1 Peter 3:13-22
13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
Jesus Redeems Your Suffering to Give You Hope
What do you do when you feel like you have no hope left?
My mother had been sick for a long time. For the better part of the last 15 years of her life, she lived in a collection of facilities in palliative care with a terminal diagnosis she was all but certain would be – and ultimately was – her cause of death.
As hard as it was to watch her health wane, there was something else amazing that my family and I were privileged to witness. It was the impact and influence she had on the people around her. Now, my mother had her bad days like anyone else. But there were plenty of times when her prayers, her personal devotions, her spiritual conversations were overheard through paper curtains or paper-thin walls. My mother was able at times to be a light in a dark place.
I have a friend named Grace. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in her mid thirties. She’s a mother of two beautiful girls. I don’t know anyone who leads a healthier lifestyle. But, now she spends her days irradiating her body in an attempt to destroy life-threatening cancer cells.
No one would fault Grace if she were grumpy, if she withdrew from the world. But oddly enough, she’s seemingly engaging even more than she did before, if that’s even possible. She’s flooding the ears of anyone who’ll hear with the sound of her singing and praying. She’s connecting with nurses and patients on the cancer ward, and sharing a hope otherwise foreign in those parts.
That’s the Christian life. We are still in the season of Easter. We still rejoice in the resurrection and life of our Saviour. But the farther removed we get from that day, the farther away it feels and the more real our suffering seemingly becomes, which is exactly why Peter wrote the words we heard earlier.
Peter wasn’t writing to unusually young cancer patients or battle-hardened great-grandparents. He was writing to Christians in crisis, i.e. believers in the pressure-cooker of persecution, and he had some strange things to say to them.
Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”[1]
Imagine Peter, of all people telling us not to sweat the prosect of suffering. Peter was so afraid of the Jews that he locked himself in his room for more than a week. Not long after, he was hauled on trial before those same Jews for healing someone. That’s the definition of someone trying to harm you for doing what is good. I don’t know about you, but threats of lawsuits, jailtime, even death don’t sound like things I’d call “blessed.”
Peter had some strange things to say. He goes on to say things that are bordering on, if not outright, impossible: But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.[2]
The first piece seems reasonable enough for a Christian: revere Christ as Lord.[3] Isn’t that what it says on the tin? We’re Christians. Christ is our Lord. But remember the context of this command. It follows immediately after Peter says, “Do not be frightened.”[4] That’s where the rubber meets the road, isn’t it?
Most of the time, when we’re scared it’s for one of two reasons. We’re afraid of the power that some external force can exert over us, i.e. that that thing or that person is stronger than us. Which is the second thing that causes us fear, i.e. that we’re uncertain of our own strength to resist, abide, overcome.
Do you see the problem? If I’m afraid of something else because of the power it has over me, then whether I would say this out loud or not, I’m revering it as lord. I’m (even reluctantly) giving it mastery over me, or at very least, mastery over the situation I’m in. If I’m afraid of something else because I’m uncertain of my own ability to master it, then I’m revering myself as lord, albeit a not very good one. So often our fear is founded in our inability or stubborn refusal to revere Christ as Lord.
Always be prepared, Peter says, to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.[5] Any command that follows “always” will always be broken. We can’t do anything all the time, much less be articulate about our faith. And yet that’s exactly what Peter tells us to do, because that’s the Christian life.
How many times have you let the opportunity to talk about the difference Jesus has made in your life slip by because you were afraid – afraid you wouldn’t say it right, afraid of how you’d be received, afraid you might be found out for a fraud whose hope is more aspirational than real?
Or how about the second part of this command: But do this with gentleness and respect[6]? When someone is mistreating you – especially when you are doing something objectively good – is your first instinct to respect that person? When you’re talking about errors that you see out there in the world, are you always gentle; or does your disdain for another person or an idea that a whole segment of society subscribes to shines through?
I haven’t kept a clear conscience. And I’d venture to say the same is true for you. So, where does that leave us, if we’re not leading the Christian life Peter prescribes for us? Right where we belong – in the hands of a gracious God.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.[7]
Jesus knows what you’ve been through and what you’re going through. He knows better than you do. He suffered too. But Jesus’ suffering was different, because he did it with every ounce of humility and grace that God, through Peter, prescribes for you. Jesus’ suffering was different because in addition to being unjustly and cruelly crucified despite maintaining a clean conscience throughout his life, he also bore the full weight of your guilt on the cross.
Jesus’ suffering was different because it accomplished something, something real and profound, something universal and yet highly personal. He suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. You couldn’t have done it on your own. We can’t rise to meet him. So he condescended to us. He came down to earth in flesh and blood, to live this life of suffering to the bitter end, to redeem you; to trade places with you – the righteous for the unrighteous – taking all your guilt and shame and granting you forgiveness and the peace of the release from all your fear – both the fear of the punishment you have deserved but have been forgiven, and the fear of all the fearsome things you face every day.
It’s kind of strange what Peter says next: After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits.[8] Why did Jesus descend into hell? And why does Peter bring it up here? It wasn’t to suffer. He had already done that. He had already finished his work of forgiving sins and saving you. He went to hell to make proclamation to the imprisoned spirits, i.e. to stroll into the headquarters of hell and ask, “How do you like me now?”
And that’s why Peter brings it up here. Jesus went to hell to declare his victory over the devil and his demons, to demonstrate his mastery over death and the realm of the dead, to prove to you that he has the power to protect and provide for you, even over the worst that this world and the underworld can throw at you.
And then what did he do? He has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.[9] We’re going to hear more about this next week as we celebrate Jesus’ ascension, but it means that he sits in the position of power and authority over heaven and earth. And that makes a difference for you. That empowers you to do exactly what Peter prescribes for your Christian life.
Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.[10] What do you have to be afraid of when the almighty, supremely victorious God is the same one who loved you so much that he laid down his life to save you? There is nothing in this world that can separate you from him – not even death. Through his resurrection – and your baptism that connects you to it – you will live with him forever in heaven.
Revere Christ as Lord.[11] That’s what he is, i.e. your Sovereign God, with authority and power over everything – even cancer and terminal diagnoses, rising bills in a falling economy, strained relationships with people you love who can hurt you more than anyone else. Christ is master over them all. He has more power than all of them combined, and he can and he does work despite them and in them and through them to bring you good.
Always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have.[12] You have hope because your Saviour died for you to bring you to God. That doesn’t require a master’s degree in theology to understand or explain. It’s yours, not because you have such a strong Christian character, but because you have such a strong Saviour. It doesn’t require eloquence. All it needs is a chance to say, “Jesus died for me. Now I am free – from the guilt of my sin: it’s forgiven; from the fear of death: it’s beaten; from the fear of those who speak maliciously against me: what they say doesn’t matter after I hear what Jesus has to say, i.e. that he loves me and will love me, to the end.”
What do you do when you feel like you have no hope left? You look to Jesus and you revere him as Lord in your heart. You point to Christ and share the hope that is yours in him. Amen.
[1] 1 Peter 3:13,14
[2] 1 Peter 3:15
[3] Ibid
[4] 1 Peter 3:14
[5] 1 Peter 3:15
[6] Ibid
[7] 1 Peter 3:18
[8] 1 Peter 3:19
[9] 1 Peter 3:22
[10] 1 Peter 3:14
[11] 1 Peter 3:15
[12] 1 Peter 3:15