1 Peter 2:19–25

4^th Sunday of Easter / Good Shepherd Sunday

¹⁹For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. ²⁰But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. ²¹To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ²²"He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." {22 Isaiah 53:9} ²³When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

It was October 2006 in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. A man stormed into a one-room schoolhouse and shot 10 young girls, killing five. He then killed himself. They knew him as the milk truck driver who made deliveries. Charles Roberts wasn't Amish, but at his burial service, there were members of the Amish community. Several families who had buried their own daughters just the day before were in attendance and they hugged the widow and other members of the killer's family. They also donated money to the widow and her three young children to help them as they were left without a family income.

Today it is unusual to see such an outpouring of love and forgiveness for a person who has done you harm. We are taught to get revenge; to sue anyone we can; to litigate whatever disagreements we have; and to settle our differences in court. We are such a contentious society that we even have to teach conflict resolution to our children in schools. Not only is it hard to forgive, but we often consider even the concept of forgiving one who offends us as an impractical, unworkable idea in modern society, or just plain stupid.

Some of the hardest verses in Scripture for us to understand today are verses like: "Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you" "turn the other cheek;" "if your enemy is hungry, feed him;" "do not repay evil for evil." We go to great lengths to interpret such statements in ways that explain why they do not mean what they say. In the end we often throw our hands into the air and exclaim: "That might have worked for those people back then, but it just doesn't work like that today." In fact, forgiving someone the wrongs they have done to us just seems so unfair.

So here we are. Right in our text this morning, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Peter, is at it again. It seems like he just won't let us off the hook. He is again laying a guilt trip on us. He tells us to "endure sorrows while suffering unjustly." Of course, if we do something to deserve our suffering, we can at least understand the justice involved. But suffering unjustly? It just doesn't make sense to endure it; to let it go and not get some retribution.

But that is what it says. Let's take a look at the first 2 verses "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." Is this some nice, pious sounding advice from some dream world or Utopian society? No. This was written by St. Peter after having been arrested, beaten and scourged by the Jewish high council. It was written by Peter after he had been arrested by Herod and expected to be executed. St. Peter, who wrote these words, was well acquainted with suffering unjustly.

Likewise the people he wrote this too. They were the believers in Christ who had been scattered throughout the Roman Empire during the persecutions that broke out in Jerusalem when Stephen was stoned to death. They had livid through the persecutions of King Herod at the time he killed the Apostle James. This letter came to them during the great persecutions that broke out all over the Roman Empire after the burning of Rome. At the time this was written Christians were being burned as torches in the palace of Nero to light his patio at night. They knew what it meant to suffer unjustly. No one knew suffering more intimately than they. No one knew more what it meant to suffer than they; except for Jesus himself.

By contrast, we have never really suffered. Perhaps a few snickers here and there, or an occasional scornful snarl, or a relative who won't talk to us on account of our faith. But few of us have ever been beaten or spit upon for the name of Christ. I don't know of any one here who has ever been imprisoned, and I doubt if anyone here has been executed for believing in Jesus. Nevertheless, if someone just looks at us with glaring eyes we get riled. We are quick to condemn and accuse others, but slow to forgive. We seem to be grinding old axes over slight, insignificant things. We always want to even the score. There are people who we will not talk to or sit next to in the pews because of some difference of opinion years ago. We get mad over what hymns we sing or what hymnal to use. We are so proud and haughty and look down our noses like Pharisees at those "sinners" who spoil the environment in church. Compared to those who were losing their lives and yet endured patiently, forgiving those who persecuted them, we are shameful sinners who don't deserve to bear the name of Christ or share in his sufferings.

But we have been called to suffering injustice and enduring. The text goes on in verses 21 to 23: "For this (to endure while suffering unjustly) you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 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." Christ suffered for us, the just for the unjust, and we are called to share in his sufferings. He was holy and righteous; we are sinful and unrighteous. We deserve to be wiped out by God; annihilated. In fact, it is always a source of great wonder in Scripture that God did not annihilate the human race. "What is man that thou art mindful of him," declares the Psalmist. It always comes as a surprise that we should even be allowed to live.

But God always does the surprising thing. In spite of our disobedience and rebellion he is mindful of us. In spite of our infidelity to him, he remains faithful to us. When we stray from him like sheep, he remains our Shepherd who seeks to bring us back to the flock. Like a Good Shepherd, he himself goes out into the wilderness, suffering the dry, scorching heat of the sun by day, and the cold, deep darkness by night looking for his sheep. Risking attacks by wild animals and ravenous wolves our Shepherd-God comes seeking us. He did no wrong, but suffered all of our wrongs and abuses and scorn and rebellion. The just suffered for the unjust, but when he was reviled he did not revile; when he suffered he did not threaten. Unlike the false gods of the pagans, our God who created us gets involved with his creation. He comes into his own world and dwells alongside his chosen people; suffering not merely alongside them, but for them; suffering their abuses and their wickedness in his own flesh.

Let's read verses 24 and 25: "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 been returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." Unlike us, who want to get even and hold grudges forever, he suffered our abuses in his own body on a cross. His own blood was shed by our hands. All our sinfulness and hatred and rebellion and revenge and unforgiveness he absorbed into his own body and nailed them to the cross. Our Shepherd-God not only gets involved with his creation, he comes to overcome our evil and put things right with us. He absorbed our evil into himself and gifted us with his righteousness. Absorbing our sin into himself it is removed from us. We are forgiven and washed clean. All our offenses and bitterness and unloving words and thoughts he has taken from us and absorbed into himself.

Our shepherd risks his life for his sheep; he places himself between his sheep and their enemy. He stands between us and the anger and wrath of God. He is our defense against God's eternal judgment and punishment. He absorbed our wickedness into his own body and by his wounds we were healed. Two-thousand years ago he hung on a cross outside the city of Jerusalem, wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquity; absorbing our sin into his body and putting it to death, so that we might die to sin. And absorbing our sin he exchanges it with his gift of righteousness and goodness. He makes us a new people, holy and righteous. On the third day he rose again victorious over sin and death so that we might live to righteousness.

We who strayed like sheep have now been returned to the Shepherd of our souls. He has sought us in the wilderness and found us. He has taken away the sin of the world in his own flesh. And he has gathered us unto himself and made us a new people in our baptism. In his holy supper we eat of his flesh and blood into which he absorbed our sin, and his body and blood renews us in righteousness.

Our God who created us and chose us to be his people is our Shepherd who seeks us in the wilderness when we stray and who carries us home to the flock as he makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us to still waters. He is the God who made us and we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Therefore we enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, giving thanks to him and blessing his name. For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness is to all generations.

Amen.