Entrusting Oneself to God

I Peter 2:19-25, the Second Reading appointed for the 4th Sunday of Easter in the Year of Mark, is a curious reading.  The message, by itself, can seem merely a call to all believers to "take up the Cross and follow Christ." Christ suffered, so we, his followers must expect to suffer too.  Reading the context, however, only one verse earlier, makes all this considerably more complex.  Consider verse 18:  "Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh."  That verse puts the following verses, which call the hearers to "endure pain while suffering unjustly," into a whole new light.  It will be important for the preacher to lift up this context and yet to recognize the call we all have as followers of Christ.

(The following questions are meant to lift up a central concern of Law and Gospel preachers: how is the Word functioning?  This is central because Law and Gospel preaching recognizes that the way in which the Word functions in the text is the guide given to the preacher for how the sermon must function.  For more on this method and Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com and amazon.)

1.  How does the Word function in the text? The bulk of this text is a classic call to obedience. That is to say, the Word functions to invite us, even command us, to live in a certain way in response to God's work in Christ.  Here the invitation is to extraordinary living, especially when we consider the ones to whom this word is  addressed.  Slaves are being asked to endure harsh treatment and even abuse, thereby openly "entrusting [themselves] to the one who judges justly."  Clearly this text is open to abuse and is known to have been used to commit horrific acts against enslaved people.  Having said that, it stands as an extraordinary example of our calling to entrust ourselves to God. 

The Word functions in a second way in this text.  In the later verses, as the writer is focusing more and more on the example of Christ, the Word begins to proclaim gospel:  "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross... by his wounds you have been healed."  This is pure gospel.

2.  How is the Word not functioning in the text?  We are not confronted with a word of Law in this text.  In the last verse, the writer notes that the listeners "were going astray" but even that is in past tense.  There is no indication that the writer wishes to confront the audience with their need for a Savior.

3.  With whom are you identifying in the text?  This is a tricky question given the context.  While it is undoubtedly true that many of the earliest believers were household slaves, few, if any, of us today have personal knowledge of what slavery entails.  Given this, we must not claim an experience which is not ours to claim, but rather think of other experiences where we have suffered unjustly for our confession of Christ.  Like those first listeners, we are being called to entrust ourselves to the one who judges justly.

4.  What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text?  Because this text is primarily a call to obedience, we must take what little language we have regarding the Gospel and then use our imagination to create couplets which are appropriate to this text.  Some ideas:  enslaved to sin/free from sin; wounded/healed; going astray/found by the shepherd.

5.  Exegetical work:  It is instructive to note that the word translated "entrusted" in verse 23 is paradidomi, a word usually translated "handed over" or  "delivered to" or even "betrayed into".  The clear meaning of the word is that one is given into the power or control of another.  In this text, listeners are being asked to do that very thing:  give themselves over to "the one who judges justly."  We are asked to  deliver ourselves into God's power, to entrust ourselves to this Just Judge.  As noted above, the household slaves to which this was first written were being asked to do this in extreme circumstances which most of us can only imagine. Pheme Perkins, in her commentary, takes up this whole subject:  "The example of Christ's suffering permits those who are slaves to recognize a value to their own experiences of injustice.  At the same time, the sufferers know that they have a value to God, which has been expressed in Christ's death on their behalf.  The negative words and deeds directed at believers will not shake their confidence in the salvation that they have already experienced.  Suffering without belonging to this new community would be senseless." (Interpretation series, First and Second Peter, James, and Jude, p. 54) 

6.  How does the Crossings Community model work with this text?  Marcus Felde's 2017 analysis of this text takes the last verse, our "going astray", as the starting point for his diagnosis. He then goes on to show how far we go astray.  His clear prognosis also picks up on the terms in the text where Christ bears our sins "in his body on the cross."  He calls this "the sweet exchange", a favorite Crossings Community phrase.  To see the whole analysis go to crossings.org/text-study.

Blessings on your proclamation!