Easter II

For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned
unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
(1 St. Peter ii. 25)
 
In Eastertide, we are called to become members of Jesus Christ’s Resurrected Body by remembering that we were lost sheep or sheep going astray who have been found. Christians believe that they have been found by Jesus Christ, the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls. In Baptism, we believe that Christ has found us and has begun the process of our redemption and salvation. Our redemption demands Christ’s care of our souls.  Original sin was wiped out in Baptism, but still, we commit actual sins. So, we must submit ourselves to the care of Christ the Good Shepherd as He helps us to overcome the sin which doth so easily beset us. (Hebrews xii. 1)        

But first, we must learn what we, as the sheep of Christ, look like. This morning’s lesson from First Peter helps us. Here, St. Peter addresses the newly formed Church in Asia Minor. Most of its members are servants or slaves. Christian slaves have welcomed Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd who has found them and wants them as His own forever. Not surprisingly, they are having a hard time with the spiritual liberation that Christ brings. Because they are slaves, they are tempted with resentment, bitterness, and anger against their earthly overlords. St. Peter understands how difficult it must be for these earthly slaves to have patience with and forgive their masters. The earthly slave is owned by another man and treated as chattel or property. So the exhortation to longsuffering and love is a high calling indeed!

But the ancient slaves addressed by St. Peter provide a useful picture of the lost fallen human being in any age. For what is a fallen man but a slave to sin? And what is a lost man but one who is subject to powers in the dark unknown? And what are suffering and sacrifice if not the normative conditions for getting better and finding excellence in any worthwhile endeavor?
Prior to this morning’s Epistle reading, St. Peter says this to the slaves. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. (1 St. Peter ii. 18) 
The first order of business for St. Peter is not the earthly liberation of the slaves. Far more important is the spiritual state of their souls as an instrument of their true liberation, or salvation. They are called to be humble servants who respect and honor their earthly masters no matter what characters their earthly masters might possess. St. Peter’s advice seems irrational, unjust, hardhearted, and cruel. And if he were writing to fallen men whose only hope was earthly equity, we should have to judge him as wrongheaded. But St. Peter is not writing to unbelievers but to those who have been found by God’s Good Shepherd through a greater justice that rewards redemption and salvation through true freedom.

St. Peter knows that true freedom is inward and spiritual. He knows also that it is the gift of God to those who believe. He insists that it is found only in Jesus Christ, in whom God’s goodness alone enables man to triumph over evil. For Christians, the first order of business is to cleave to God’s goodness through Jesus Christ, come what may. No matter how dire a believer’s situation, he can always embrace God’s goodness as the instrument of eventual liberation through salvation. Given this, he must accept punishment for faults with patience. It is just and logical that he be punished for wrongdoing. God does not praise or bless a man who is punished for his sins. But when a man is faultless and does good and is punished for it, he must likewise be patient. In Christ alone, man can suffer patiently and unjustly for doing well. For this reason, St. Peter reminds the slaves, whose first aim is to please God, that they are worthy of praise and approval if they endure pain while suffering unjustly. Patience of the innocent sufferer wins credit in God’s sight. (ibid, 20)

St. Peter even goes on to remind Christian slaves that suffering is part of Christian life. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps. (1 St. Peter ii. 21) St. Peter insists because Christ, the Good Shepherd, God’s own Son, walked the way of suffering, we should expect nothing less on our own spiritual journey. Christ suffered in our stead and for our good.         

Christ suffered of His own free will for us and our salvation. He never sinned. He was not crafty, deceitful, dishonest, or duplicitous. He was not selfish. He didn’t fight tit for tat. When subjected to torture and death, He did not threaten his persecutors. Rather, He put Himself into the hands of the Heavenly Father for God’s judgment. He took on our sins and put them to death so that we too might be dead to sin and alive to righteousness in Him.

In today’s Epistle, Peter intends to turn the souls of the slaves to Christ for that true liberation that no man can threaten. And in so doing, St. Peter makes the radical claim that no human situation or condition, however difficult, excuses the Christian from patient suffering and forgiveness of enemies. Christ is the forgiveness of sins made flesh to be received in the heart of every believer. The slaves have been forgiven their sins by Christ and must forgive their masters. And too must we. Both Peter, the ancient slaves, and we must remember that they were once like sheep like without a shepherd. (St. Matthew ix. 36) With Peter, all believers can become evangelists of the forgiveness of sins and Christ’s Resurrection. Peter was a slave to his own fear and cowardice when he denied Christ; the slaves were still sinners, and we are sinners. But now Christ, the Good Shepherd, offers to free all believers from the author of evil in this world and his malicious friends.
           
Today Jesus says to us, I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. (St. John x. 11) Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. And on this Second Sunday of Easter, we are called to meditate upon how Christ is our only Good Shepherd. Too often, we are led astray by hirelings, false shepherds and pastors, who are cowards that flee the necessary conflict and warfare of human life that is necessary for both the procurement of elementary goodness and then salvation. Christ is no wolf in sheep’s clothing. He courageously laid down His life for us. He went to the Cross to wage the last battle against sin, death, and Satan. The Captain of our Salvation promises us that if we follow Him, we must sacrifice, suffer, die to sin, and then embrace and spread His goodness. That we might suffer at the hands of a world that cannot welcome Christ’s presence and posture must never deter us.  

Today, St. Peter shows the slaves and us that Christ, the Shepherd and Bishop of [our] souls (idem), was also a slave. He giveth His life for the sheep. (St. John x. 11) Christ the Good Shepherd was the voluntary Slave who worked freely and completely for the good of two Masters – His Father and His sheep! He lays down His life for His sheep because He knows that only then can His Father’s Love become a true Slave to their condition, bear its burden fully, take on punishment for their sin, and then break sin’s chains through the perfect power of the forgiveness of their sins. 
Christ the Good Shepherd, risen from the dead and ascended back to the Father desires to become our servant or slave even now. If we do not allow Him to be our servant, we have no part in Him. (St. John xiii. 8) The Good Shepherd cares only for our welfare and good. Because the Good Shepherd is God’s servant or slave who alone has mastered our sin, we must hear His voice and obey Him.
Christ, the Good Shepherd, has come into the world to find us, His lost sheep. Will we allow Him to be both our slave and Master as He enables us to follow the blessed steps of His most holy life? (Collect, Easter II) If we do, forgiveness and patience are necessary virtues that will liberate us from all slavery and save us.  
Amen.
©wjsmartin