A poor farm boy's "as you wish" means "I love you" — and she truly loved him back. Image is ™, ©, and ® of 20th Century Fox

You truly love each other
and so you might have been truly happy
not one couple in a century has that chance
no matter what the storybooks say
— Prince Humperdink, The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride has masterful storytelling and some of the most endearing characters to light the screen, but what is its message? True Love defeats all odds and makes us happy. It seems innocent — almost Biblical! But “True Love” is entirely different from 1 Corinthians 13. It is, most emphatically, romantic love — and romantic love alone — not God’s love. And not just any romantic love, but only “True Love”, which is extremely rare.

True Love: A character trait or a god? At first blush, you might think it’s loving someone “against all odds”, in spite of difficulties and challenges. There are hints of this when Wesley questions Buttercup’s faithfulness, but look more closely. Her fault wasn’t that she was unfaithful, but — at the core — that she gave up hope in True Love. She didn’t trust True Love to overcome his apparent death at sea. Apparently, True Love is a powerful force outside of ourselves which deserves our trust.

True Love: A choice or a chance? True Love is not something that happens by an individual’s choice, it happens by chance. As Wesley says, “This is True Love. Do you think this happens every day?” And, as Humperdink says, “not one couple in a century” has the chance of both having True Love for their partner.

True Love: A New Hope? What’s more disturbing than Hollywood producing movies with such a distorted view of love is that they do it because of market demand — teen demand. Teenagers want something to hope for. They want to believe that they will find True Love and that it will bring them happiness and fulfillment in this life. While my tendency is to hope in ministry projects to bring me fulfillment, teens hope in Love — but both are wrong and foolish. And so is the old-school Jane Austen dream of “marital happiness”, which is really just True Love within the bounds of a covenant-promise.

As we will see in Peter’s second letter, the only real Hope for fulfillment and happiness is Jesus’ Coming. Sure, we have foretastes (Jesus’ followers have already entered into “eternal life”), but these are miniscule next to the flood of ecstasy in His Presence and Kingdom. This is what the apostles and 1st century Christians hoped for, filled with anticipation and an I-can’t-wait attitude. Any other hope will not only disappoint, but worse, it will rob us of joy, expectation, and kingdom-mindedness.

You would think Jesus He would kick off His instructions to His followers on how to live (Sermon on the Mount) by contrasting with the Pharisees’ hypocrisy. But He starts by pronouncing blessings – rewards and joy for those who live in uncommon ways.

All nine blessings are important, but Jesus does a few things to rivet our attention on the ninth:

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

A Blessing Set Apart

• The first eight blessings pronounce “blessed are those who” – referring to all people for all time who fit the category (merciful, meek, etc). But the ninth pronounces “blessed are you when” – referring only to Jesus’ followers.

• The ninth blessing is more intense than the eighth. They’re not just “being persecuted”; people are insulting, persecuting and saying all kinds of evil about them.

• The ninth blessing is more specific than the eighth. It is not just for those persecuted because of righteousness, it is for those persecuted because of Jesus.

• The first eight blessings form a unit with book-ends that share the same reward, “for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”, but the ninth reward is a superlative of the first and eighth rewards: “your reward is great in heaven”.

The Testimony of Scripture

The Sermon on the Mount’s opening isn’t the only place in scripture where suffering for Jesus is elevated as a high privilege.

Paul talks mysteriously of “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”[1]. In writing to the Philippians, He speaks of suffering for the Lord as a precious God-given privilege on par with the privilege of faith in Christ[2]. When the apostles suffered, they rejoiced that they had been “counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the Name”[3].

Yet we have the exact opposite reaction: we rejoice that we have not had the opportunity to suffer for our Lord and we pray we never will.

Until a couple weeks ago, even I thought these blessings didn’t apply to Americans because we have a 1st Ammendment right to the freedom of religion. But as we studied this passage in church, I realized that the promises of scripture stands opposed to the thought: All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted[4]. If they do these things while the tree is green, what will they do when it is dry?[5] If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.[6]

Why don’t the Promises Ring True?

If these are the promises of scripture, why don’t we find them to be true in our experience? The answer is contained in the next words from our Savior’s lips.

Immediately following the blessing of being persecuted for Him, Jesus gives a double-warning against losing the vibrancy of our witness: the first against losing our taste and the second against hiding our light under a basket.

I believe that we have lost our vibrant witness for both of these reasons and that they are the very keys for re-gaining it – and with it, the blessing of persecution.

Faceless Suburbanites

The first warning, salt losing its taste, is a warning against blending in with the culture around us. We do this by living the full-potency righteousness in Matthew 5-7. When we look at it, we begin to make excuses: we don’t have the time or money to live for others like Jesus did.

The truth, of course, is quite the opposite, but it is painful. It requires stripping down our monthly planners and budgets to find and minister to the sick and poor among us. I’m ashamed to say that I need a lot of work in this area.

Redefining Courage

The second warning, about stuffing our light under a basket, is not so much about being different as it is about hiding our differences. Paul asked people to pray that he would be courageous with the gospel and we see the theme of courage and boldness running through Acts from beginning to end.

But somehow we’ve redefined courage, such that “so-and-so knows I’m a believer” is courageous. Take a second to look at the apostles and we realize that bold evangelism means bringing the gospel to the lost in a way that is both relevant and convicting. One of the reasons we’re afraid to do this is that we’re afraid of suffering disgrace for the Lord – because we don’t see persecution as the blessing it truly is.

May we aspire to be worthy of suffering disgrace for our Lord, as the apostles did, speak the gospel boldly and enjoy the fellowship of sharing in our Lord’s sufferings[7].

1. Colossians 1:24
2. Philippians 1:29
3. Acts 5:41
4. 2 Timothy 3:12
5. Luke 23:31
6. John 15:20
7. Philippians 3:10