Enduring Unjust Suffering

Based on 1 Peter 2:18-25

First delivered May 3, 2020

Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

I have to admit, the first time I read this passage from 1 Peter, one of the assigned texts for this Sunday, my first thought was to give it a hard pass. Why in the world would I spend time talking about a passage of scripture that seems to condone slavery and encourages slaves to suffer nobly at the hands of cruel masters? It made me think of how this passage must have been the go to passage for Christians who used the Bible to show that slavery was biblical. How many master sanctioned church services for their slaves had this passage as the text for the sermon for their slaves to hear? If I had my way, this would be one of the passages that would end up on the cutting room floor.

But then, as I thought about it, there may be a message here that we can receive even though we live in a completely different context, where slavery is banned and where physical violence can lead to assault charges. The times we live in are so different from the times in which these Christians Peter wrote to were living. But there are things about the human experience that are timeless. And one of those experiences is unjust suffering. Maybe it was a bully that picked on you constantly when you were a kid. Or you have been falsely accused of something that caused people to treat you unfairly. Or a random stranger mugged you as you were walking down the street. Or you were followed around in a store because of the color of your skin. Unjust suffering is something we all can relate to. At some point, all of us have to endure unjust suffering, which is at the root of what this passage is about. So, maybe there is something we can get from this passage, even though a surface hearing of it really turns us off.

Let’s get some context so we have a better idea of what Peter was dealing with when he wrote these words to these Christians. The community of Jesus followers was small and they existed on the margins of society. A lot of people looked on them as some weird cult who worshipped a crucified god. They were all picked on and harassed. They had no political power and could not turn to the courts for reliable mediation of justice. They were powerless and vulnerable. And Christian slaves even more so. No one was going to look on them with understanding. No one would give them a break. They were all outcasts.

With this given context, Peter is concerned for their survival as a community. They were all having to pay a big price just being Christian. They had sacrificed their standing in the community. They had jeopardized their well-being. It probably wouldn’t take much for a mob to push them out of the community all together. At the same time, Peter wanted the community to maximize the potential for them to draw others to the faith. They still needed to be salt and light in a society that looked down on them and threatened their existence. This was a difficult situation that Peter was writing in to. How to protect this community and encourage them to offer a faithful witness of the kingdom of God?

First, I think it is significant that Peter is giving space in his letter to address slaves. That in itself lifts up their dignity. It may also be the case that a large number, maybe even the majority of Christians in that community were slaves. He doesn’t give any advice to slave masters. Maybe because there were no slave masters who were Christians?

Peter does not call the Christians who were slaves to run away from their cruel masters. He did not call the church to organize a resistance to the institution of slavery. He did not call the slaves to rise up in revolt. In this context, in that time, slavery as an institution wasn’t going anywhere and the Christians, being small, powerless and vulnerable, were in no position to end this scourge. It was the situation in which they all had to live and bear witness to the love of God.

So, Peter encourages the slaves to suffer from the hand of their cruel masters in the same way Jesus suffered unjustly: by not returning abuse, by not threatening, and by entrusting themselves to God who judges justly. Peter called on them to endure the pain of unjust suffering with the knowledge that God will notice and give them credit for their noble behavior. It will not be forgotten. They will be rewarded for their noble dignity when all are judged on the last day.

It really is something, how Peter says to the slaves that when they endure unjust suffering, they are sharing in what Jesus suffered. Of all the people who can most relate to the suffering of Jesus, it is Christian slaves who are beaten by cruel masters. I think Peter is trying to communicate to them that in a weird way it is a privilege for them to endure this kind of suffering because through it they can more fully relate to what Jesus experienced on their behalf.

