The text this morning is from Peter’s first epistle, the second chapter:
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 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. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! And what a joy it is that as we look upon our resurrected Christ, we see, even still in His body, that He bears the scars of His suffering. Remember that our Lord, raised from the dead, still bore the marks of the crucifixion.
While we never had a description of the rest of Him after the resurrection, we know that He still had the nail marks in His feet and hand. You could put His hand to your face and look through it. He still had the mark of the spear after it was thrust into His side. You could put your hand in and touch His rib.
In fact, Jesus had invited Thomas to do such a thing. I often feel badly for Thomas, who has been given the moniker “Doubting Thomas.” Thomas didn’t doubt, not really. Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus appeared to the disciples, and since dead people don’t get up out of their graves, Thomas wasn’t doubting; Thomas had no reason, other than the promises of Jesus, to believe it.
I think we should call him “Confessing Thomas,” for it is when He sees Jesus that one of the most amazing personal confessions of the Lord is made. The best is probably Peter’s when he says to Jesus,” You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But Thomas’ is only lesser by a degree when he says, “My Lord and my God.”
This is what Thomas faced: a dead Savior, now risen from the dead, standing in front of him, proving that all Jesus said could be real. And though it took his own eyes to believe it, and make no mistake, Jesus is fine with that, He doesn’t chastise Thomas for needing proof, Jesus also makes sure that those who believe without seeing Jesus will also be blessed. That’s you.
Thomas and the disciples were given to see the resurrected Lord with their own two eyes. They could hug Him, grasp Him, kiss Him, hear Him, see Him, touch, Him, even smell Him. We can’t. Yet, the disciples wrote these things down so that we may believe, and that by believing, we may have life in His name.
See the careful attention they gave to our Jesus, even making sure that we knew His scars were there. For in His resurrection, the scars, the holes no longer bring Jesus any pain, but they serve to crown Him with glory. These marks He took to Himself for your sake, so that you would never have to suffer the eternal consequence of your sin. His marks remind you of what was yours but now is His.
But His makes also serve to remind you to follow after Him. It’s not something we Lutherans always talk about, but maybe we should more. We should talk about how we see Christ as our example, to do what He did, even suffering all things for His name. We talk about Christ as the victim, crucified unjustly for our sake, in our place. We talk about Christ as victor, risen from the grave, conquering death and putting it under His feet as a footstool. But we should talk about Christ as our example as well.
And it’s something that we all know. We all know we should do good. We all know that we want to be Christ-like. We all know that God is pleased with us when we do things according to His will, according to His Law.
But, we don’t always, and we don’t always do it well, talk about how we are to follow Christ in His suffering. Some preachers out there today keep telling us about the victorious life in Christ we should have. We should have wealth, and health, and happiness because that’s what God died for. One preacher, a year and a half ago, even said that Jesus died so that we can lay claim to the promise of financial prosperity. Of course, he quickly tried to cover it up and delete it from the internet. Though, we should all know, nothing on the internet is really ever deleted. But is that what Jesus died for? I don’t recall reading that in the Scriptures.
In fact, Jesus has a word for that preacher, and so many other preachers who are like them: these men seek to steal and kill and destroy. They try to find you to destroy you, to send you to hell. They are tools of Satan and his minions and they want you burn in hell while they zoom off in their Gulfstreams.
Jesus, however, is the Good Shepherd. He is the door to the sheepfold. He makes sure we’re safe, that we’re protected, that we’re well-fed by His Word and Sacraments. Jesus wants you safe and sound in His own arms, His own nail-pierced hands. He is the Good Shepherd.
And so when the Spirit inspires Peter to write the words we heard today, that Christ’s suffering for you is an example for you to follow in His footsteps, you can be sure that this, as uncomfortable as it may be, is the will of God for you. And more than that, when you suffer for Christ, by His example, you can also be assured that this is HOW Christ continues to keep you safe.
It’s said that blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. That means that when people are persecuted for their faith, even to the point of death, the Church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, tends to take shape in that place and grows in ways unimaginable to human minds. It doesn’t make sense to us how the Church continues to grow in places like the Middle East and China, where Christianity is outlawed, yet because of the death of the saints, it emboldens the faithful to hold fast their confession of the faith and the Church continues to grow.
When the Church is allowed to become complacent in their faith, when it doesn’t face the challenges of living in but not of the world, then the Church begins to decline in that area, like it has in Europe, and even here in the States. But our Lord promises that there will always be a remnant, a group who continues to preach that Jesus Christ died for sinners, among whom I am chief. I’d like to consider us as part of that remnant, those who remain faithful unto death.
We will suffer for Christ. And when we do, we do so with our eyes firmly fixed upon the Author and Perfecter of our faith. And we take joy in that we were counted worthy of sharing in His suffering. And indeed you are. Through the death and resurrection of Christ for you, for the forgiveness of your sins, for the promise to you of everlasting life, you are brought into the sheepfold of Christ. You are brought into the fold to hear His voice through the Word. You are brought into the fold to be fed by His body and blood. You are brought into the fold to be washed clean in the blood of the Lamb.
And the world will come against you. It will fight against the door of the sheepfold. It will try to knock down the doors and walls of the Church. Yet, even the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So, stand firm, my friends. Stand firm in the faith; know your confession, know what the Scriptures say, be strengthened with His Sacraments. Do this for you, for your children, for your grandchildren. If you won’t, who will? Follow the example of Christ, even if that example will lead you to your death, where as your eyes close for the last time, you may heard to exclaim, “My Lord and my God.” And you will see Him, you will see Jesus, because for you, He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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