Matthew 5:11,12

PROTECTION ON EARTH: REWARD IN HEAVEN

‘Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you: … great is your reward in heaven.’

Matthew 5:11

Revelation 7:2, portion for Epistle for All Saints’ Day, should be read in connection with this Beatitude.

Our Lord’s first offers, His first promises and calls, tell of persecution, slander, and reviling; not of ease, honour, and worldly favour. His first promises do not even enlarge on the future glory. All that He does is to pronounce them ‘Blessed.’ All that He does is simply to say that there will be a ‘great reward in heaven.’ But as to what that blessedness consists in, what that Reward shall be, of that He says not one word. That is told us later on.

I. Guardianship of angels.—The Revelation (Matthew 7:2) was written at perhaps the very darkest hour of the Church’s history, just when the Church had entered the dark cloud of heavy persecution, which was to last, with certain intermissions, for nearly two centuries and a half. The storm had broken. St. John himself had suffered under it. Christians had begun to find out in bitter earnest the truth of their Lord’s words, that the marks of sanctity included slander, false accusation, and the direst suffering. And then, when all this was come in earnest, then, but not till then, did Christ draw aside the curtain, and reveal, or unveil to His servant’s eyes, and through him to all His servants to the end of time, how things really stood. So far as human perception went, the Christians were of all men most miserable. They were falsely accused of the most hideous crimes. They were actually made to endure the most hideous torments, death the very least of them. Such was the outward appearance. But draw back the veil, and what do we see? For human enmity, angelic succour. For human torment, the protection of angels. Angels specially bidden to see that the faithful on earth should remain uninjured; while as to those who had gone hence, and whom we are so soon-to join, their state of joy and glory is set forth in all its brightness. On earth, angelic hands hold back the destroyer’s until the saints are safe.

II. Reward in heaven.—Think of the lot of the saints in the other world. Next to the Lamb they stand. Next to the Throne they are placed. Not merely admitted into the heavenly court and the company of angels, but drawn nearest to the Throne of God. Of that infinite blessedness the mind of man can as yet form little conception.

III. The saints on earth and saints in heaven.—We have spoken of the earthly security of God’s saints, and of the unseen glory of the redeemed who are at rest. The thought which links the two together is the unity of ourselves yet militant, with those who have entered into the land beyond the veil.