Isaiah 52:13-52:12; 1 Peter 2:11-3:7
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Apostle addresses you as beloved. As those who have received the love of God the Father in and by the person of Christ Jesus, His Son, our Lord; who is Himself, the One and Only, the Beloved, as attested by the Father’s voice at His Baptism (Mt 4). It is in Christ, that is, being born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pt 1:4), purchased with His precious Blood, made to be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, God’s people, receiving mercy, grace upon grace, that you are beloved. The object and recipients of His unconditional, inexhaustible, self-sacrificial love. His agapetoi; His beloved.
Receiving this love, living by this love, being shown mercy, once being not a people, now being God’s people, how ought you to live as sojourners and exiles among the Gentiles? St Peter said it earlier: As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct (1:15). Now he unpacks the character and quality of that holiness. What does it look like?
Or to ask it catechetically: Where do I live out my faith in Christ Jesus who loved me and gave Himself for me? What does the life of faith in Christ and sacrificial love look like? Or, in the language of the Psalm, what does it mean to walk in His ways? (Ps 128:1)
Now whereas St Paul ordinarily concludes his epistles with exhortations to godly living, bearing fruit in keeping with repentance and faith; his doctrinal essays bud into practical application. St Peter integrates the external life of the Christian lived in the world with the internal life of the Christian lived before God. Either way, the emphasis and the origin are the same: what one believes is displayed in how one lives. As St James succinctly says, Faith apart from works is useless (James 2:20).
For while you, dear Christian, are caught up to live before God in faith, having been declared righteous in His sight of the sake of Jesus Christ, in your baptism you are also pressed down into the world for the good of your neighbor to live in love and good deeds, charity and mercy, compassion and kindness, self-control and patience.
Thus you are called, as St Peter said previously, to holiness and mercy, as your Father in heaven is holy and merciful. By His grace, according to His Word and in His Spirit, you are being fashioned into a spiritual household, as true family in Christ Jesus, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pt 2:5). The nature of these sacrifices, of this daily liturgy, will differ according to your calling, your vocatio, your vocation in life.
Citizens owe allegiance to the governing authority as put in place by God Himself to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. Doubtless you will raise the question, “What if the government does the exact opposite? What if they punish the good and praise those who do evil?” Firstly, little more needs to be said than to note who was Emperor of Rome during the time of the writing of this Epistle: Nero. After the fire of A+D 64, Nero extensively tortured and executed Christians. He had St Paul beheaded. He had St Peter crucified upside down. Yet he writes, Honor the emperor.
Secondly, know this: temporal authority, while clearly established by God, is established after the fall. Unlike the Church, or even the family, in a certain sense, all earthly government is merely temporary, not eternal. It is passing away. And it knows so. Perhaps this is why when corrupted by sinful men, it seeks at every turn, to supplant the Church and the family. Why it snatches and grabs for power and control well beyond its established reaches.
Christ himself made this distinction, and summed it al up very nicely when he said in Matthew 22: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Now, if the imperial power extended into God’s kingdom and authority, and were not something separate, Christ would not have made this distinction. For the soul is not under the authority of Caesar; he can neither teach it nor guide it, neither kill it nor give it life, neither bind it nor loose it, neither judge it nor condemn it, neither hold it fast nor release it. (AE 45:111)
Yet, your old Adam hates these exhortations to holy living and willing obedience and rebels against them in many and various ways, often inventing new forms of good works and acts of love. He must be kept in check, drowned in Holy Baptism and impaled on the stake of the Law once more. But the new man delights and rejoiced in the description of the life of faith in Christ.
For what you hear tonight from St Peter the Small Catechism calls the Table of Duties. And in it you are given the vivid, concrete and specific language of those passages which describe Christ, who loved us and gave Himself up for us (Eph 5:2). Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.
Christ Jesus is the One, the only One, the Beloved One, who submitted Himself as a faithful citizen to the earthly authority of Pontus Pilate, believing that God would accomplish His saving purpose through the evil acts of corrupt civil rulers. Christ Jesus is the faithful Husband who loves His wife the Church and is not harsh with her, but lives with her in an understanding way, as His weaker vessel. His submission to the Father’s will for our benefit is the pattern for a Christian wife’s submission to her own husband.
Jesus is the One who loved His neighbor in place of Himself, laying down His life for the benefit of another, thereby making Him the quintessential parent, child, master and slave. His actions of sacrificial love flow out of His faith in the Father’s undeserved love for the world as proclaimed in the Gospel.
