Being a Christian does not solve all your problems. In fact, being a Christian comes with its own set of issues. As a lifelong Christian growing up and working in schools and businesses, I often felt like an outsider. It was almost as if people instinctively realized I was not like them. Saul, later called Paul, persecuted the early church for not being Jewish enough. He went after the people who he realized were not like him. Then Jesus confronted Saul and asked why he was persecuting the church.

I have rarely faced persecution, but I have been excluded. This is not because I am weird, rude, unkempt, dumb, or ugly. I bring a kind of intensity that sets me apart. Even some Christians want to exclude me. I get excited about spiritual conversations. I refuse to gossip with everyone else, and my language is not crude. People change how they act around me even though I have never asked them to or called out their behavior. As a result, many people do not want me around. Sometimes someone ends up hating me simply because of who I am.

What Persecution Means

And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’  Acts 22:7 ESV

We should start with what persecution means. In biblical terms, Paul actively hunted down Christians to put them in jail or worse. He secured letters of approval from the elders, the inside group, so he could enter every city and disrupt the church. When Jesus asks Saul why he is persecuting the church what Jesus is asking is why Paul is driving Christians away. He is forcing them to flee and making people run.

Jesus Embraces Persecution

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ¹¹ “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:10-12 ESV

Jesus does not mind the persecution. In fact, He embraces it for His church. In one of His famous sermons He said plainly that if someone is chased down or killed for being a Christian, heaven belongs to that person. Strange for the outsider looking in but like Jesus we should rejoice in such a situation.

The World Will Hate You

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. John 15:18-20 ESV

Jesus never asks anything of us that He was not willing to do Himself. He stood outside the power structures. He was persecuted even to death on the cross. If the world hated Him, why would it love a Christian who follows after Christ?

In fact, Jesus tells us that if the world loves you, you may belong to the world and not to Christ. Jesus appears to Paul and asks not why he is persecuting Christians, but why he is persecuting Jesus. To persecute a Christian is to persecute Christ Himself.

And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ Acts 22:8 ESV