1 Peter 4:7-19 Sharing in Christ's Sufferings

Photo credit: Becky Fetters

Observation: As the letter draws to a close, the author of First Peter makes some moral exhortations. The first few make perfect sense, the last one, less so. "Maintain constant love for one another" and "serve  one another" are pretty standard fare. We have heard the same from Jesus and from Paul many times. But then comes the curve ball: "Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you...but rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings..." It's not completely out of place in Christian teaching. Jesus says something very similar in the Beatitudes. But the idea of rejoicing when we suffer is still a strange concept.

Application: My friend Becky (also a Lutheran pastor) found a very bizarre gift at a local box-store. It's a ceramic cross--the symbol of Jesus' suffering to redeem the world--and on it is written "do more of what makes you happy." What a weird juxtaposition...

I hate to say it in the self-help, personal fulfillment, positivity culture in which we live, but our number one mission in life as Christians is actually not to be happy. It's to follow Jesus. We will certainly find joy on that journey. It's clear that Jesus and his disciples often did. But we'll also find some inconvenience, some grief, some harassment, and yes, some suffering, that if we were not followers of Jesus, we might have avoided. 

Again and again, I hear from people that their first priority for their kids or their grandkids is that they grow up to just be "happy". I want to push back on that a bit, from a Christian perspective. Mind you, OF COURSE I want my kids to be happy too. But if being happy means being less able to understand and empathize with the pain of others, then maybe "happy" shouldn't be the goal line. If being happy means pursuing things that will not ultimately satisfy, then maybe "happy" isn't all that great. 

What I'd like much more for my own life, and for my kids' lives, is to be able to rejoice when God's will is done, both in their own lives and in the lives of others. That doesn't always feel the same as "happy", because there exist forces in our world that resist God's will, and are willing to inflict a lot of pain on those trying to make it happen in the world. 

My idea of a good life is to be unhappy sometimes. To be unhappy with how things are, to be unhappy with whatever causes harm to my neighbor, or whatever devalues the image of God in my fellow human beings. To be unhappy about those things which make Christ unhappy, yet to rejoice at the chance to give up some level of comfort if it could make things better. That, to me, is what sharing in Christ's sufferings means. 

Prayer: God, I pray for my family, for my wife, my kids, and myself, that we would sometimes be unhappy. Help us to mourn with those who mourn, yet rejoice when your will is done on earth as in heaven. Amen.