It is the proclamation of this Gospel, beloved, for the full and free forgiveness of all of your sins which sets you free from the condemnation of the Law, free from the accusation of the Law, free from the Father’s wrath, and free from striving and wrestling to earn favor, merit grace, or deserve mercy. Hence St Peter’s admonishment, Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
In his Treatise on Christian Freedom, Luther centered his dialectic on this paradox:
A Christian is the freest lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
While a phenomenal discussion of true Christian freedom and its meaning, I recommend it wholly, Luther’s treatise is dense and difficult. Since most of you know that I get much of my theology from movies, anyway, easier, perhaps, is the line from Braveheart: William Wallace rides before his compatriots, outnumbered and scared, and declares that he sees before him on the battle field a whole army of free men. He asks, “What will you do with that freedom?” Will they run and hide and save themselves? Or will they fight to save others and perhaps die for countrymen they’ve never met?
You, beloved Christians, emblazoned with the Cross of our Lord, the sign of His victory and the mark of His servants are called to work and fight and pray against the devil and his seething rage. Called to thwart the powers of tyranny, that is, to suppress and mortify your selfish flesh, and to live in sacrificial service, and perhaps even die, for your neighbor, for his good.
For the citizen, your neighbor is the governing authority. Submit as the Lord has called you. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust.
Wives, be subject to your own husbands; being adorned with the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.
Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
St Peter begins with the government and ends with the household, with marriage. That is, he begins from the outside and ends at the center. Marriage, as the Lord has established it, is foundational and fundamental for all other earthly authority. The life-long union of man and woman is how God creates and sustains new human life. This is the place where daily bread is given and received.
And behold, beloved, today is the day of visitation. For that word is derived from espicopoi. Bishop. Here Christ, the Bishop above reproach, holding firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, saves you, His hearers. Indeed, He is the faithful Hearer of the Father’s Word, following His Father’s will for your sake. Bearing your sins in His body on the Tree, that you might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have not returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
It is here that your true Shepherd and Bishop feeds you. Bestows upon you, His beloved, the gifts of His victory and the fruits of His life-giving Tree. Here He blesses you from Zion and bestows peace in His own Body and Blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. By these He strengthens you to live in faith toward Him and sends you out to live in fervent love toward one another.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Apostle addresses you as beloved. As those who have received the love of God the Father in and by the person of Christ Jesus, His Son, our Lord; who is Himself, the One and Only, the Beloved, as attested by the Father’s voice at His Baptism (Mt 4). It is in Christ, that is, being born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pt 1:4), purchased with His precious Blood, made to be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, God’s people, receiving mercy, grace upon grace, that you are beloved. The object and recipients of His unconditional, inexhaustible, self-sacrificial love. His agapetoi; His beloved.
Receiving this love, living by this love, being shown mercy, once being not a people, now being God’s people, how ought you to live as sojourners and exiles among the Gentiles? St Peter said it earlier: As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct (1:15). Now he unpacks the character and quality of that holiness. What does it look like?
Or to ask it catechetically: Where do I live out my faith in Christ Jesus who loved me and gave Himself for me? What does the life of faith in Christ and sacrificial love look like? Or, in the language of the Psalm, what does it mean to walk in His ways? (Ps 128:1)
Now whereas St Paul ordinarily concludes his epistles with exhortations to godly living, bearing fruit in keeping with repentance and faith; his doctrinal essays bud into practical application. St Peter integrates the external life of the Christian lived in the world with the internal life of the Christian lived before God. Either way, the emphasis and the origin are the same: what one believes is displayed in how one lives. As St James succinctly says, Faith apart from works is useless (James 2:20).
For while you, dear Christian, are caught up to live before God in faith, having been declared righteous in His sight of the sake of Jesus Christ, in your baptism you are also pressed down into the world for the good of your neighbor to live in love and good deeds, charity and mercy, compassion and kindness, self-control and patience.
Thus you are called, as St Peter said previously, to holiness and mercy, as your Father in heaven is holy and merciful. By His grace, according to His Word and in His Spirit, you are being fashioned into a spiritual household, as true family in Christ Jesus, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pt 2:5). The nature of these sacrifices, of this daily liturgy, will differ according to your calling, your vocatio, your vocation in life.
