"In his steps": the cross I'd rather not talk about ~ 1 Peter 2:21-25

 

The cross, like love, is a powerful and multifaceted thing. It resists a simple framing and easy answers or a solitary definition. And we see that in our sanctuary today as we view different crosses from different traditions, geographies, and cultures. We have the Jerusalem cross, the Orthodox cross, the Catholic crucifix, and then there’s that one – the upside down one, which has startled many of you for it’s supposed connections to Satan or the Antichrist. But the upside down cross is not derogatory and remains possibly one of the more ancient Christian images of the early church. It’s called the Petrine cross after the Apostle Peter and it’s the cross that no one wants to talk about. And so with these varying depictions, I’d like to explore Peter’s own multifaceted understanding of Jesus’ death on a cross. According to Peter, what is the cross?

The cross is the story the Bible wants to tell.

Peter does more than anchor Jesus and the cross on a Roman hillside in first century Palestine. He connects that event to a story reaching all the way back and through the Jewish Scriptures from their very beginnings. And he wasn’t the only one. The Apostle Paul will also declare in 1 Corinthians 15:3: Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.

This was the formula of the earliest Christians who believed that the cross (and resurrection) had long been foretold by prophets, poets, even God himself all the way back in Genesis declaring to the serpent that an offspring of Eve would come and crush the head of the serpent who in turn would strike his heel (Genesis 1:15). The earliest Christians were not vainly looking for justifications for a dead Messiah. No, they learned to look back at Israel’s Scripture and story as the source for understanding the cross from Jesus himself. In Luke’s Gospel, the first resurrection encounter with Jesus has him sidling up to two disciples in disguise to give them a sort of covert-on-the-road Bible study explaining how his own death was the Old Testament story. “²⁶ Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” ²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Luke 24:26-27).

And Peter, as a follower of Jesus, looks as well to the Old Testament to tell that story by focusing on Isaiah 53 and Deuteronomy 21 using 7 citations/allusions.

1 Peter 2	Isaiah 53
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth” (2:22).	“though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth” (53:9).
“When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats” (2:23a).	“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth” (53:7).
“he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (2:23b)	“by a perversion of justice he was taken away…he shall see his offspring, and prolong his days and the will of the LORD will prosper his hand” (53:8, 10)
“He himself bore our sins” (2:24a).	“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering …he bore the sin of many” (53:4, 12).
“by his wounds you have been healed” (2:24b).	“by his wounds we are healed” (53:5).
“For you were like sheep going astray” (2:25)	“All we like sheep have gone astray” (53:6).

 

1 Peter 2	Deuteronomy 21:22:23
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the pole” (2:22).	anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse (21:23b)

Friends, you will never understand the cross if you can’t listen to Jesus and the first Christians read the Old Testament carefully as the story of Jesus dying and rising again. You simply can’t read the New Testament without the whole story and you can’t read the Old Testament without reading through the story of the cross and resurrection.

The cross is not so much a theory or equation as if the first Christians were trying to solve some complicated math problem about sin, people, and God, but the climax of a story about the God of the universe, the God of creation, the God of the Old Testament, who longed for and prophesied to save people and create a new community. By linking the cross to a larger story, Peter is also saying something else.

The cross is an exchange. “Christ suffered for you” (2:21a)

It’s time for a Greek of the Week! In the New Testament, the phrase “for us” or “for you” employs one of two Greek words. The first, huper (ὑπὲρ), which is what is used in 1 Peter 2:21, is generally translated with the English word “for.” But huper can convey several nuances of meaning, including “for the benefit of,” “in place of/instead of,” “as a representative of,” or “because of, for the reason of.”

The New Testament authors also use the Greek word peri (περὶ) to say “for.” And peri also conveys multiple meanings, such as “for, around, about,” “the reason of,” “on account of,” “concerning,” and “in regard to.”

When these writers say that Jesus died for you (most often 2^nd person plural) by using one of these two Greek words, do they mean that Jesus died for the benefit of human beings? Or that he died in the place of humans, which suggests that he died as a substitute? Or are they saying that he died because of human beings—because of what we have done or what we did to him? Or is it because of his love for humans? Is it possibly all of the above? Perhaps he died for us in all of these ways and a whole lot more. The ambiguity is intentional and significant.

