YeaHWHo?!

Well….

Just found this article on my computer while going through some old documents of mine.  This was written by a dear friend of mine, and someone who has been quite an inspirer (is that a word) and encourager to me.  This writing reminds me a lot of Bonhoeffer, at least in content.  Anyways, enough of my yapping:

Persecution
Matt 5:11
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you falsely, say all kinds of evil against you because me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
The emphasis in the passage is not on physical persecution but moral persecution. To accuse of evil where only good has been present, the distortion of truth into falsehood, of purity into impurity; to be slandered, lied about and have your very character defamed. Punishment given to the innocent as though they were truly guilty of the most contemptible of crimes.
My Lord suffered the greatest persecution of all while He hung on the cross. His very own people accused Him of blasphemy, the greatest wickedness known to a Jew. The accusation was, “making himself out to be a God.” Yes, he was a God! Yet never once did He address these charges or seek to vindicate Himself. He remained silent in the face of His accusers even though He knew His innocence and the truth about who He Himself was. Silent even unto His death. A death reserved for the most abhorrent of criminals, for men guilty of the sins which Christ was being accused.
Self-vindication is so strong in all of us. Could I really in the face of accusation remain silent? Could I bear the weight of sins I am not truly guilty for? Could I trust in Jesus, He who has suffered the same and much more, to vindicate me and not take my reputation into my own hands? To suffer for truth I can imagine, but to endure and suffer for that which I am not guilty, to be shamed for something I have never done and not say a single word in my defense, I can only hope I will someday do.
Yet, now that I think about it, if I am to take on the sins of this world, to claim their guilt as my own, then no vindication is necessary. Then I truly am guilty of every sin they could accuse me of and probably so many more. What would that say to my world, if I claimed guilt instead of innocence? If I confessed to all their accusations and then listed all the crimes of which I am guilty that they forgot to even mention?
But for now, does my life even warrant persecution? Is there anything in me so Christ-like that I offend the powers around me and give them no choice but to persecute me in hopes of silencing me? My only answer can be “not yet.” But hopefully soon, as I begin to confess my own sins and the sins of this world I will damage my own reputation enough that it will not matter what is said about me. That I too will be able to stand and not claim my own innocence but instead say, “yes, it is me, I am guilty.”

*thoughts provoked by reading “Walking among the unseen” by Hannah Hurnard