The Imitation of Christ

1 Peter 2:18-25

Children, do you like to share? When you see one of your friends playing with your favorite toy, how do you respond? Isn't your first thought, "But that's mine!" Or what about when your sister or brother grabs a toy from you? What's your reaction? You feel sad--or you feel mad! In that moment, children, you are being tempted to sin.

There is nothing wrong with being sad. But what is your heart saying? Are you angry because you didn't get what you want? Are you upset because you had it first? If so, then you are giving in to temptation, and you are responding to evil with evil.

But, you may say, I had it first! It's not fair! It's not just! You're right. It's not fair that a friend should take your toy. It's not just. You are suffering unjustly. That means you didn't do anything to deserve that.

Now, did Jesus deserve to suffer? Did he deserve to be beaten and mocked? Did he deserve to be crucified on the cross? NO. The apostle Peter says "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." Therefore, because Christ suffered for you, you are to follow in his steps. And following in the steps of Jesus means that you should suffer patiently--especially when you don't deserve it!

Do your parents ever spank you? They usually spank you when you do something wrong, right? So, does getting a spanking mean that you are suffering for Christ? If you did something wrong, and you are getting spanked for it, Well, Peter says, "for what credit is it, if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?" You deserved the spanking, and now you got it. But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure. That means you have to be patient! THIS is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

It is a gracious thing. So if you get punished for something you didn't do, that is a gracious gift of God to you. When your little brother takes your toy, that is how God shows his favor to you. In other words, when you bear patiently your sister's selfishness, God is saying how much he loves you!

Why am I preaching this on Easter? Why focus on imitating the sufferings of Christ on the day of resurrection? Because there is something at the very heart of this passage that we cannot forget. WHY did Jesus endure suffering patiently? WHY when he was reviled, did he not revile in return? WHAT was the reason that he was willing to lay himself down as a sacrifice? Let me put it this way: when Peter says, "he entrusted himself to him who judges justly"; what does he mean?

This section of 1 Peter is all about submission. It is all about submitting to authority, even wicked authorities. It is all about self-sacrifice, suffering unjustly. We often times think that Christian ethics is all about self-sacrifice. Laying down our lives for others. And that's true.

But WHY is it true?

Self-sacrifice, submission, is MEANINGLESS without the resurrection. If there is no resurrection, why on earth would you lay down your life for another? Jesus himself lays down his life in the HOPE of the resurrection, in the complete confidence that the Father would judge justly in the end and therefore raise him from the dead. This is why Peter starts the epistle by praising God for the LIVING HOPE that we have through the resurrection of Jesus Christ! All this emphasis on suffering unjustly ONLY has meaning because of the resurrection.

So children, when your friends, your parents, or anyone else, treats you unjustly, you should NOT think, "Oh, well, I just have to put up with this." That's NOT the point! The point is that because you are in Christ, and HE suffered unjustly--and the Father raised HIM from the dead--you must think, "Because I have the hope of the resurrection, I am being given a taste of the sufferings of Christ. Thank you, God, for giving me this gracious moment of suffering unjustly, that I may be conformed to the likeness of Christ That I may be made more like Jesus. And because I know that you will judge justly in the end, I can endure this temporary injustice." Your hope is eschatological. Your hope is in the last days judgment that God has proclaimed already in Jesus Christ.

Peter has proclaimed this eschatological hope in chapter 1, and he now illustrates this in Chapters 2-3 with these particular examples of suffering for the sake of Christ His examples are submission to civil government, masters, and husbands. But any instance of unjust suffering would fit.

The particular example in verses 19-25 is one that we have probably never experienced. I doubt that any of you have been beaten by your employer, and if you have been, either you or he probably didn't keep that job very long! But for Peter's hearers, leaving was not always an option (slaves could buy themselves). If you had a wicked master, you could very well face beating after beating for no just cause. (Note: the Bible never says that beating must be a civil or household punishment, but it never condemns it as improper.) We don't get much physical abuse on the job today, but what I said to the children applies to you adults as well.

The imitation of Christ is fundamentally an imitation of his humility in the midst of suffering. He could have said to Pilate, "You're really going to get it!" But he did not threaten Pilate.

No, instead, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame. Because he knew that the resurrection awaited him, he endured patiently through suffering--even to death. Likewise, you know that the resurrection awaits you. Therefore the Christian life is lived out in the imitation of Christ's suffering, because of the hope of his resurrection. Or as Paul says, we know that because we have been united to the likeness of his death, we will also be conformed to the likeness of his resurrection.

Peter concludes his admonition to servants, [v24-25].

This echoes the language of Isaiah 53: the suffering servant, by whose stripes we would be healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way, but the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Peter is saying, this has now been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Yes, you were straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the great Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. It is when you see that the last-days promises of God have come true in Jesus Christ, that you can live patiently in the midst of trials.
 

Copyright © 2002 Peter J. Wallace