The Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 21, 2017
Text: 1 Peter 3:18-22
“Safe Through Suffering”
Peter wrote his first epistle or letter a long time ago, sometime before 67 AD, about 1950 years ago, to Christians who lived in communities spread throughout a part of the Roman Empire known as Asia Minor, present day Turkey. He wrote to encourage them to stay true to their Lord at a time when they had been experiencing some persecution from their neighbors around them.
Christians spoke of Jesus calling them to turn from sin and to live by high moral standards. They stood out in their communities because they refused to participate in the sexual perversion, drunkenness and gluttony associated with the common worship of pagan gods. Some of their neighbors took offense at them. Some told lies about the Christians to discredit them in the community. Sometimes they bullied them and attacked them to intimidate them.
Peter, the apostle charged by Jesus three times to feed His sheep, wrote his letter to help his Christian brothers and sisters in Asia Minor to live faithfully under the pressure of opposition. The apostle’s teaching on perseverance through suffering might be hard to embrace because some things have changed in the world in regard to religious persecution. Ours is the time of human rights. In most of the civilized world it is believed that all people are born with rights in life that include, freedom to worship without persecution. No such concept of rights existed in Peter’s time.
Peter taught his friends to endure persecution from their neighbors. Jesus had suffered at the hands those who did not believe He was the Christ, and He called His followers to do the same. In my life, I have been mistreated because I am a Christian only a few times, never severely. Perhaps you can point to a few times when you have also suffered for your faith. Yet our nation is growing more and more diverse. A new ethic of absolute tolerance is rivals the morality of the Ten Commandments. Discussion of religious beliefs is generally discouraged. If, by faithful obedience to Jesus, we practice and preach our faith publicly, we can expect that sometimes we will experience some push back.
What should we do when we are persecuted? We could protest our treatment on the grounds of human rights. Why should we be silenced when others can express their beliefs freely? We could fight to defend our rights. But there’s a problem with that. Rights are a humanly devised concept. Though the concept serves human civilization fairly well as a legal standard for protecting people from injustice in the world, it has its weaknesses.
If we suffer persecution and fight for our rights, we focus on ourselves. Before the world, we can do this, but Jesus calls us to live for something other than ourselves. He warned that if we live to save our lives in this world, we will lose them for eternity. (Matthew 16:25) How well off will we be if while we successfully defend our right to our own religion, we lose the faith that is its heart?
Christians know that our human nature, though divinely created, has been corrupted by sin. When we pursue our own self-interests in life, we exalt ourselves above God and our neighbors. To save us from our inborn slavery to sin and selfishness, Jesus Christ was born. He lived a life of service for the sake of His neighbors, and He suffered and died on a cross to atone for our sin and free us from its shackles. On the third day, He rose from the dead to give us new, forgiven lives to live for God and our neighbors in His servant way of faith and love.
Our new life in Christ involves doing good. We praise and proclaim God’s mercies in Jesus through worship and witness. We live to express our Lord’s love, forgiveness, patience, hope, gentleness, compassion, peace, generosity and self-control. Naturally, our neighbors living without faith may misunderstand us. They misunderstood Jesus. They misjudged His first followers. They may feel themselves condemned by us, even if we intend nothing of the sort. They may take offense at us, and mistreat. We could defend ourselves, but God, through Peter’s epistle, calls us to sacrifice our human rights in order to forgive, serve and bear gospel witness to those who persecute us, just as our Lord did to save us.
To help us to obey God’s call to endure persecution, Peter poses a question and presents us with a divine promise. “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.” The question Peter asks is very logical. It keeps the threat of persecution from becoming an obsession that takes up all the space in our minds. How likely is it that people are going to get after you when your aim in life is to be good to them? Not as much as you might fear.
The promise Peter sets before us is all-encompassing. It still offers us strength and peace if we suffer unfairly for our Lord. Persecution, the worst-case scenario that haunts us, is nothing of sort. God blesses us even when we suffer for righteousness’ sake. Peter reminds us of the beatitude promise of Jesus: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 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)
Persecution aims to isolate and intimidate us, so that we lose heart and doubt that God can help us. Jesus assures us that God is ever King, even if we suffer for our faith in Him. He may rescue us out of our troubles, or He may strengthen us to endure them, but He never ceases ruling over us in His love. We can resist the temptation to fear persecution because God promises to keep us safe for eternity through it. We can pray for this deliverance for our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who suffer abuse for Jesus. We can respond to people who mistreat us with forgiveness because God forgives us for all the ways that we mistreat Him. When our neighbors challenge us, we can give them reasons for our trust in Jesus, sharing God’s Word with them. And we can prayer that they will turn from their hostility to receive the same hope of salvation the Lord gives us.
God doesn’t want us to pick fights with unbelievers or pursue persecution, but neither would He have us flee it in fear or fight it in anger. Through the persecution Jesus suffered, He has saved us from sin and death and brought us under God’s loving reign. The kingdom of heaven is ours! Insults don’t annul that, nor can violence. We are blessed by Jesus forever, for He is the Resurrection and the Life. Even if we die believing in Him, with Him we will live. Alleluia! Amen.