Psalm 40; 1 Peter 3:13-22
LSB 756 Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
If you were able to rate the entire calendar year of 2020 thus far the same way you can an Amazon purchase, how many stars would you give it? Half? One? Probably no more than two, right? This year has been unique in the lives of many. Everything is in upheaval and turmoil. Uncertainty reigns. Some have become soft fatalists, attributing just another crisis or event to the calendar date. “Ah, well, its 2020.” Christians may even be tempted to think that nothing like this has happened before.
Not so fast. Go reread Ecclesiastes. There is nothing new under the sun (Ecc 1:9). 2020 may be your personal year from hell, but 250 wasn’t great either. Especially for Christians living in the vast Roman Empire. And particularly for those in Carthage, modern day Tunisia.
After a series of military victories, Decius became Roman Emperor in 249. Wanting to revive Rome’s “Golden Age” under Trajan, he made many changes to the political infrastructure. He restored the Colosseum, reinstated the ancient office of censor - a position of absolute power which oversaw public morality - and revived the traditional Roman religion.
Concerning the latter, after he himself made the annual sacrifice to Jupiter on January 3, Decius issued an edict ordering all citizens throughout the Empire to make sacrifices to the gods. He was trying to unify the vast realm through a loyalty oath. Nevertheless, this was the first time that Christians faced Empire wide legislation forcing them to chose between abandoning their religious beliefs and death.
To be sure, the edict didn’t target Christians, specifically. It ordered everyone in the Empire, with the exception of Jews, to sacrifice to the gods and the genus of Caesar. It was sort of like mask mandates. You didn’t have to believe in it or even agree with it. I was just something everyone had to do for the good of all. Practically what it meant was to burn a pinch of incense and say, “Caesar is Lord.” Do that in front of the magistrate and you received a certificate called a libellus, certifying that the holder had made the requisite sacrifice.
If you were caught without this certificate you could be arrested, have your property seized, possessions confiscated, and potentially executed for treason.
You didn’t actually have to deny Christ the way one did with the edict of Pliny the Younger in 112. But Christianity was not exempt because it was not considered to be a religion. Christians were called a-theists, atheists, because they refused to worship the Roman pantheon of gods. Because they disapproved of abortion, homosexuality, pederasty, misogyny, and a host of other “morally acceptable” Roman practices. And worse, they didn’t quietistically keep to themselves, but sought to convert others to their way of thought and life - a better way. For all this Christians were deemed socially disruptive, dangerous, and seditious. No exemption for you!
So, why not burn the incense? Its only a pinch. Why not get the libellus? You didn’t have to agree with it. Just go through the motions. Rome wasn’t worried about what you believed in your head or even what you did on Sunday. Just what you said with your mouth. Make the oath. Be a good citizen. Keep your property, your goods, your life.
Except Caesar isn’t Lord. Jesus is Lord. He is the only Son of the true God, the righteous King under whose merciful provision you live. In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make an apologia, a testimony and witness to the truth of the Gospel, to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you.
So who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Plenty of people! That’s why Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, first fled when the Decian persecution came to his hometown. Others fled with him. But some stayed. Their homes seized. Their property confiscated. Their lives taken in martyrdom for refusing to follow the edict.
But others who stayed did submit to the edict. They burned the incense. They said the oath. They got their libellus. They loved their lives in this world and so kept their property and their limbs. They did it to protect their families. Their livelihoods. They did it out of fear. Cross and trials are hard. Its easier to acquiesce, to justify and equivocate.
The edict was enforced for a year. AD 250 gets less than a star from faithful Christians. Decius died in 251 and his edict died with him. Many Christians came out of hiding. Others had been buried. Some of those who had lapsed or apostatized tried to return to the Church. And Cyprian was faced with a dilemma.
Consider this situation on a congregational level. Some Christians fled and hide, lapsing in their confession. Others had denied Christ, buried the incense and kept their lives. Others stayed, faithfully refusing the oath. And among those many were tortured or martyred.
Two little girls are friends from the same congregation. Closer than sisters. One’s parents burned the incense, got the libellus, saved their skins. The other’s refused and paid with their lives. Do you just let the apostates back ignoring what they’d done? Do you refuse to grant them fellowship in the Church for the rest of their lives? Decius may not have specifically targeted Christians, but Satan sure got what he wanted. He managed to disturb and disrupt peaceful Christian communities, causing trauma that, in some cases, lasted for generations. Only a year long, the Decian persecution became known in the collective memory of the Church an episode of monstrous tyranny.
Cyprian walked the middle way between severe strictness and simply ignoring what they’d done. He helped forge a penitential discipline that would welcome them back as members of the Body of Christ and yet only fully restore them after they had given suitable demonstration of their faithfulness to Christ. That is, I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as You know, O LORD. I have not hidden Your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation. They made the good confession. They suffered for righteousness’ sake. They suffered for doing good according to God’s will.
