April 26, 2026 Text: 1 Peter 2:19-25
Dear Friends in Christ,
If you want to show someone as a good example, where do you turn? If you want to commend good behavior, a kindness that didn’t go unnoticed or somebody who handled their finances well, where do you turn? Do you look to people in the public eye? Maybe. But as we learn so often, many of these folks are deeply flawed and have their moral failures. There are no perfect examples. If there are people out there who are good examples, and there are some, maybe even in your own life, we may feel they set the bar so high we can never measure up to them.
Today in the text Peter holds up another example. This one is different than any role model. The apostle commends to us the Good Shepherd, Christ Jesus. He is the Savior, who suffered for our sins and was raised from death to give life to unruly and straying sheep. This Good Shepherd is . . .
“MORE THAN AN EXAMPLE”
Leonhardt Goppelt describes the context of 1 Peter: “Christians were discriminated against by slanderous accusations…This verbal hostility against the Christians comes from their fellow citizens, also and precisely from their relatives, colleagues, and acquaintances. It is more than personal insult: It takes from them the public respect on which existence in society depended, even more than in our time, and public officials have found action against them appropriate.”
The Christians suffered. Peter writes they were suffering unjustly. The suffering here is what happens when Christians are doing what is good and right in the Lord’s eyes. They are cross bearing. Identified with the Lord. It recently happened to a pro basketball player of the Chicago Bulls. He was cut from the team because he called homosexuality a sin on a personal web page. He wasn’t speaking for the team. This is what we can be up against, especially in corporate America. Some of you know of what I speak. Herman Sasse writes, “To believe in the cross always means also to carry the cross. A yes to the cross of Christ is also a yes to my cross.”
Christ is an example of endurance. Before we go any further, let’s make this clear. Christ’s suffering for us always comes first. Because he has suffered for us, he becomes an example for our bearing of the cross. We are not justified by imitating Christ. But he is the pattern for the life of the Christian in the world.
When Christ was insulted and ridiculed. He received it. He was betrayed by friends. Spit upon. Heckled by soldiers. He is then unjustly executed as a blasphemer. The One who knew no sin is made sin for us.
Our Good Shepherd is an example of forgiveness for those who do us wrong. Forgiveness of sins was his mission. He innocently suffers and atones for our sins. Throughout his life he extended this forgiveness. The healing of the paralytic. The woman caught in adultery. He even prayed from the cross that his tormenters would be forgiven.
More than an example, Christ forgives us. He is a victim who does not victimize. History is full of examples of how oppressed people became oppressors themselves. But Jesus does not make victims of those who persecute him. He bears the sin of the world – and our individual sin – in his body. Being forgiven, we are released from sin’s power.
Our Good Shepherd is the example of putting our lives into the hands of a faithful God. Jesus commends his spirit to the Father. The Jewish “now I lay me down to sleep” prayer becomes his prayer. We follow Jesus’ example with, in effect, the same prayer in Luther’s Morning and Evening Prayers: “For into your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things.”
More than an example, Jesus is the shepherd and guardian of our souls. We have the assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We are not snatched from the hands of the Good Shepherd. The evil of others, He can work for our good if we trust in him.
This theology of Jesus as example, can be a little tricky for Lutherans. But if we remember it all flows from him by faith then we can happily live the life he has earned for us. He is an example for the life of faith in the Father and love for our neighbor. Rescued by the Shepherd, reconciled to the Father, the Gospel enlivens us to live in Him and for Him.
Amen.