See, Peter writes in vs. 21 that Christ suffered for them. It was because of their sin that Jesus suffered and died. Vs. 24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness.” He’s telling the slaves that they are complicit in Jesus’ unjust suffering. But this is not meant to be a guilt trip. It is meant to be a word of liberation. They have been set free from the punishment of sin. Jesus took the punishment unjustly on their behalf. So, they don’t have to worry about that anymore. All they need to focus on now is to do the right thing, to live a righteous life. It was to their benefit that Jesus did this. And, having endured unjust suffering themselves, they can more fully appreciate the price that was paid for their liberation from the punishment of sin. They can take the suffering they endure into a larger perspective that gives them the strength to endure and even find affirmation of their worth because of the privilege they have to share in the suffering of Jesus. In this suffering they must endure they can find personal dignity and power to rise above and stay committed to the way of Jesus.

We obviously live in a completely different time, where human trafficking is outlawed. When we experience injustice, we have ways to address that injustice through the justice system. We can call the police. We can file a lawsuit. We can organize or participate in a boycott. We can write letters to our representatives in congress. We can vote in people that commit to address the injustices we identify in society. There are a lot of ways we can respond proactively to address injustice in the world. We don’t have to just lay down and take it. We don’t have to endure nobly like Peter is encouraging these slaves to do.

Still, is there wisdom here? I wonder if in this passage of scripture there are some directions on how to respond to unjust suffering that can be helpful for us in our day and age. Let’s take a look.

Again, look how Peter directs slaves to respond to unjust suffering the way Jesus responded. In vs. 23, Peter writes that when Jesus suffered unjustly he did not respond with abuse when he was abused. Jesus did not threaten the people that were abusing him. He entrusted himself to God. Jesus gave an example of how to endure unjust suffering with dignity and nobility. He suffered like a true king should suffer. No hitting back. No running of the mouth. No calling in his posse. Jesus just let it happen. He took it, entrusting that somehow God would work it all out.

Is this example Jesus left us helpful for how we deal with our experiences of unjust suffering? Think for a minute an experience you have had in which you were being treated unfairly. Or maybe you were engaged in some struggle to address an unjust situation. I heard someone say recently that in his family he was taught not to start a fight, but he was allowed to finish it. That sounds reasonable. Does finishing the fight include hitting back? Making threats? Calling in backup? Maybe it depends on the situation. It’s one thing to be facing down a bully. But you can’t beat up an unjust system or a faceless and nameless bureaucrat who rejects your insurance claim for no good reason.

Just think for a second. What comes to your mind when you think of a time when you were unfairly treated? How did you respond? Think about how Jesus responded to his unjust suffering. He didn’t hit back. He didn’t threaten. He didn’t call in reinforcements. He let it happen, entrusting his life to the care of God. Is that how you responded? What might have happened if you responded the way Jesus did?

Now, there is one thing I want to stress here. When Peter is writing to these slaves and given them some guidance on how to respond to instances of unjust suffering the way Jesus responded to his, this does not mean that Peter is condoning slavery. Nor, obviously, is Peter condoning unjust suffering. When Christians in the past used this scripture as biblical support for the institution of slavery or to tell slaves to keep their place when they are beaten, that is a misreading of the scripture. Here, slavery and unjust suffering provides the context for these Christians to demonstrate their capacity to endure, to remain faithful in hard times. This passage condones endurance, not injustice. But, it should be no surprise to us. The scriptures have often been misinterpreted in order to prop up power and privilege that hurts people. Another sermon.

When I think about the guidance Peter is giving to these slaves, I think about the method of non-violent resistance adopted by civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and his colleague Joseph Lowery, a United Methodist minister who once led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who died this year, Mar. 27, at the age of 98. In their struggle against segregation, a system that was supported biblically by some racist Christians, they urged non-violence as an effective tactic in their struggle. By not hitting back and not threatening, but suffering with dignity, trusting in the God who judges justly, they believed that their noble suffering would shame those who perpetrated the harm, that eventually God would change the hearts of people. They believed that the eradication of racist policies ultimately is not a matter of changed laws but of changed hearts. Malcom X, Stokley Carmichael, they chose a more aggressive resistance against a racist system. We can debate over which tactics are more effective in the dismantling of the unjust system of racism. But the point I’m making here is that when we consider what Peter is writing in this letter and how he refers to the example that Jesus left us, it is a method to resist injustice in a non-violent way that at least leaves open the possibility of change in the hearts of people.