For your suffering and persecution and trouble are a benefit, not a hindrance, to you, dear Christian. They are catechesis. Our Lord is instructing you. Molding and shaping you. Forging and refining you as gold in the furnace, seeking to consume your dross. “Why should cross and trial grieve me? Christ is near, with His cheer; never will He leave me. Who can rob me of the heaven that God’s Son for me won when His life was given?” (LSB 756:1)
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the Righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit. This is Peter’s answer to the problem of suffering. Christ also suffered. The call to be a Christian is the call to suffer. The call to follow Jesus is the call to walk His way of suffering. If we follow Jesus, we are carrying a cross. Christ the Righteous One suffered for the unrighteous to bring us to God. We have been brought to God. Our sins are forgiven. We are redeemed. We belong to the Lord.
That’s why Peter can say, have no fear of them. Death is worshipped by fear. Pain and suffering are worshipped with fear. The devil wants us to loose hope, to despair, to cause our faith to wither and die. He wants us to lapse. To apostatize. It’ll make our lives easier. It’ll spare us pain. And probably sorrow. But it won’t give us a good conscience.
A heart prepared by fearlessness, a calm trust in Christ, who suffered for us, a good conscience, these are all gifts of the Gospel. And they come through fellowship with Christ’s death through the flood of Holy Baptism. For baptism saves you. By joining you in faith to Christ’s saving suffering and victorious death. Jesus doesn’t say, “You’ll make it through persecution. You’ll endure trouble.” He says you are blessed when you are persecuted, blessed when you are reviled, blessed when the enemies of God speak evil against you on His account. He says, Rejoice and be glad (Mt 5:10-12).
And we have the bold example of Cyprian to help us here. He came back. He faithfully guided the Church, giving pastoral care and catechesis to the family of God in Carthage. For that is what the Church is, the family of God in Christ Jesus. Cyprian famously taught, “One cannot call God Father who cannot call the Church his mother.” Here, in Holy Baptism, you are born from above in the womb of the Church. Christ is your Brother in the flesh and by the Spirit. His God is your God. His Father is your Father. He does not delight in sacrifice or offering, but has given you an open ear. To receive His Word and instruction, His catechesis in the way of faith and life.
When the next wave of persecution broke out in 256 under Emperor Valerian, Cyprian stayed and was among those who simply refused to sacrifice to the emperor. In 258 he was arrested and beheaded. His only response to the sentence of death was “Deo gratias!” “Thanks be to God!”
Beloved, he is here, along with all the saints in Christ, including your own family, gathered in the family of God in Christ Jesus, around the Table of the Lord. Here the true Sacrifice of Jesus our Lord is given to you in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. And He who stoops to serve you here, to give you a share in His indestructible Life, has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him. To Him, who lives and reigns with the Father + and the Holy Spirit, be glory now and forever. Amen.
LSB 756 Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
If you were able to rate the entire calendar year of 2020 thus far the same way you can an Amazon purchase, how many stars would you give it? Half? One? Probably no more than two, right? This year has been unique in the lives of many. Everything is in upheaval and turmoil. Uncertainty reigns. Some have become soft fatalists, attributing just another crisis or event to the calendar date. “Ah, well, its 2020.” Christians may even be tempted to think that nothing like this has happened before.
Not so fast. Go reread Ecclesiastes. There is nothing new under the sun (Ecc 1:9). 2020 may be your personal year from hell, but 250 wasn’t great either. Especially for Christians living in the vast Roman Empire. And particularly for those in Carthage, modern day Tunisia.
After a series of military victories, Decius became Roman Emperor in 249. Wanting to revive Rome’s “Golden Age” under Trajan, he made many changes to the political infrastructure. He restored the Colosseum, reinstated the ancient office of censor - a position of absolute power which oversaw public morality - and revived the traditional Roman religion.
Concerning the latter, after he himself made the annual sacrifice to Jupiter on January 3, Decius issued an edict ordering all citizens throughout the Empire to make sacrifices to the gods. He was trying to unify the vast realm through a loyalty oath. Nevertheless, this was the first time that Christians faced Empire wide legislation forcing them to chose between abandoning their religious beliefs and death.
To be sure, the edict didn’t target Christians, specifically. It ordered everyone in the Empire, with the exception of Jews, to sacrifice to the gods and the genus of Caesar. It was sort of like mask mandates. You didn’t have to believe in it or even agree with it. I was just something everyone had to do for the good of all. Practically what it meant was to burn a pinch of incense and say, “Caesar is Lord.” Do that in front of the magistrate and you received a certificate called a libellus, certifying that the holder had made the requisite sacrifice.
If you were caught without this certificate you could be arrested, have your property seized, possessions confiscated, and potentially executed for treason.
You didn’t actually have to deny Christ the way one did with the edict of Pliny the Younger in 112. But Christianity was not exempt because it was not considered to be a religion. Christians were called a-theists, atheists, because they refused to worship the Roman pantheon of gods. Because they disapproved of abortion, homosexuality, pederasty, misogyny, and a host of other “morally acceptable” Roman practices. And worse, they didn’t quietistically keep to themselves, but sought to convert others to their way of thought and life - a better way. For all this Christians were deemed socially disruptive, dangerous, and seditious. No exemption for you!
