians said there was only one God, the Triune God, and that the only Savior is Jesus Christ. The Greeks, the Romans and others worshipped many gods and said there was space for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit alongside the rest of the deities, but the Christians would not accept this "tolerance", because it was contrary to the divine truth.
So eventually the unbelieving Jews sought to kill Christians in the name of the God of the Old Testament (although, in truth, in the name of a false god) and the pagans in the name of their gods and goddesses.
And now? Thanks be to God, we have the liberty in Venezuela to worship and praise our Lord in public, and there are other countries where there is religious freedom as well. But still there are parts of the world where Christian risk all, including their lives, for the faith.
For example, in India, the majority of the people are Hindus, who believe in many gods as aspects of one divine essence. Every person may worship the divine essence in a form that pleases them, but nobody may say we can only approach God in the name of Jesus Christ. In 2008, more than 100 Christians were killed and more than 50,000 driven from their homes in the state of Orissa.
The problem is sinful human nature. Unbelievers reject Christ because the Gospel says no one can earn salvation by their own works. This is offensive to the proud, especially to those who have not repented of their sins against the true God, yet have a form of religion.
Once again, let us thank God for our religious liberty. But, do we not suffer persecution here? Yes, we do, if we are faithful followers of Christ. There are different forms and levels of persecution. The source of all persecution is our enemy, Satan, and his strategy never varies. Those who he cannot deceive, he will attack. Sometimes the attack is out in the open, other times it is more subtle.
When you tell your friends you would rather attend the Divine Service than go down to the riverbank, and they make fun of you, that is a form of persecution. In one sense, we should give thanks that it is perhaps persecution at its least severe level, but we also must recognize as persecution and repeat the words of Jesus, get thee behind me, Satan! We must stand firm for Christ.
Let us give thanks as well for the promise in today's text. Jesus has promised to send us the Holy Spirit to help us in the struggle. As the hymn says:
Come, Holy Spirit, come and illumine
Our intellect and deliver us from evil.
You, Promise of the Father, Gift of Christ Jesus,
Come and give us the strength to bear our cross.
You are called the Paraclete, our Comforter,
Come and live in us, for faith and love.
Amen and amen.
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