The suffering of Christ and Christians Revd R Mills

This is a sermon preached in our church recently by the vicar Revd Roger Mills.

 I asked him if I could print it on my website, and he very kindly allowed me to do this.

1 Peter 2:21-25:  the suffering of Christians and Christ Psalm 120;  1 Peter 2:18–3:7

We continue our series this morning looking at some passages from the first letter of Peter in the NT, and today we reach that passage which was read as our second reading:  2:21-3:7.  And I wonder what you made of some of the verses we heard:  about wives being submissive to their husbands, about the proper place of braided hair and jewellery, about someone called Sarah who obeyed Abraham and called him her master.  Now this theme of all wives called Sarah obeying their husbands and calling them master might be one of which I thoroughly approve, (Roger’s wife is called Sarah) but even though I am in comparative safety with her being upstairs in Junior Church at the moment, I should not abuse this false sense of security;  I could also claim that she told me not to preach on this sub­ject (in defiance of what Peter writes), but that would be both completely untrue and completely unfair.  Let us then leave such themes as the submission of wives to their husbands, and the hus­bands’ treating their wives with respect, to a more opportune time, but noting that they are, as Peter says, “heirs together of the gracious gift of life” – in itself in its culture and time a radical statement of male and female equality.

I would like us, rather, for a few minutes together to think about Peter’s words in the last part of chapter 2, the first part of the second reading.  Many of you know that I was away last Sunday and so did not hear Desmond’s exposition of the preceding verses, but last week’s passage among other things spoke of the role of slaves and masters, and ended by making reference to the issue of suffering – when slaves suffered both justly and unjustly.  I asked for us to read from verse 18 of chapter 2 so that we might have more of the sense of this when we come to today’s passage, when Peter now sets before his readers the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, the supreme example of the one who suffered entirely innocently.  So that, broadly, is today’s theme – the persecution and suffering of God’s people, and the supreme example of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There’s ancient Chinese curse which says, May you live in interesting times.  Rather different from the one we occasionally heard in Alnwick when we lived there, which was, I hope you have a fall of soot.  I want to suggest today the extreme relevance of what Peter writes here – in addressing Chr­istians under pressure – in the interesting times in which we live.  I would like to give some examp­les of this – some of these items may be familiar, others unknown, but they show how in one sense we live in similar times to those of our distant Christian forbears.

At the time that Peter was writing, Christianity was still a very new religion.  We are at about AD 60 or 62, say 30 or 35 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  But this new religion, the way of Jesus, was starting to spread like wildfire through parts of the Roman Empire, especially in the eastern Mediterranean.  Little groups became established in many of the towns of modern-day Turkey.  Now occasionally all sorts of rumours about them were heard:  because of the Commun­ion, as we still celebrate today, there was talk of them being cannibals – eating the body and blood of Christ.  There was talk of a sort of incipient communism – people having all things in common, sharing possessions together.  There was talk of unthinkable social radicalism – slaves and mast­ers being equal as they met for worship.  But most alarmingly of all, there was talk of them denying that Caesar was Lord, but that Jesus was Lord.  All Roman citizens, and all subject peoples conqu­e­­red by Rome, had to swear on oath that Caesar was Lord, that the Roman Emperor was alone to be obeyed (and indeed later venerated and worshipped).  So for some upstart individual to say no – no, Jesus is Lord, was to self-identify as a traitor.

So as this new faith spread, originally within the Jewish community but now spreading far beyond it into every sector of society, there was bound to be trouble:  and so by this time persecution of Chri­s­tians had begun, in some cases with a vengeance.  Men and women, even in some cases child­ren, were being put to death because of their faith in a man called Jesus, whom they called God, and who they believed had been crucified in Jerusalem and had come to life again on the third day.  We have all heard of Nero, the Emperor who allegedly fiddled while Rome burned.  Nero was a particularly neurotic emperor who could not stand the thought of people saying that some­one other than he was Lord – and set about their destruction by particularly pernicious means – some by being thrown to the lions, but others, hideously, covered in pitch and set alight – the legend has it that they might act as lighting for his late-night imperial garden parties.  How these early Christians suffered – and how extraordinarily God strengthened them and has used their witness down the ages – including here this morning.  We could note too how the suffering of God’s people has been a constant theme through the scriptures, which is why we heard Psalm 120 as the first reading – the suffering of a man of God in hard times.  As the Jew Shylock remarks in The Merchant of Venice, “sufferance in the badge of all our tribe”.

