Reading Luke 6:22: Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall exclude (aphorisosin), and shall insult (oneidisosin), and cast out your name as evil because of the Son of Man. So aphroisosin is to literally set a boundary around – so it evokes an image of drawing lines between people – setting apart. So blessed are you when people ice you out, draw lines that you cannot cross, do not let you be a part of their company, decide you can no longer be in their lives in any meaningful way. To put the idea in a more contemporary context: blessed are you when people ‘cancel’ you because you are a disciple of Jesus. And oneidisosoin is to insult, but also to shame, to blame, to cast as someone at fault, a bad person. This is also the verb used to describe what happened to Jesus on the cross – it is to show contempt for someone. Blessed are you when you are seen as shameful, when people hold you in contempt – that is exactly what they did to the prophets, and exactly what they would do to Jesus.
I find it very hard to think of these things as blessings, and even harder to be ‘joyful’ when these things happen. These things have happened to me, and they are very painful events, signs of relationship failure and dysfunction, and indeed, signs of a more general societal disintegration. What could Jesus mean by saying we should be happy when these things happen to us?
Is the answer in how we are supposed to respond? We are supposed to love our enemies – love being a derivative of agape – the unconditional love that God has for us. We are supposed to love our enemies in the way that God loves us. We are supposed to do good – kalon – literally do fine and noble things – to those that hate us. Indeed, this seems to be part of the karpon kalon – the good fruit we are supposed to bring forth or else the ax is at the root of our tree. Being fruitful is doing good, and here we are, being commanded to do good to our enemies. So even though we are supposed to ‘rejoice’ when we are set apart and hated and insulted , we are not supposed to do these things back at all to those who have set us apart and hated and insulted us.
Indeed, we read in James 1:5 that we can ask God if we lack wisdom, and God will not respond with oneidisosin – He will not respond with contempt. So God does not show contempt toward us for ‘asking questions’, and neither does He show contempt for us for our weaknesses, our failings, our lack of knowledge. So, neither should we show contempt toward others in their failings. Also, Jesus, as the Son of God, will suffer this contempt. So in a sense it’s like a message of endurance, of bearing burdens, while not retailiating.
But it’s worth emphasizing that there is an element of abuse that could be present in these kinds of situations. To be continually mocked, insulted, intentionally misunderstood and treated with contempt in a relationship is to be abused, and that can bring enormous hurt and trauma. I definitely understand the ‘not retaliate’ bit. Just not quite sure what to do with the ‘rejoice’ in persecution bit. Maybe it’s a way of Jesus telling us that we need to expect these things. That indeed, oftentimes people simply do not like it when you are faithful in the gospel, and sometimes that includes people that should know better. Or, maybe this is just Jesus talking about the first part of that process. The first part is that when you sincerely try live the gospel in your life, and then someone attacks you or accuses you with something false and completely unfair. Perhaps Jesus is saying that this will totally happen to you as a faithful Christian, so don’t be surprised when this happens. But the next step is how do you respond, and the answer is: to not do to them what they are doing to you. So, no false accusations, no contempt, no reviling, no humiliation, no intimidation. This might require enormous faith, and I do think that the other side of this is that, when you refuse to ‘fight hate with hate’, you will need to rely on God’s power and protection.
The Light of Christ in the Darkness 