Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
-
Upload
brandon-rhodes -
Category
Documents
-
view
219 -
download
0
Transcript of Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
1/13
Suffering and Salvation,Submission and Subversion
GROUNDING NONVIOLENCE IN 1 PETER
Brandon D. Rhodes | May 2007
Box #679
1
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
2/13
(All scripture citations are taken from the English Standard Version, the ESV.)
Introduction & Thesis
The First Letter of Peter can, at first blush, run against the subversive and
countercultural current of the rest of the New Testament. Where Paul builds his gospel
and theology by reworking imperial rhetoric around Jesus, by claiming that this Jesus
not Caesar is the worlds one true lord,1 Peter tells his readers to honorthe emperor not
once, but twice! Peter tells slaves to stay in line, but doesnt follow Paul in insisting that
masters also love their slaves. Where is the justice in this? For all his meditation on
suffering, Peter doesnt always seem to present an explicit way to overcome it. Instead, it
can feel, the Christian is to be passive and just let bad things happen; as David Bartlett
has said, 1 Peter can be seen as profoundly unliberating.2 Indeed: Jesus and Paul stand
up to the powers in the name of love and justice, and all Peter asks is that we not rock the
boat! The activist impulse of Christians across political, cultural, and generational lines
will saddle up along 1 Peter with no small anxiety.
It will be shown, though, that 1 Peter arrives at and advocates a dissident and
countercultural spirituality rooted in Isaiah-draped reflections on and applications of
Jesus suffering love and cruciform victory. By following the Messiahs Way, suffering
Christians can overcome pagan malice with enemy-love, evil with nonviolence, and
injustice with redemptive submission.
Arguments
1 Wright, N.T. Pauls Gospel and Caesars Empire, inPaul and Politics: Ekklesia, Israel, Imperium,
Interpretation. Essays in Honor of Krister Stendahl. Ed. Richard A. Horsley. (Harrisburg, PA: TPI, 2000),
160-183. Available online athttp://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/wright.htm .
2 Bartlett, David. L. The First Letter of Peter: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections, in The New
Interpreters Bible, Volume XII. (Nashville, KY: Abingdon Press, 1998), 240.
2
http://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/wright.htmhttp://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/wright.htmhttp://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/wright.htmhttp://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/wright.htm -
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
3/13
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
4/13
Jews and Christians since well before Domitian. That Peter and his readers are under a
blasphemous empire will be of subsequent interest to the arguments of this paper.
The outline of the letter is straightforward, and for reference later in this paper, is
worth sharing here.
I. Greetings (1:1-2)II. Praise to God (1:3-12)
III. Gods Holy People (1:13-2:10)
A. Being Holy (1:13-25)
B. Being Gods People (2:1-10)IV. Life in Exile (2:11-4:11)
A. Living Honorably Among the Gentiles (2:11-17)
B. Living Honorably in the Household (2:18-3:7)
C. Faithful Suffering (3:8-22)D. Living Out Salvation (4:1-11)
V. Steadfast in Faith (4:12-5:11)A. The Impending Crisis (4:12-19)
B. Caring for the Household of God (5:1-11)
VI. Final Greetings (5:12-14)7
Suffering and Enemy-Love
That 1 Peter was written to a suffering church8 begs that whenever he gives
counsel, the reality of that exilic suffering be kept at the front of the readers mind.
Whether putting away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander (2:1), or abstaining
from fleshy impulses (2:11), or submission to authorities (2:13-25), or facing physical
attacks (3:8-17), that his advice is given amid suffering and exile cannot be ignored. Hes
not just concerned about in-house quarrels, but about how Gods pilgrim people when
reviled by the outside world, respond. When Peter talks about how to deal with suffering,
he is talking about how to deal with exile.
.7 Bartlett, 243.
8 Winn, Albert Curry. Aint Gonna Study War No More: Biblical Ambiguity and the Abolition of War.
(Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), 167.
4
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
5/13
The Jews, of course, had no shortage of wisdom and literature concerning how to
deal with suffering andexile. Throughout their exile, both physically in Babylon for 70
years, and spiritually in their own land for over 400 years, the Israelites thought and
wrote much about what this suffering of the righteous means amid Gods bigger
purposes.9 Their most sustained and moving musings are Isaiah 40-55, where Gods
kingdom program is brought to birth by Gods Servant10(who is interchangeably Israel or
an individual). The climax is reached in 52:1353:12, the fourth Servant Song, where
the sins which kept Israel in exile are atoned for by the suffering and death of the Servant,
and so brings them redemption, victory, and shalom.
