Easter 3
1
Pet 2:21-25
4/26/20
In Margaret Fishback’s poem
“Footprints” the speaker begins by saying, “One night
I dreamed a dream. As I was walking along the beach with my Lord. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my
life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One
belonging to me and one to my Lord.”
However, the speaker soon notices
that in those times of life that had been most difficult there was only one set
of footprints. And so the question is
asked, “I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave
me.” Yet the Lord responds that he loves
the person and will never leave him or her.
And then he adds, “When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then
that I carried you.” It’s a comforting image, and a reminder that our Lord is
indeed always with us as he cares for us.
Today’s text also talks about Jesus’
footsteps. But if you are looking for a
tender encouraging word, you are in the wrong place. In bold and unmistakable terms, the apostle
sets forth what Jesus Christ has done for us.
Yet in doing so, he expresses clearly what this means for the way we live
our lives.
Peter begins our text by saying, “For to this you have been
called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example,
so that you might follow in his steps.”
The apostle says “for this you have been called.” If we want to know that “this” is, we have
look at the previous verses. There Peter
wrote, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one
endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when
you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and
suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”
Peter
says that it is a gracious thing when, because of our faith in God, we are
willing to do good and suffer unjustly because of it. To do good and endure suffering because of it
is a gracious thing in God’s eyes. Now
this is probably not what we want to
hear. First of all, we don’t want
suffering of any kind. And if suffering
is bad enough when it happens, it seems even worse when we experience it unjustly. Doing what is right – doing
what is God pleasing – and then receiving harm because of it raises challenging
questions about where God is in all of this.
It makes us wonder about whether God really does love and care for us.
But
in our text, Peter gives us a completely different perspective. He says specifically that we have been called
to these kinds of experiences. The
apostle declares that is it inherent in the life of a Christian. And the reason
for this is to be found in Jesus Christ himself. He writes: “For to this you
have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you
an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”
According to Peter, the suffering of
Jesus Christ provides an example for us as we follow in his steps. There is only one set of footprints here.
They belong to Jesus. And there is only
one because we are following in Jesus’
steps as we share in his suffering.
Peter tells us how Jesus’ steps have
given us forgiveness before God. Drawing
on the language of Isaiah chapter 53 that we heard as the Old Testament lesson
on Good Friday, Peter writes: “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.” Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the
virgin Mary, Jesus Christ was the sinless One.
He was not conceived in sin as we were, and he committed no sin during
his life.
Jesus
lived perfectly according to the Father’s will. This was true not just of life
in general, but especially in carrying out the saving mission he had been
entrusted. Living as the sinless one
carrying out God’s will meant that Jesus stood out. Sinners don’t want to be
around those who are living God’s will, because such lives are a nagging
reminder of the fact that they are sinners.
Those who are living in the way of the world may react with derision,
but this is simply the response to the work of the Law that is revealing their
own sin.
Jesus
did receive the anger of sinners, and he did suffer because of it. Yet Peter tells us, “When he was reviled, he
did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but
continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” Our Lord did not respond in anger. He did not threaten others. Instead, he entrusted himself to God the
Father who judges justly. He trusted
that the Father, who is the holy God, would judge justly. Certainly, God the Father will punish all
those who reject Christ and speak ill of him.
But Christ had entered the world in order to make it possible for
sinners to stand before God and be declared just.
Peter
writes, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might
die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been
healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned
to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” Jesus bore our sins in his body on the
tree. He took our sins as his own, in
order to suffer God’s punishment against them.
St.
Peter refers to “the tree.” This is a common
way that the book of Acts also uses to refer to the cross. However it is far more than a poetic
reference. Instead, behind the language
of “tree” is a reminder that God cursed Christ. Deuteronomy chapter 21 says, “And
if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and
you hang him on a tree,
his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall
bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.” In the first century A.D. this statement was
applied directly to those who had been crucified.
Jesus died on the
cross as he received God’s punishment against our sins. He was cursed by God – cut off from God’s
people in our place. In our text Peter
says, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the
Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” The
forgiveness of sins allows us to live in relationship with God again. It gives us the righteous standing we need
before God. But the mere removal of offenses is not enough to cause us to
return the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
It is not enough to enable us to walk in Christ’s footsteps.
And
that is why we rejoice in celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. Peter began this letter by saying, “Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great
mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that
is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who
by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready
to be revealed in the last time.”
You
have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Jesus is not only the Lord who
was crucified for you. He is also the
Lord who was raised from the dead for you.
He has given us the living hope of his own resurrection. This is not just hope, but it is hope that is
alive and true because Jesus lives.
Jesus
lives, and he has given this life to us.
Peter says in this letter that, “you have been born again, not of
perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word
of God.” Through water and the word of Holy Baptism you were born again. As
Peter declares, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as
a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good
conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
By
doing this, our Lord has given us a new status. And
so Peter says, “But you are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his
own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
This
is what God has done for you in Christ. This is what God has made you to be.
This is what Peter means when he says in our text, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the
tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his
wounds you have been healed.” By the
work of the Spirit we die to sin as we call it what it is and refuse to live in
those ways. Peter says in this chapter,
“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the
passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” And at the
same time we live to righteousness – we live in ways that please God and are
true to his will. Peter went on to add, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when
they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and
glorify God on the day of visitation.”
We
have been called to walk in Jesus’ footsteps. This means that as those who have
been born again we die to sin and live to righteousness. We lives as the
forgiven people of God who have been freed from sin so that we can live in ways
that please God and are true to his will.
To
walk in our Lord’s footsteps will mean receiving the world’s hatred, contempt
and derision because those who are in step with the Lord Jesus will be out of
step with the world. Yet like our Lord
we continue to entrust ourselves to God the Father who judges justly. We do this because Jesus
himself bore our sins in his body on the tree in order give us
forgiveness. We do this because we have
been born again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead.
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