Citizens owe allegiance to the governing authority as put in place by God Himself to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. Doubtless you will raise the question, “What if the government does the exact opposite? What if they punish the good and praise those who do evil?” Firstly, little more needs to be said than to note who was Emperor of Rome during the time of the writing of this Epistle: Nero. After the fire of A+D 64, Nero extensively tortured and executed Christians. He had St Paul beheaded. He had St Peter crucified upside down. Yet he writes, Honor the emperor.
Secondly, know this: temporal authority, while clearly established by God, is established after the fall. Unlike the Church, or even the family, in a certain sense, all earthly government is merely temporary, not eternal. It is passing away. And it knows so. Perhaps this is why when corrupted by sinful men, it seeks at every turn, to supplant the Church and the family. Why it snatches and grabs for power and control well beyond its established reaches.
Christ himself made this distinction, and summed it al up very nicely when he said in Matthew 22: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Now, if the imperial power extended into God’s kingdom and authority, and were not something separate, Christ would not have made this distinction. For the soul is not under the authority of Caesar; he can neither teach it nor guide it, neither kill it nor give it life, neither bind it nor loose it, neither judge it nor condemn it, neither hold it fast nor release it. (AE 45:111)
Yet, your old Adam hates these exhortations to holy living and willing obedience and rebels against them in many and various ways, often inventing new forms of good works and acts of love. He must be kept in check, drowned in Holy Baptism and impaled on the stake of the Law once more. But the new man delights and rejoiced in the description of the life of faith in Christ.
For what you hear tonight from St Peter the Small Catechism calls the Table of Duties. And in it you are given the vivid, concrete and specific language of those passages which describe Christ, who loved us and gave Himself up for us (Eph 5:2). Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.
Christ Jesus is the One, the only One, the Beloved One, who submitted Himself as a faithful citizen to the earthly authority of Pontus Pilate, believing that God would accomplish His saving purpose through the evil acts of corrupt civil rulers. Christ Jesus is the faithful Husband who loves His wife the Church and is not harsh with her, but lives with her in an understanding way, as His weaker vessel. His submission to the Father’s will for our benefit is the pattern for a Christian wife’s submission to her own husband.
Jesus is the One who loved His neighbor in place of Himself, laying down His life for the benefit of another, thereby making Him the quintessential parent, child, master and slave. His actions of sacrificial love flow out of His faith in the Father’s undeserved love for the world as proclaimed in the Gospel.
It is the proclamation of this Gospel, beloved, for the full and free forgiveness of all of your sins which sets you free from the condemnation of the Law, free from the accusation of the Law, free from the Father’s wrath, and free from striving and wrestling to earn favor, merit grace, or deserve mercy. Hence St Peter’s admonishment, Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
In his Treatise on Christian Freedom, Luther centered his dialectic on this paradox:
A Christian is the freest lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
While a phenomenal discussion of true Christian freedom and its meaning, I recommend it wholly, Luther’s treatise is dense and difficult. Since most of you know that I get much of my theology from movies, anyway, easier, perhaps, is the line from Braveheart: William Wallace rides before his compatriots, outnumbered and scared, and declares that he sees before him on the battle field a whole army of free men. He asks, “What will you do with that freedom?” Will they run and hide and save themselves? Or will they fight to save others and perhaps die for countrymen they’ve never met?
You, beloved Christians, emblazoned with the Cross of our Lord, the sign of His victory and the mark of His servants are called to work and fight and pray against the devil and his seething rage. Called to thwart the powers of tyranny, that is, to suppress and mortify your selfish flesh, and to live in sacrificial service, and perhaps even die, for your neighbor, for his good.
For the citizen, your neighbor is the governing authority. Submit as the Lord has called you. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust.
Wives, be subject to your own husbands; being adorned with the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.
Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
St Peter begins with the government and ends with the household, with marriage. That is, he begins from the outside and ends at the center. Marriage, as the Lord has established it, is foundational and fundamental for all other earthly authority. The life-long union of man and woman is how God creates and sustains new human life. This is the place where daily bread is given and received.
And behold, beloved, today is the day of visitation. For that word is derived from espicopoi. Bishop. Here Christ, the Bishop above reproach, holding firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, saves you, His hearers. Indeed, He is the faithful Hearer of the Father’s Word, following His Father’s will for your sake. Bearing your sins in His body on the Tree, that you might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have not returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
It is here that your true Shepherd and Bishop feeds you. Bestows upon you, His beloved, the gifts of His victory and the fruits of His life-giving Tree. Here He blesses you from Zion and bestows peace in His own Body and Blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. By these He strengthens you to live in faith toward Him and sends you out to live in fervent love toward one another.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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