Last week, I preached that we often wrongly prefer Jesus to serve as an example for us instead of hearing the message of Christ crucified. And maybe part of you thought, “Yeah, but I remember reading somewhere in the Bible where it tells us to imitate Jesus.” And if you thought that, you were right. For that’s what we heard in today’s epistle reading: Jesus is also an example.
But the example of Jesus doesn’t replace the crucified Jesus. For the crucified Jesus and the proper understanding of Jesus as an example do not conflict. Instead, when we properly understand and follow Jesus as our example, it makes the reality of Jesus Christ and Him crucified all the more real in our lives.
The Apostle Peter leaves little wiggle room when it comes to following Jesus as your example. Do you want to know what example Jesus left for you to follow? Suffering, that’s what. “For you were called to this,” writes Peter, “because Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his footsteps” (1 Peter 2:21).
And so, today, we consider Jesus Christ suffering for us. For how can we imitate Him if we don’t know what to imitate? Jesus as the sufferer isn’t just a pattern or a mentor in suffering; He is, instead, THE sufferer.
Jesus wrote the book on suffering, and He wrote it in His own blood. And the Apostle Peter isn’t the only one who calls us to suffer. Jesus said, “The one who wants to come with me, must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
So, don’t be surprised when suffering comes your way; it’s part of the deal. With Jesus comes His cross. You can’t have the real Jesus if you don’t have a suffering Jesus. There simply is no Jesus like that.
The reason Jesus left His Father’s throne and came down from glory was to lower Himself all the way to death, even death on the cross. He came to lay down His life as a ransom for sinners. That was the measure of His love, and the Father’s love, for a lost and fallen world. St. John wrote, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Yes, Jesus is the suffering Savior. He left us an example, so we should follow in His steps. But know this: hardship and suffering go with those footsteps. “Come, follow me,” says Jesus. Then He walked the sorrowful road to the cross.
Just following Jesus will often get us into trouble. It gets us in trouble with the devil, but also with an ungodly and unbelieving world. We get in trouble with the devil and the world because they are allied against Jesus, and we are aligned with Him–we belong to Him. It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that the going can get tough in this world, because the enemies of Jesus are enemies of His friends, as well.
We often wonder what went wrong when life takes a hard turn for us. We think that if we are on God’s side everything should be fine and dandy. Not so, says St. Peter. “You were called to this,” he insists (1 Peter 2:21).
Because Christ suffered for you, you should expect to suffer when you have done nothing wrong. This is the life you have inherited because you belong to Jesus. Following in His steps means you share in His sufferings because you have the same enemies He has. These sufferings, then, can become the mark of genuine Christian faith; they show that you belong to Jesus, the patient Lamb of God.
Peter tells us, “Christ committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). True enough, yet that’s only half the story. For Peter quoted those words from the Prophet Isaiah, where we see the full extent of the trials of the suffering Messiah: “They intended to bury him with the wicked, but he ended up in a rich man’s tomb, for he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth” (Isaiah 53:9).
It’s a package deal, this patient love of Jesus for His Church. It not only includes suffering but also death. That’s how we confess it in the Apostles’ creed: “He suffered for us under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.”
On Good Friday, when we will hear the Passion of Jesus, it won’t be so we can feel sorry for Him and all He went through at the hands of those bad people. Those conniving enemies of Jesus didn’t destroy Him. No, it was the deliberate plan of God to make Jesus the victim of our sin so we could go free. “He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds and crushed because of our sins. He bore the punishment that made us whole and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
Peter gives us the shorthand version: “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he did not threaten revenge. Instead, He entrusted Himself to the One who judges fairly” (1 Peter 2:23).
That about sums up the suffering of Jesus. From His first words at the cross until His last, Jesus’ sole concern was to do the Father’s will in giving His body and shedding His blood for the forgiveness of our sins. He did not utter a word in self-defense or revenge from the beginning to the end. Instead, Jesus began by saying, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). And He ended by saying, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
Now that is love for you. Love never seeks its own way but pours itself out for others. At the cross, we see Love incarnate pouring Himself out for the sins of the entire world. His is a patient, suffering love. Having loved His own, Jesus loved them all the way to death, even death on a cross. That is the measure of His love, this patient Lamb of God, this suffering Lamb.
As Christians, it’s not as if we are twisted in some way and seek out and enjoy suffering. But we are to take it when it comes our way because we know it goes with the territory. As Peter says, “For you were called to this because Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his footsteps” (1 Peter 2:21). But suffering is never for suffering’s sake, as an end in itself.
Jesus didn’t suffer just to suffer. It served God’s purposes. As Peter reminds us, “Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross, so that, having died to sins, we would live in righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).
So, we now arrive at the heart of Jesus and His suffering. It had a redemptive purpose. Jesus suffered not because He enjoyed suffering but, instead, for the joy that was set before Him: The eternal salvation of all who by faith embrace the salvation He earned for the entire world.
The reason Jesus was sacrificed is that He was the sin-bearer–not His sins but ours. He took into Himself all our selfishness, our pride and arrogance, and our stubborn refusal to love God more than anything else and our neighbors as ourselves. He took into Himself our refusal to let God be God and all our prideful striving to build ourselves up by tearing others down. Each of these sins of ours deserves eternal death. So it’s no wonder that Jesus died, although He is God who cannot die. For He is our sin-bearer, who bore all our sins in His own body.
And when Jesus took our sins into Himself in His suffering and death, it didn’t just stop there. He also took them away from us. He removed, once and for all, the death penalty that stood against us. In a mysterious way, we also died in that death of His. Peter explains it this way: “so that, having died to sins, we would live in righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).
On the cross is where Christ’s patience becomes our patience. There, our impatience and ungodliness was given to Jesus in His death. He has taken it all away and given us His own righteousness. We don’t just have a new way of life–we have a whole new life! What does that mean in how we lives our lives? It means this: When others insult us, we need not retaliate. When we suffer, we need not threaten others in return.
Perhaps, over the years, you have suffered much from the words or actions of others. And you are not alone. Many of us are among the walking wounded. It’s a tough, dark world; in such a world, people get hurt.
But remember that when Jesus was wounded for your transgressions, He also took your pain with Him to His cross. By His wounds, you have been healed. Your pain ends in Him who cried out in triumph that day at Calvary: “It is finished!” You need not carry your pain with you any longer. Jesus bears your grief and carries all your sorrows. There is healing in His holy body and most precious blood.
That’s why we no longer have to repay evil with evil or insult for insult (1 Peter 3:9). After all, we have died to sin and are alive to righteousness. And that righteousness isn’t our own but a gift of God–the righteousness of Jesus Himself.
And so we don’t have to ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” because He lives in us by faith, and we are alive in Him. As the Apostle Paul writes: “All who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too can walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).
Can you not see? You have a whole new life in Christ and His righteousness. Take it and go with it into life. Live in Him as He is alive in you–this patient Lamb of God who bore all your sins in His own body on the tree. For by His wounds you have been healed. Amen.
