“It Means You’re Blessed.”
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of 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.
Matthew 5:10-12
I love the band Maverick City. I love the idea of people who were pushed to the margins of two genres coming together and dominating both of them, it’s a great comeback/underdog story. When I listened to their 2021 Christmas album (the night it came out), I got stuck on one of the songs: “Mary Did You Know?”
Now, this is a classic Christmas song that I usually don’t connect to much, but Chandler Moore did something crazy with this one. He went a little deeper into the common questions asked concerning Mary. After asking if Mary knew that she was raising the child of God, if she knew that the Great I Am was inside of her, he goes on to say “I know it caused great hurt and isolation, but did you realize what was inside of you? Mary, did you know?”
Then he says, “Now I ask myself, ‘Chandler, do you know?’”
Now at first, I was like, “Ah, people always make stuff about them. Why can’t we talk about Jesus?” But then it hit me. This is a needed concept because the same thing happens to us. Mary was a teenager—an inexperienced kid—who accepted a plan from God to place Himself inside of her, allow Himself to grow inside of her, and later be birthed out of her for the benefit of the world around her. That’s exactly what we are agreeing to when we accept Jesus for ourselves.
We are agreeing to allow the Son of God to permeate our hearts and minds and souls and grow inside of us. We are agreeing to allow God to pour His Spirit into us and allow it to birth into fruit that looks like Him, moves like Him, and will affect the world like Him. It’s easy to be like oh that’s cool but to be honest it sucks sometimes. Like with this song, so often we talk about the miracles Jesus did and not the pain He brought the person (and persons) He lived in.
So often we think about the grandeur and majesty of Mary raising Jesus. We love verses about how the deaf will hear and the blind will see, but this brought up an interesting concept. Have we ever thought about the pain Jesus growing inside of Mary brought her? Pregnancy is hard. The birthing process is hard. She received ridicule and pain because of what she was carrying. She was looked down on. Her life was threatened multiple times. Her character was questioned. She had haters who had never met her. She received extreme pain and hurt all because of what she was carrying. And you too will experience pain because of what you are carrying. Jesus already let us know. If they ridiculed Him and pushed Him to the side, why wouldn’t they do that to you too?
Back in college, I had a great conversation with Dean Camille Kibler at West Oaks. I told her how I had received word from multiple people that at least one individual that I have never seen or met before was using me by name—defaming the character of someone to whom they’d never spoken—to describe their distaste with the Theology Department. After giving me some sympathy, she then quoted Matthew 5:10-12 and she said something crazy. “It just means you’re blessed.”
It may be hard. You may feel like people don’t understand you. You may feel like there is no way to win in the public eye. But Jesus sympathizes with you. Not only that, He says it’s a good thing. It means you are on the right path. Crazy concept I know but carrying love in a world of hate will result in opposition. Mary experienced this hurt too. This is normal. But she didn’t give up. She held on to the promise of the plan she was given. She allowed what God was doing to grow in her.
Paul told Timothy to fan into flames the gifts God had given Him. And we know that that just made him a bigger target for the devil and his henchmen. But he and so many others in the bible held on through the opposition. Keep growing and allowing the work of God to grow in you!
In the song, Chandler adlibs, “Greatness is inside of you. Don’t abort it. Don’t kill it. It’s inside of you.” The only person that can stop you is you. And the only person that can stop what God wants to do is you. It may hurt, but keep your eyes on the prize. Keep your eyes on Jesus and what He has told you to grow and carry. Keep your eyes on the people God has put on your heart to minister to. Others may not understand it, they may ridicule you. But Jesus already told us they would and that we would have a reward.
Keep going. The present trials are nothing compared to the glory you will experience with Jesus! Defense from the devil just means you are about to score. Just hold on. Don’t give up. Stay humble. Stay focused. Following Jesus means you will be persecuted because of Him. This is normal and expected. This is what is supposed to happen.
This is a blessing.
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