Easter 4: Second Reading, 1 Peter 2:19-25

“Opposites attract,” or “He’s so cute,” or “I can’t pass on that deal.” All those comments have to do with one thing. They all point to things that relate to being attracted to something or someone. What are your standards of attraction?

Peter begins our paragraph, really in verse 18 and the larger context starts with the issue of being a servant. Then Peter describes our Savior, not in glowing terms, but certainly in noble ones. If you are punished for doing wrong, well alright, it’s deserved. But if you endure suffering unjustly, and that as a servant, well then you deserve some notice. Jesus is set before us by Peter as just such an example and examples are to be followed.

Under all He endured, He didn’t verbally sin. When He was verbally abused, He didn’t answer back. When He was physically beaten and tortured, He didn’t return threats. That’s one thing for just you and me, but think what the Son of the Living God had at His disposal at any moment. “He could have called ten thousand angels,” as the old gospel song declares. But He did not. It’s under that duress and that willingness to take it all that Peter says, “He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” (2:24a).

It’s that death. It’s that suffering willingly and without retribution that made the effective payment for the sins of the world. As I take that in, and chew on it and let it command my thoughts, do you know what happens? Strangely I am attracted to it. Better, to Him. Attracted to Him. Peter wraps up chapter two this way: “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of Your souls” (v.25). Bloodied. Devastated. Mercilessly undone. I love Him for it. I want to be near Him. Not in the gruesome details, but in the love that drove Him to do it. He’s left us an example. I want to live and die, if need be,  just like Him.

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1. Do I shy away from the ugly parts of the trial and crucifixion narrative? If you never have perhaps it would be a good thing to watch a “Hollywood” depiction. Some aren’t great and “The Passion” is all that I can take. But maybe we need to be in touch with His suffering just a bit more.
2. ”I have been crucified with Christ,” or “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Where do quotes like that really “come from?” Religious thoughts? Theological musings? Give them some thought before Sunday. God’s Peace.