Kingdom - Part 12 - Flee

 

 

"But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes." Matthew 10:23. The New American Standard.

 

I have this book sitting on the shelf right now. It's called "Fox's Book of Martyrs." It's an awesome book. It tells story after gruesome story of men, women, and children all losing their lives because of their unwillingness to give in to their persecutors and deny the name of their God. The book's about four inches thick, so there's gotta be over a thousand people in there who have died in the grips of persecution. 

 

From the first disciples of Jesus to pastors in red China, the book gives grotesquely detailed accounts of what the martyrs did, where they lived, and how they died. Some of the stories are maddening. Most of the stories are heart-wrenching. But all of them share two things in common: an unwillingness to deny anything about their belief in Jesus being God, and a deep-rooted belief that something awaited them after physical death. 

There was one story in which a man's daughter had a gun drawn to her head. 

The persecutor told the man, "Deny your God and your daughter lives." 

And the daughter cried out to her dad, "Don't do it daddy! Don't do it daddy!" 

And the dad, watching as tears rolled down his cheeks, saw his daughter lose her life for the sake of a few words. 

I'm not trying to be morbid this morning. It's way too early for that. But something seems off about this whole martyrdom thing. And please, don't take this as me downplaying all the pioneers of the Christian faith. If it wasn't for every person who devoted their life to building the Christianity we know today, our history would look completely different. Our personal stories would look completely different. Our national stories would look completely different. 

For some of us, we wonder if that would've been a good thing to have a different story. And for others, we can't imagine life without Christianity. And for still others, we can't imagine a life without persecution. 

Now obviously, there was real persecution happening in Jesus's day, and there's real persecution happening in our day. And not just Christian persecution. There's Muslim, Jewish, Christian, atheist, Hindu, and Buddhist persecution. Persecution doesn't discriminate based on religious affiliation. 

But the thing I have a problem with is, why are some people so bent on dying for the faith, when the author of Matthew's gospel has Jesus clearly saying that the disciples are to flee persecution?

This is a hard passage to talk about, because American Christians are so hellbent about the whole persecution thing that it's hard to get past that. I mean, we've even collectively agreed that our country was founded as a result of persecution. But was that really persecution? Or was that a bunch of English people being butt hurt about the government trying to tell them what to believe?

It seems that if the first pilgrims would've learned their lesson about religious tyranny, they wouldn't have used the same tactics when they stepped ashore to the new land for the first time. Yet, religious tyranny begat religious tyranny. I don't think I'm going too far in saying that the American persecution complex started the moment the English felt threatened by a religion that looked looked different than theirs. And so they fled. They got that part right I guess.

I had a guy tell me once to "take that Jesus shit and shove it up your ass." 

Was that persecution or was that someone sick of hearing me talk about Jesus every five seconds? 

If we've studied our religious history well, we know that certain emperors in Jesus's day wanted nothing more than to kill Christians. Nero was known to light the entrance to the cities with flaming corpses of Christians. For the first followers of Jesus, the religious priests wanted nothing more than to see them disappear.  

Am I allowed to say that doesn't happen in America, and it never did? Am I allowed to say that if anyone has done any persecuting in America, we Christians have been the ones with the most blood on our hands? And what about pre-America? What about the Crusades? What about the Inquisition? Were Christians not the persecutors? 

I just don't get it. But maybe it's because I don't believe in the streets of gold that are waiting for me when I die? Maybe it's because I don't believe Jesus is God. Maybe it's because if a gun were drawn to my head, I'd have no problem admitting that Jesus is no more the son of God than I am or we are. 

Is Jesus not asking the question, "What good are you for the kingdom of heaven if you're dead? If someone's trying to kill you because of this message, get the hell out of dodge and go to the next city!" 

There's been this long held view within Christian circles that if you deny God, or deny any of the [man made] tenants of the Christian faith, then God will surely condemn you to hell. And Fox's book sadly shows that people take this cliche literally - even to the point of watching their families get murdered. 

Dying for a good cause is much different than dying for a good belief. Dying because I won't utter a few words is much different than dying in the attempt to save a helpless girl from being trafficked for her body. 

If I had a gun drawn to my head and was asked to deny Jesus, I'd probably say something like, 

Okay?

But I highly doubt that's ever gonna happen. 

But would I be willing to die if it meant putting a stop to sex trafficking, human trafficking, or black churches being burned? 

Absolutely!

So, I don't really think the passage for today applies to the majority of Americans today. But, if you're really convinced that you're being persecuted via the government taking away your religious freedom or allowing too much religious freedom, or the libtards taking over the world, or the Christians denying service, or the Confederate flag being removed from city buildings, or the statue of the Ten Commandments in the middle of town, then take Jesus's advice, and get the hell outta dodge. Go to the next city over. What good are you to the kingdom of heaven if you're angry and disgruntled all the time?

What we really need is people who are willing to die for the sake of equality, peace, and compassion. What we really need is a group of white people who are willing to form rings around America's black churches. What we really need is a group of Christians who are willing to block the entrances of America's brothels. What we really need is a group of Christians who are willing to crowd the doors of America's title loan facilities. What we really need is a group of Christians who are willing to form rings around America's homeless communities. 

And when the heat gets too heavy, and the persecution too great from being an agent of compassion, move on to the next city and repeat. The work you've done will surely go on as others start where you left off.