We’ll come in a moment to what Peter says to them by way of encouragement in their suffering, pointing them to the sublime example of Jesus, but let us note just now that he himself was not to be immune.  You may know that it’s very likely that Peter himself was martyred for his faith in Rome in about AD 64, about the same time at St Paul.  Legend has it that Peter was crucified, but he asked not to be crucified in the same way as the Lord Jesus, as he did not feel worthy of that, and so was crucified upside down.  For the moment, let’s note that Peter was therefore no arm­chair adviser on Christian suffering – it came to him too.

But what about now, 2009, what about us?  Out in the foyer again this morning is a petition which I know many of you have now signed, asking for something essentially very simple:  the right of ad­ult people to change their faith if they wish.  That is a matter of extreme concern in other parts of the world, where certain folk live in daily fear of attack and death because they have chosen to leave one faith and join another – usually from Islam to Christianity.  The petition asks for the aboli­tion of the death penalty which classical Islam prescribes in such cases.  It’s increasingly a matter of concern for people in this country, lest we think it’s someone else’s problem.

Before coming on to focus on those verses in 1 Peter 2 which I think give great encouragement for suffering Christians, we consider for a moment whether or not it’s a pressing subject for us.  It could be that in the past you’ve thought that it’s just that vicar again ranting on about other parts of the world which aren’t our problem, but I would like to tell you about one or two recent events in this country.  Some of them will be familiar, some of them will not.

Unless you have spent the last month on Mars you have probably heard of the case of Caroline Petrie, the nurse who was suspended without pay for offering to pray for an elderly patient she was visiting.  She has now, thank God, been reinstated.  I wonder though whether you have caught up yet with the case of Jennie Cain, the part-time school receptionist from Devon whose 5 year old daughter was reprimanded for speaking to another child about Jesus and what she believed – leaving the little girl in tears.  Her mother sent a private e-mail to a number of friends at her church asking for their prayers, but somehow (in a way he won’t reveal) the head teacher got hold of this e-mail, and Mrs Cain is now being investigated by the school governors for misconduct.  Mrs Cain, Jennie, said: “I feel my beliefs are so central to who I am, are such a part of my children’s life.  I do feel our beliefs haven’t been respected and I don’t feel I have been treated fairly. I don’t know what I am supposed to have done wrong.”

Mrs Cain said that when she picked her children up from school, “my daughter burst into tears, her face was all red and she was clearly upset.  She said ‘my teacher told me I couldn’t talk about Je­sus’ – I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  She said she was taken aside in the classroom and told she couldn’t say that.  I was so shocked, I didn’t know what to do.”

One commentator, from The Christian Institute, says this: “I thought I had heard it all when I learn­ed a nurse had been suspended for offering to pray for a patient.  But now a five-year-old girl and her mother have been slammed for nothing more than expressing their Christian faith.  I am partic­ularly concerned about the way in which Mrs Cain’s private email to her church friends ended up in the hands of the head teacher.  This is the latest in a series of cases where Christians are being persecuted for their religious beliefs. It is really getting to a point where it has to stop.”

Another commentator, from The Christian Legal Centre, says this:  “Recent cases of manifest in­justice and discrimination against Christians have shown that sometimes in today’s Britain a well-meaning desire for equality and inclusion can have the exact opposite effect, by discriminating against those who hold to the Christian Faith.”

In January a poll showed that more than four out of five Christians (84 per cent) think that religious freedoms, of speech and action, are at risk in the UK.  A similar proportion of Christians (82 per cent) feel it is becoming more difficult to live in an increasingly secular country.  Last week even the dear old Church of England’s General Synod stated its belief that two-thirds of Christians face discrimination at work, and church leaders are giving a fresh call to Christians to stand up for their beliefs.