11
The kingdom would come
through the suffering of the righteous, says Bishop N.T. Wright.12
This connection between the suffering of Gods people and Gods kingdom would
have been at the fore of Peters mind, if we are to imagine him credibly as a first-century
Christian Jew. And indeed, that fourth Servant Song, so full of suffering and hope, is
interwoven throughout his exhortations to Christian slaves in 1 Peter 2:18-25 (esp. 2:21-
24). Bartlett says that the passage presents themes from Isaiahs passage to illuminate
ways in which Christ served as an example for suffering household servants and for all
suffering Christians in the communities to which 1 Peter was written.13 Therefore just as
Isaiahs Suffering Servant embeds meaning to Jewish suffering, so also Jesus as that
Suffering Servant embeds meaning to Christian suffering. Thus:
9 Wright, N.T.Jesus and the Victory of God. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996), 589.
10 Ibid, 602.
11 Wright, N.T. The New Testament and the People of God. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1992), 276-
279.
12 Wright 1996, 601.
13 Bartlett, 282.
5
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
6/13
Israels suffering anticipates Jesus redemptive suffering Churchs suffering commemorates
As Winn says, there is a mystical link between the suffering of Christians and the
suffering of Christ.14 Indeed, the latter is both tied to final hope and present formation,
as in 4:13f. But rejoice insofar as you share Christs sufferings, that you may also
rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Both sufferings are interwoven.
The answer to how to deal with suffering, with unjust authority, with exile, is
found in following Christs example. The twin questions above of What is God doing
with this suffering? and How ought we respond to this suffering? turn out to be bound
up together. How God dealt with suffering in Jesus is how the Christian is to continue to
deal with it. The victory of God on the cross is to be implemented and commemorated in
the lives of Christians on the same terms as it was accomplished nonviolently and with
love. Christs passion is the path Christians take, says Bartlett of 1 Peter.15 His passion
has direct social consequences16 for all who suffer, in Peters mind, and takes the shape
of that cross (cf. 4:1: Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with
the same way of thinking). Richard Hays says, 1 Peter holds up the suffering of
Christ as a paradigm for Christian faithfulness.17
Jesus taught a heart orientation by which to live this way: enemy-love, which 1
Peter picks up explicitly. In 3:8-17, the author echoes Paul18 in writing:
Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to
this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For
14 Winn, 168.
15 Bartlett, 282.
16 Yoder, John H. The Politics of Jesus. 2nd edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994), 236.
17 Hays, Richard. The Moral Vision of the New Testament. (San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1996), 332.18 Romans 12:14-21, 1 Thessalonians 5:15.
6
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
7/13
Whoever desires to love life
and see good days,let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
let him turn away from evil and do good;let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. (3:9-12)
From this passage it is resoundingly clear: Christians must practice non-retaliation
as enemy-love. Yet here it is not grounded in obedience to Jesus, or to participation in his
suffering, but in hope for a future blessing. That is, Peter orients his discussion of
enemy-love around hope.19 Just as Jesus obedience to nonviolent enemy-love on the
cross were vindicated in his resurrection, so also the suffering Christians nonviolent
enemy-love will likewise be vindicated on the day of their own resurrection.
Additionally, 1 Peter joins loving the enemy with seeking peace in a degree of
explicitness not found in any other biblical writer.20 To Peter, Christian nonviolence and
enemy-love are not only grounded in obedience to Christs past victorious example and
hope for Christs future return, but in seeking that futureshalom in the present. Suddenly,
the arms of Peters imagination stretch in both directions to bring both past victory and
future hope together as the suffering Christian nevertheless seeks peace. Motivated by
Jesus nonviolent victory, assured of future blessing, the Christians task is to transform
the present with God-empowered enemy-love. Past, present, and future inspirations for
nonviolence in the face of suffering all burst forth from Peters heart.
19 Klassen, William. Love of Enemies: The Way to Peace. (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1984), 122.
20 Ibid.
7
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
8/13
This way of responding to suffering is deeply subversive. Instead of following
the wisdom of this age and responding to violence with violence, Peters solution follows
the wisdom of God as demonstrated in Jesus Christ. The demonic logic of hate, which
lies behind impulses of retaliation, violence, and injustice, is neutered by Peters flat
insistence on the power of love. To the tyrants chagrin, the suffering they mean for evil
is to be joy to the suffering Christian (4:13). If Christs suffering is victory, is
redemption, then Christian participation in that suffering by modeling his enemy-love in
the present points to Gods redefinitions of power and victory. Allegiance to power and
victory over suffering through sufferingmarks all human institutions of government and
power as parodies at best and blasphemies at worst. Yet the way of salvation, as we shall
see, to Peter does not permit flippant disregard for them.