However, whichever translation you provide, there is a substitutionary element. Jesus bore our sins on the pole as some kind of exchange where he takes sin and death and curse, Peter says, and offers righteousness and life. Sin and death are transferred to Jesus and his sinlessness and life are transferred to us. And that exchange is visioned in Isaiah’s suffering servant and the sacrificial system of Leviticus. But in that story and system, the cross is the means by which God cleanses us from sin and gives new life. So the problem is not within God but within us. The cross does not satisfy some honor within God’s self but reveals how God deals with our sin which harms us, which twists us, which estranges us from God. The question the cross answers is not how can we take care of God but how God takes up our pain and suffering and in return gives us healing. The book of Leviticus never speaks of sacrifice placating God. It’s a cleansing ritual to deal with sins harmful effects. 

Up till now, we have looked at two vital pieces of Peter’s exposition of the cross. That it is the story the Bible has been telling from the very beginning and that it’s a story of God exchanging our harmfulness for God’s healing. But, that hasn’t been Peter’s main point. Peter’s main point is . . .

The cross is to be copied. “To this you you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (2:21)

The cross is much more than story and exchange but also the source and origin of our ethic. Christ does not merely share our suffering, he is the model for how Christians live out their faith and respond to evil and suffering. Today you get a two-for, a second Greek of the Week. Peter will say that Jesus left us an “example” (hupogrammon) to follow. That Greek term only occurs here in the New Testament. In Hellenistic culture it often referred to the school exercise of learning to write by carefully tracing letters. The cross is then the pattern and practice for how Christians are to face evil.

This pattern for responding to evil involves:

• do no evil (sin) and tell no lies (deceit)
• do not return evil (abuse, threats, violence) for evil (abuse, threats, violence) but instead offer blessing and healing
• entrust yourself to God who brings about justice

Peter will further accentuate this point using the language of calling, hearkening back to 2:21:

⁸ Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. ⁹ Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. (1 Peter 3:8-9)

Peter understands the cross to be an ethic which confronts sin in the present by refusing to being poisoned by it, on the one hand, or further spreading it on the other. The cross is not capitulation but it is the way we fight. And Jesus’ example and Peter’s admonition about those who are innocent suffering unjustly raises a dangerous question: What am I called to face and suffer for in order to resist sin and for the sake of people’s healing? I think about the challenges related to race and becoming anti-racist in this country and understand that it’s complicated but the cross challenges the notion that I should never have to suffer for an injustice, even when I am not at fault. On the cross, Jesus suffered without retaliation in order to right wrongs that were not of his own making and calls us to do the same. In our cruciform position toward racial righteousness, we must be no different. Peter reminds us that on the cross Jesus faced wickedness with truth and love. “He did not retaliate”, Peter says, which is not the same as saying, “He did nothing.”

Peter is telling us a deeply painful truth. If we are not willing to suffer injustice for the sake of God, we will enact injustice through violent and degrading means. Through his death, we are “free,” but not simply free from guilt but free to live like Jesus for others, even enemies. This freedom calls us into a life of righteousness—it is our vocation in the world, that is, to live out the mission of God in the same way as the saving work of God in Jesus on the cross.

The cross must never stay around your neck, on top of your church, or merely hang from your wall. It will beckon you to act like Jesus and will demand your suffering for the sake of others, to create justice, and express the love of God.

Church tradition and history tells us that after the great fire of Rome under the Emperor Nero, Christians were falsely blamed and being persecuted. Peter, along with others, fled the city hoping to escape. En route, Peter is said to have encountered the risen Jesus and asked, “Where are you going, Lord?” To which Jesus replied, “I am going to Rome to be crucified again.” Upon hearing that, Peter returned to face the injustice and persecution of Rome with truth, compassion, and resolve. He went back to fight for justice. Tradition has it that at his crucifixion, he asked to be crucified upside down because he was unworthy to die in the same way as Jesus. And yet, in doing so, he demonstrated God’s upside down kingdom response to evil and injustice. He refused to capitulate. He refused retaliate. He refused to do nothing.

Friends, this is a difficult teaching that has been abused by people in power and I fear that perhaps I've not dealt adequately with that but hope that you will come to me if you have any questions. Let me say straight out, this passage must not be understood to legitimize abuse. Neither Peter nor Jesus are saying that you are to simply allow the wicked, the bullies, the abusers, to do whatever they want. No – we resist them because Jesus did. We resist them because God always stands against wickedness. Yet we resist them by Jesus’ example - refusing to run or refusing to be like them repaying evil for evil. The cross is our ethic – to which we are called, to which we must copy, and in which we will win. “To this you were called . . . that you should follow in his steps.”