Blessed are the maligned

There is a churning in my stomach when a good person is maligned-when accusers who are not worthy to lick someone's shoes say all kinds of false things about him or her. Hey! Even as I typed that sentence, Jesus' words of comfort came to mind:

"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:11-12).

I felt it personally when Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida called his Republican opponent, Daniel Webster, "Taliban Dan." I felt it as if it had happened to me when the disreputable Grayson went snip-snip on video of a man talking to men about prayer to make him say something that was the opposite of his point. I felt weak in the knees when people made sport of Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell for her heartfelt desire to honor God in the matter of sexuality.

But even as in death we Christians do not grieve as the world grieves, so also in calumny, slander, and persecution. Jesus is not exaggerating when He says to "rejoice" (Matthew 5:12) in these circumstances. This is not an irrational leap He is calling us to, or a suspension of logic. We can rejoice when "the wicked bend the bow . . . to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart" (Psalm 11:2).

This is because our Defender is great. "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision" (Psalm 2:4). He "knows those who are his" (2 Timothy 2:19), and He has their back every moment. At the right time He will vindicate them and put to shame those who are wise in their own eyes:

"In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there" (Psalm 37:10)

To know and to embrace this truth is the liberty and the joy of the believer. He does not have to run to his own defense the same way the world does. He or she can relax in the love and promises of God. If he has been lied about, the lie will be found out, as surely as spring follows winter.

And this is a double-barreled promise we have from the Lord: Not only can no evil deed remain unexposed, but no good deed either:

"The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden" (1 Timothy 5:24-25).

What joy! Where, then, is the need to vaunt ourselves? The Lord is in total control. The Christian life, when properly lived, is, even as Jesus said, a light yoke and an easy burden (Matthew 11:30).

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