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Blessed are the Refugees, Outcasts, and Exiles
How Will God Vote? Part VIII
As we enter the final days of the 2020 election season, I want to end my series on the Beatitudes and the values of Jesus by adding a translation twist to a familiar passage. What if each time we saw the word persecution in the Sermon on the Mount, we replaced it with refugee or outcast?
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:10–12 (KJV)
Before you scream and say, refugee is incorrect, consider the passage in the original Greek and its historical context. The first definition of διώκω, according to Liddell and Scott’s lexicon is “to make to run or flee, put to flight, drive away.”¹ Note also that in the parallel passage in Luke, Jesus blesses people who have been separated from their community or had their names cast out. In contemporary language Jesus is describing people who have been “voted off the island,” fired, forced to live in exile, or fled for their lives.
