Here’s a second reason Luther was not surprised by the persecution he experienced: he knew what Jesus had said about a student not being above his teacher. Jesus himself, the perfect Son of God, faced persecution and rejection. His disciples will necessarily face the same. Luther was not a masochist. He did not enjoy the persecution he experienced for proclaiming the gospel that sets people free. What allowed him to remain steadfast was his Spirit-worked confidence in the Lord’s promise in the Sermon on Mount: “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” (Matt 5:11–12 NIV). Luther considered it an honor to suffer for the Savior’s gospel the way the prophets and apostles had.[1] We imitate the faith of Luther when we think more about the promised reward awaiting us than the suffering we may experience for a time as we proclaim God’s Word to the world. The heavenly reward the Savior will graciously give us on the Last Day will make any suffering we experienced here seem rather small in comparison. As the Apostle Paul says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18 NIV).[2]
Rather than complaining that people infringe on our “right” to proclaim God’s Word by their insistence that we adhere to politically correct language, might we simply rejoice and carry on? The Apostles did not complain about being flogged by the Sanhedrin for preaching the message of new life in Christ. Instead, they left “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” and “they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah” (Acts 5:41–42 NIV). The Lord’s promise had captured their hearts and was ringing in their ears. With Paul, we can see the persecution we experience as something other than a burden unfairly foisted upon us: “For it has been granted[3] to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him” (Phil 1:29 NIV). The language St. Paul employs is arresting. He describes suffering the same way he describes faith, as a gracious gift from God. With Luther and all those who have gone before us, we live by faith and not by sight. We bear the cross that comes as a necessary consequence of our connection to Christ,[4] seeing the troubles we experience not as a sign that God has forgotten us, but as indication that we are Christians. There is no Christianity without the cross, as Luther wrote in the Large Catechism: “For where God’s Word is preached, accepted, or believed, and bears fruit, there the holy and precious cross will also not be far behind.”[5] Like Luther, we cling to the Savior’s promises. The Lord promises that we are blessed when we suffer for the gospel. He promises that the glory we will experience in the new heavens and the new earth will make any temporal suffering we endure for confessing the faith seem trivial.[6] He promises that he will use the crosses we must carry to purify our faith (1 Pet 1:6–7).
[1]. Luther’s Correspondence, 366, as previously referenced. “Yet I rejoice with my whole heart that for this best of causes I suffer evil, who am not worthy of being so tried.”
[2]. In a sermon on Rom 8:18–22 for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, Luther summarizes the Apostle’s encouragement to endure suffering: “So Paul makes all earthly suffering infinitely small—a drop, a tiny spark, so to speak; but of yonder hoped-for glory he makes a boundless ocean, an illimitable flame.” Martin Luther, Luther’s Epistle Sermons, Volume 3, translated by John Nicholas Lenker (Minneapolis: The Luther Press, 1909), 99.
[3]. The verb translated “granted” has “grace” at its root. We can properly consider our suffering for the sake of the gospel as a gift of God’s undeserved love, just as we view faith.
[4]. Luther, in the previously-mentioned sermon for the Fourth Sunday after the Trinity, wrote of the necessity of the cross for the Christian in these words: “Since Christ, our dear Lord and Savior, had to suffer before he could be glorified, we must be martyrs with hm, with him be mocked by the world, despised, spit upon, crowned with thorns and put to death, before the inheritance will be ours. It cannot be otherwise.” Luther’s Epistle Sermons, 97.
[5]. LC III:65–66.
[6]. In a (second) sermon on Rom 8:18–22 for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, Luther wrote, “‘Doubtless in yonder life we shall reproach ourselves with the thought: “How foolish I was! I am unworthy to be called the child of God, for I esteemed myself all too highly on earth and placed too little value upon this surpassing glory and happiness. Were I still in the world and with the knowledge I have of the heavenly glory, I would, were it possible, suffer a thousand years of imprisonment, or endure illness, persecution or other misfortunes. Now I have proven true that all the sufferings of the world are nothing measured by the glory to be manifested in the children of God.’” Luther’s Epistle Sermons, 113.