I also keep thinking of health care workers and public health officials who are today being harassed by people for doing their jobs to help protect our health. There is a lot of fear in our society right now. People are reaching the end of their ropes. The economic damage occurring right now is real. I understand earlier in our response to the pandemic, it was easy to say that people’s lives are more important than the economy. But shutting down our economy like we have is causing a great deal of stress. It’s enough to cause some people to get aggressive, targeting their frustrations at the very people who are trying to keep us all healthy. These health care workers and public health officials have to be patient, keep doing their jobs, doing the right thing, even when they receive unfair abuse from people. There is this new phrase you hear a lot lately that goes, “Not all heroes wear capes.” When I see what some of these health workers have to deal with when they are the recipients of unfair abuse, it just makes what they are doing even more heroic to me. One would hope that with time for reflection, some of those who are aggressively protesting all that we are doing as a society to try to save lives will rethink what they have done. I, for one, am even more inspired and grateful for those who are working so hard to help keep us healthy. They are heroes.

There is something else we can take from what Peter wrote to these slaves. It is the understanding that Jesus is in solidarity with those who are victims of unjust suffering and abuse. When we are treated unfairly, when we get punished for doing the right thing, we can know that Jesus understands. He also knows what it is like to receive abuse for doing what God had called him to do. We talked about this last week, that Jesus was destined before the foundation of the world to go to the cross, to suffer and die, for our sins. He was innocent and suffered more than any of us ever will. So, when we experience unjust suffering in our own lives, we can know that Jesus knows what we are going through. He’s been there.

And that’s the other thing that is helpful to remember: Jesus suffered unjustly on behalf of all of us. None of us are innocent and pure. As the scriptures say, we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. What Peter writes here, in vs. 24, Jesus bore our sins on the cross. We are all complicit in Jesus’ suffering. Now we can feel about this in a lot of different ways. You can feel defensive. You can feel guilty, or maybe feel ashamed. I want to encourage us to take in what Peter is saying with a sense of freedom. Freedom? Yes. There is freedom in acknowledging that you are not innocent and pure. There is freedom in acknowledging your complicity in Jesus’ suffering. You are now free from having to stress about trying to protect your moral purity, what sometimes is derided as virtue signaling. Other people call it being self-righteous, or holier-than-thou. Let all that go. Just acknowledge the truth: you and I are not innocent and we shouldn’t pretend to be. Don’t even stress over that.

If we can acknowledge what Jesus has done for us, dying on the cross to free us from our sins, as Peter writes, it’s like getting a monkey off your back. It’s like taking chains off your arms. You can focus your energies on doing what’s right. Don’t make excuses. Don’t worry about what people might think about you. Don’t stress over trying to protect your reputation. You are already clear about who you are: someone who has done bad things in your life, but Jesus died on the cross to release you of that, and nothing can separate you from God’s love. So, let that go and instead, as Peter writes, live for righteousness. Do the right thing, even if you get blowback from some.

You have heard the old saying, “No good deed is left unpunished.” This is painfully true sometimes. Please hear me, as we have reflected on this passage of scripture, this is not meant to diminish the pain of being treated unfairly. The pain is real. This is suffering, after all. It hurts. And, like so much of scripture, what Peter is doing as he points to the example of Jesus is to frame it as just that, an example, something to aspire to. Of course, we won’t always get it right. Of course, we will often push back. We might hit back. We might threaten a lawsuit. When we are victims of unjust suffering, entrusting our lives to God may not seem to be enough. When we are hurting, we are not always our best selves. We do and say things all the time in the moment that in hindsight we wish we could take back. That’s being human.

Still, the example of Jesus remains for us. He has walked the path of unjust suffering and we can follow in his steps. We can choose to refrain from hitting back. We can choose to not make threats. We can choose to console ourselves with the knowledge that God knows what is true. We do have the capacity to endure unfair treatment by trusting in God, the one who loves us no matter what. By trusting in that love which comes from God, we have all we need to keep loving. We can focus on doing the right thing, no matter what.