Easter 4(A) – 1 Peter 2:18-25
I want to read you part of our second lesson again, because the words of First Peter today are distressing and need some interpretation. They’re so distressing, in fact, that the passage read today leaves out the first verse. So here it is back in, just like the Bible has it, in all its uncomfortable words:
“Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.”
This passage sounds like it approves of slavery, but we know that slavery is a deplorable thing, a stain on our history. Jesus proclaims that he was sent to release the captives, as the prophet Isaiah proclaimed. In today’s gospel he proclaims salvation and life. How can it be that 150 years ago, the Bible was used to support and reinforce the captivity of slaves?
This passage sounds like it wants the recipients of violence to bear their abuse quietly. What Good News is this for the 1 out of every 4 people in our country who are victims of abuse? Or the violence on the streets of our cities? Or the proliferation of war in our world? When Jesus rises from the dead, he brings his disciples his peace. How can this peaceful God approve of such pain?
This passage sounds like it glorifies suffering. When you suffer, “you have God’s approval,” it says. This Mother’s Day, there are parents of 250 Nigerian girls who are suffering because of the actions of an extremist terrorist group, wondering where their children are. I promise you, God does not approve of their suffering.
On Friday night in confirmation class, our teenagers and I struggled with the problem of pain. Why is it that bad things happen to good people? It was one of those conversations that rose up out of nowhere, not part of my lesson plan; there just was an opening in the way things were shaping up and one of the girls took it and there we were, having this deep and powerful discussion about suffering. A lot of people had a lot of really good ideas. Others listened quietly, silently processing the question themselves. You have a lot to be proud of in your children, by the way.
It won’t surprise you, though, that we did not manage to solve all the world’s problems on Friday night. Like the last 3,000 years of people asking that question, we have yet to come up with the definitive answer. I managed to mutter a few things about good coming out of the bad, but I don’t think I really did it justice.
And that’s because there is no way to do it justice. I don’t care what First Peter seems to say. We cannot glorify violence and suffering. God does not want us to live lives mired in pain. It is not God’s will that people get sick and die, that we have to grieve with broken hearts, that good people are abused and taken advantage of, that children are kidnapped and taken away from their schools and families. This is not the life God wants for us. Suffering is not holy.
God’s answer to all this isn’t what it sounds like at the beginning of this First Peter passage at all. Because Peter continues. He tells us that God’s answer to our pain is Jesus. Jesus is the answer. It is impossible for suffering to be glorified. So instead, Glory is sent to suffer. God himself takes on all the suffering of the world, puts himself on the cross and dies.
“Christ also suffered for you,” First Peter says. “When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.” Jesus took our suffering with him to the cross.
This message could sound too simplistic, too. Jesus bore our pain so it has no meaning anymore? Of course it does. When we are in pain, it hurts. When we suffer, we really suffer! This cross can not just be some empty platitude. When Christ takes our pains to the cross, he does not make them disappear. Nor does he simply suffer with us, though knowing that God shares our pain can help to comfort us. No, when our suffering becomes Christ’s suffering, it is transformed. Like everything else that Jesus touches, it comes back to life and is turned on its head.
You cannot do justice to suffering. So instead, Jesus turns suffering into justice.
Slaves banded together into a community of suffering, and with the power of Christ, they rose up against their oppressors. They found advocates, resisted peacefully, and brought one of the greatest triumphs in American History, the end of slavery and the beautiful power of the civil rights movement that empowers many beyond even the descendants of the slaves themselves.
Victims of violence see the peace of Christ and are empowered by the Holy Spirit. They look for help and safety from people like Dan or me or anyone they can trust. They end the cycle of violence, sometimes generations-old, and can transform the lives not only of themselves, but sometimes of their abuser and whole families too.
People see the violence on our streets and know something must change. Christ calls them to do something. So they place themselves in harm’s way, and harm finds that it cannot get through them. The causes of violence—poverty, addiction, hunger, broken homes—are addressed, and whole communities are resurrected.
And how many people have responded to the Nigerian abduction? Have rallied to support those who have been affected? The UN is responding to find the girls and return them to their homes. The issue of violence and subjugation of women has had light shone on it. After all this is over, changes will come about to help thousands of girls find education and do it safely.
This is suffering that is holy. Not suffering for its own sake, but suffering for Christ’s sake—Christ’s suffering for the world’s sake.
“For Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the cross,” First Peter says. And why? “So that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness.” By Christ’s wounds, the world has been healed.
May you find freedom in Christ’s suffering, and go to transform and bring life to the world. Amen.