Intro
Due to the nature of the way I’ve written about these broken topics, you may not have noticed that I used the Bible to generate the topics by thinking of known verses where one broken thing is traded for another good thing, with the exception of the post on regret.
- Loneliness – I will never leave you nor forsake you. Thus you are never alone.
- Empty – to hunger or thirst is to receive the blessing of righteousness or to be filled with God (how much more righteous can one be than to have God inside?)
- Mourning – blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.
Christ and Persecution
Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus walked the way of persecution and all the way everyone kept thinking He was gonna declare His kingdom. They heralded His entrance into Jerusalem. He was gonna save them. Save them He did, but I don’t imagine they thought so when they grieved His loss.
At the end of the week, actually only four days later, Jesus sat with His disciples and took the Last Supper, which we now celebrate in Remembrance of Him as the Lord’s Supper.
The Last Supper was the traditional Passover Supper, because God is big into details. His Son, Christ our Lord, was about to be the Lamb. The Bread, has sin free body, broken. The wine, His blood soon to be spilled.
He died a broken death, crucified, naked. This was a death of shame because He was not ashamed of His Father. He walked in full, abandoned Love and Obedience.
But then, He died. He was raised again. Then ascended to Heaven. Blessed are the persecuted for theirs is the Kingdom.
Christ and Kingdom Living
In Jesus’s Great Sermon on the Mount, He knew He would be the first one to receive the New Covenant blessings. The Old Covenant listed blessings and then curses. Jesus’s death wrapped up all the curses. Instead you see Jesus listing blessings and then instead of cursings He expounds on Old Covenant commands giving insight into the deadness of our hearts. He does not false advertise it. Following Him will be harder than following the Law. The Law was so hard no one actually did it. Yet the blessing of following Christ was greater than any law.
Mostly though we miss it. We don’t remember that following Him means we will suffer. When we take the Lord’s Supper, we remember that He suffered – in our place. We are prone to forget our paths toward death and pain. We don’t value how much we mean to the Kingdom and we, unlike Christ, don’t often see the point of our pain as we live it. Often, we pawn our suffering onto this broken, fallen world, and that’s true, but we don’t recognize how Satan attacks us where Jesus means us to minister.
Every one of the disciples save John died martyr’s deaths. True disciples often walk hand in hand with pain, and it’s not just the pain of being persecuted by evil men, terrorists, governmental systems that persecute us. All Christ followers know the torment of Satan getting us believe false lies and he is good at pain giving. His torment is our persecution also.
We are Overcomers
Like Christ, we are overcomers. Christ received the Kingdom. He sits at the Father’s right hand. I believe the Kingdom of Heaven opens as soon as we begin walking with Jesus. Ephesians tells us we’ve been given every spiritual blessing. We are seated already with Christ in the Heavenlies. No spiritual force or power can hold me down or separate me from the Love that saved me. Satan wants to shame me, but Love says be not ashamed no matter the cost for Your Beloved Savior. Because we are not ashamed we can keep on telling our broken stories. His perfect Love will cast away all fear, and the more we walk into it, the more vulnerable we learn to be about our wounds, the more we defeat the fear and release the shame.
One day all the broken things will be mended, and we will have a new and true Heaven where suffering ends. Our pain allows cracks for His glory story to bring others into the Kingdom of Heaven too. From one seed comes life for many.
This post is one in a 31 day series of posts called, “Broken into Beautiful.” You may read all the posts in this series by clicking the graphic below.
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