And last week again the Archbishop of York gave his backing to Mrs Cain and Mrs Petrie. He said their cases represented a “seeming intolerance and illiberality about faith in God which is being reflected in the higher echelons of our public services”.  And this:  “Asking someone to leave their belief in God at the door of their workplace is akin to asking them to remove their skin colour before coming into the office. Faith in God is not an add-on or optional extra.”  And this:  “Those who dis­play intolerance and ignorance, and would relegate the Christian faith to just another disposable lifestyle choice, argue that they operate in pursuit of policies based on the twin aims of ‘diversity and equality’.  Yet in the minds of those charged with implementing such policies, ‘diversity’ appar­ently means every colour and creed except Christianity, the nominal religion of the white majority; and ‘equality’ seemingly excludes anyone, black or white, with a Christian belief in God.”

One last quotation, this time from the Bishop of Rochester on the pressure to phase out Christian hospital chaplains because of the arrival in our culture of people of other faiths:  “The arrival of people of other faiths provided chaplains with an opportunity for Christian hospitality in making sure that such people had access to a spiritual leader from their own tradition and had their spiritual needs met.  This has now mutated into the closure of chapels, the retrenchment of a distinctively Christian chaplaincy and the advent of a doctrinaire multi-faithism.  Let me say immediately that this has little do with people of other faiths who have no objection to chapels and chaplains, as long as their own needs are met, and everything to do with secularist agendas which marginalise all faith but seem especially hostile to Christianity.”

Strong stuff! – and I rejoice when I hear Christian leaders speaking out so clearly in the cause of fairness and justice.  I cannot help noticing that this is from two bishops who were not born in Brit­ain (Uganda & Pakistan) – it is people not originally from Britain who are giving us a wake-up call to defend our Christian heritage.  You may have thought that persecution and discri­mination against Christians are things that happen elsewhere in the world – but these are examp­les from just the last few weeks, and which have made it into the news, to show that they are very much present, and in all likelihood growing, in modern Britain.

Our time is nearly up, and I must return to our text, so we hear what St Peter says to persecuted Christians, then and now.  Let us read vv 21-25 again.

This, says Peter, is our motivation for a lifestyle which is different from the unbelieving world around us – namely, the suffering of Christ.  And in this we can note three things, very quickly.

First, his saving example (vv 21-23)

It is our calling, says Peter, to suffer if we truly follow a Lord who suffered for us.  This is why we sang that wonderful ancient hymn, O sacred head, once wounded – read first verse (446).  And it isn’t simply that Jesus is our model because he suffered innocently, it is because his suffering was efficacious – it won our salvation for us.  Which leads to the second thought:

Second, his atoning sacrifice (v 24)

Jesus is therefore much more than our example – he is our sin-bearer, the one who took our suffe­r­ing on himself on the cross.  This is why at the end of the service we shall sing How deep the Father’s love for us – read last verse (780).  We don’t share Peter’s background in having seen sheep and goats offered in sacrifice for sin, but we can catch the sense nonetheless – that all the weight of our sin and wrongdoing has been placed on our innocent Lord on the cross of Calvary.  Which leads to the third and last thought:

Third, his saving claim (vv 24-25)

The victory that Jesus won is complete and secure – he died that we might die to sin and live for righteousness;  we were wandering sheep, but now we are secure in his fold, in this life and for ever.  This is why after our prayers we will sing the song O Lord, the clouds are gathering – read last verse (429).

As Shylock said, Sufferance is the badge of all our tribe. 

So we stand with our brothers and sisters, to whom this letter was sent long ago;  with those who lost their lives in the persecution of the Roman Empire;  with those who have suffered for Christ through the long centuries since;  with those who will lose their lives for Christ today somewhere in the world;  and with those who face persecution and discrimination in this country now because they place Christ first in their lives.

And for all these circumstances, Peter puts us right, by pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ – his suffering as our motivation to live for God.  Amen.