Flourishing Are the Persecuted
Pastor Richard Cimino expounds on this often-avoided subject and points out that the address of Jesus changes in this final Beatitude. Before, Jesus used “those” and “they.” Now, verse 11 says, “Blessed are you when people … persecute you ...” In his own words, Jesus tells us how to actually experience true human flourishing and find rejoicing in the midst of persecution. We are to remember that our reward in heaven is great, great in the sense of remarkable—out of the ordinary in degree, magnitude, or effect. The word reward tells us that God's goodness overflows toward the persecuted. And because—citizens of the Kingdom of God experience true human flourishing in the midst of present suffering because of what awaits them in the consummation of the Kingdom of God.
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