Christian Suffering

November 5, 2008

I Peter 2:21-25

“This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step by step.
‘He never did one thing wrong,
Not once said anything amiss.’
They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.”

When I was a child my best friend was my next door neighbor, Chris. Most of the time, Chris and I got along really well but on occasion we would get into an argument and he would call me names. Inevitably, I would yell back at him (with that confrontational whiny tone that children can use so effectively with each other) “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

Was I mimicking a saying? Was I trying to convince myself that the phrase was true? I don’t know . . . but what I do know is that I really didn’t believe those words. Words hurt me for a long time because I trusted in others more than I trusted myself to know what was right about me and certainly more than I trusted God.

Cultures, no matter the look of them and no matter the era, all seem to have the common denominator that we, as humans, heap abuse on each other. It was true of Peter’s day and his words to the hearers of the day were that they should take care to understand what it meant to be Christian. From a literalist perspective, one could take this as an admonition to endure suffering. But, when I read this, what I hear is an exhortation to understand what it really means to practice the Christian life.

The true Christian has come to such peace in their living that they find their identity in relationship with Christ not in what others say about them or in the actions taken toward them. God is their final authority and that being the case they can choose to respond to others without investment in the opinions of others and they can choose to be the wonderful beings that God created them to be. Because of the example of Christ, the true Christian understands that not everyone in our world has claimed the peace of Christianity and even people who call themselves Christians are works in progress who haven’t quite achieved such peace. So, it seems, that the admonition of this Scripture is to live from the loving perspective of that phrase: “sticks and stones (that the world WILL hurl at us) may break our bones, but words (for Christians who place their authority in a relationship with God) will never hurt us.” With that perspective, suffering may come our way and we can count it as insignificant and as part of the journey, for we know where our security rests . . . in Christ Jesus. May so find ourselves in the safety of God’s arms! Amen.