So, why not burn the incense? Its only a pinch. Why not get the libellus? You didn’t have to agree with it. Just go through the motions. Rome wasn’t worried about what you believed in your head or even what you did on Sunday. Just what you said with your mouth. Make the oath. Be a good citizen. Keep your property, your goods, your life.
Except Caesar isn’t Lord. Jesus is Lord. He is the only Son of the true God, the righteous King under whose merciful provision you live. In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make an apologia, a testimony and witness to the truth of the Gospel, to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you.
So who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Plenty of people! That’s why Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, first fled when the Decian persecution came to his hometown. Others fled with him. But some stayed. Their homes seized. Their property confiscated. Their lives taken in martyrdom for refusing to follow the edict.
But others who stayed did submit to the edict. They burned the incense. They said the oath. They got their libellus. They loved their lives in this world and so kept their property and their limbs. They did it to protect their families. Their livelihoods. They did it out of fear. Cross and trials are hard. Its easier to acquiesce, to justify and equivocate.
The edict was enforced for a year. AD 250 gets less than a star from faithful Christians. Decius died in 251 and his edict died with him. Many Christians came out of hiding. Others had been buried. Some of those who had lapsed or apostatized tried to return to the Church. And Cyprian was faced with a dilemma.
Consider this situation on a congregational level. Some Christians fled and hide, lapsing in their confession. Others had denied Christ, buried the incense and kept their lives. Others stayed, faithfully refusing the oath. And among those many were tortured or martyred.
Two little girls are friends from the same congregation. Closer than sisters. One’s parents burned the incense, got the libellus, saved their skins. The other’s refused and paid with their lives. Do you just let the apostates back ignoring what they’d done? Do you refuse to grant them fellowship in the Church for the rest of their lives? Decius may not have specifically targeted Christians, but Satan sure got what he wanted. He managed to disturb and disrupt peaceful Christian communities, causing trauma that, in some cases, lasted for generations. Only a year long, the Decian persecution became known in the collective memory of the Church an episode of monstrous tyranny.
Cyprian walked the middle way between severe strictness and simply ignoring what they’d done. He helped forge a penitential discipline that would welcome them back as members of the Body of Christ and yet only fully restore them after they had given suitable demonstration of their faithfulness to Christ. That is, I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as You know, O LORD. I have not hidden Your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation. They made the good confession. They suffered for righteousness’ sake. They suffered for doing good according to God’s will.
For your suffering and persecution and trouble are a benefit, not a hindrance, to you, dear Christian. They are catechesis. Our Lord is instructing you. Molding and shaping you. Forging and refining you as gold in the furnace, seeking to consume your dross. “Why should cross and trial grieve me? Christ is near, with His cheer; never will He leave me. Who can rob me of the heaven that God’s Son for me won when His life was given?” (LSB 756:1)
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the Righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit. This is Peter’s answer to the problem of suffering. Christ also suffered. The call to be a Christian is the call to suffer. The call to follow Jesus is the call to walk His way of suffering. If we follow Jesus, we are carrying a cross. Christ the Righteous One suffered for the unrighteous to bring us to God. We have been brought to God. Our sins are forgiven. We are redeemed. We belong to the Lord.
That’s why Peter can say, have no fear of them. Death is worshipped by fear. Pain and suffering are worshipped with fear. The devil wants us to loose hope, to despair, to cause our faith to wither and die. He wants us to lapse. To apostatize. It’ll make our lives easier. It’ll spare us pain. And probably sorrow. But it won’t give us a good conscience.
A heart prepared by fearlessness, a calm trust in Christ, who suffered for us, a good conscience, these are all gifts of the Gospel. And they come through fellowship with Christ’s death through the flood of Holy Baptism. For baptism saves you. By joining you in faith to Christ’s saving suffering and victorious death. Jesus doesn’t say, “You’ll make it through persecution. You’ll endure trouble.” He says you are blessed when you are persecuted, blessed when you are reviled, blessed when the enemies of God speak evil against you on His account. He says, Rejoice and be glad (Mt 5:10-12).
And we have the bold example of Cyprian to help us here. He came back. He faithfully guided the Church, giving pastoral care and catechesis to the family of God in Carthage. For that is what the Church is, the family of God in Christ Jesus. Cyprian famously taught, “One cannot call God Father who cannot call the Church his mother.” Here, in Holy Baptism, you are born from above in the womb of the Church. Christ is your Brother in the flesh and by the Spirit. His God is your God. His Father is your Father. He does not delight in sacrifice or offering, but has given you an open ear. To receive His Word and instruction, His catechesis in the way of faith and life.
When the next wave of persecution broke out in 256 under Emperor Valerian, Cyprian stayed and was among those who simply refused to sacrifice to the emperor. In 258 he was arrested and beheaded. His only response to the sentence of death was “Deo gratias!” “Thanks be to God!”
Beloved, he is here, along with all the saints in Christ, including your own family, gathered in the family of God in Christ Jesus, around the Table of the Lord. Here the true Sacrifice of Jesus our Lord is given to you in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. And He who stoops to serve you here, to give you a share in His indestructible Life, has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him. To Him, who lives and reigns with the Father + and the Holy Spirit, be glory now and forever. Amen.
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