Salvation Up-ending Evil
The shape of salvation in 1 Peter is one of community holiness (1:13-25),
cruciform obedience (2:18-25; 3:13-18; 4:1), and enemy-love (2:13-18; 3:8ff.). Though
these three are tightly woven, it is worth briefly summarizing each within the contexts of
salvation and this papers broader meditation on 1 Peters subversive spirituality of
nonviolence.
Community holiness as part of the way of salvation means living under a new lord
and new sense of holiness no more living in former ignorance (1:14), futile ancestral
ways (1:18), flippancy to authority (2:13-17), violent retaliation (3:9), or recreational
debauchery (4:3-4). Instead they are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people for his own possession (2:9a); Peters readers, in continuity with national-ethnic
8
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
9/13
Israel, are to live as an obscure people reflecting the holiness of God amongthe worldfor
the world. They are to forge for themselves an identity that sets them apart without
necessarily setting them in conflict with the pagans around them.21 Their love for one
another and their holiness, ironically, only add to their sense of exile.22 This is the kind of
salvation they have entered: into the community of eschatological reality, marked out
below the emperor and among the pagans by their countercultural holiness, their primacy
of love, and self-induced obscurity.23
Salvation to 1 Peter also entails cruciform obedience and enemy-love, which we
have covered earlier as being the threads which hold together suffering to Gods
sovereign solution. Salvation cannot but mean engaging in this subversive work of
nonviolent enemy-love. Indeed, as William Klassen says, salvation as eschatological
reality takes the form of seeking peace by loving the enemy.24 It is the spiritual milk of
the good Lord (2:1-3) that grows the Christian up to salvation. Without enemy-love, the
shape of salvation is skewered;25 it loses its subversive power to call the present age to
account, it is severed from the sufferings of Christ, and it retains the former ignorance.
First Peters idea of holistic salvation, then, is necessarily subversive. Its
challenge of relationally-bonded holiness draws out the consternation of surrounding
pagans; its cruciform obedience under suffering neuters the power of the unjust, the
mocker, and the tyrant; and its enemy-love looses the cords of final salvation for even the
21 Bartlett, 241.
22 Ibid, 238.
23 Klassen, 122.
24 Ibid.
25 Piper, John. Hope as the Motivation for Love: 1 Peter 3:9-12.NTS26 (1980), 212-31.
9
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
10/13
enemy (2:12, 4:12-18). Peters doctrine of salvation, like the resurrection, breaks out of
the hope at the horizon of the future, slams into the present and up-ends relationships and
structures of hostility and suffering.
Submission to Evil as Subverting Empire
Jesus solution to exile-under-empire was submission as an expression of
nonviolent enemy-love. So also Peter does not call for flippant disregard or armed
rebellion against government. Rather, the Christian response of enemy-love, honor, and
submission call those institutions to account and allegiance to the one who is truly lord:
the one whose death and resurrection have now redefined the significance of suffering.
That new definition takes concrete shape before the powers in submission. Thus Peters
answer to oppressive structures, be they empire or slavery, is submission (2:13ff.) held in
paradox with allegiance to the person and ways of the one true lord (3:22).
But Peters comments in 2:13-17 are not an approval of the emperors legitimacy,
his authority, his values, or his actions. No: They are couched in a broader argument that
the holy love of God extends even to the emperor, and so should the love of the holy
community. In the same breath, Peter tells his readers to honor everyone, and to honor
the emperor, as if to say Honor everyone yes, even the emperor! This submission-
allegiance paradox has more to do with the Christians response to the Lord Jesus own
enemy-love than it does any merits of the emperors own.
The emperor, it was noted earlier, was competing in Peters time for the title of
lord of the world with Jesus and YHWH a flaring blasphemy to all Jews and
Christians. Yet even this blasphemer of blasphemers deserves the love of God as
10
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
11/13
embodied in his people. Far from a bent knee to this sort of blasphemous ruler, 1 Peters
insistence on honoring the emperor grows out of a love for and an allegiance to the true
Lord, thus subverting and denying any claim by Caesar to that title. It cuts to the
epistemological heart of Caesars claims and controls, and gives it to Christ.
The life of Gods sojourning people perplex and offend Caesar and his governors
as they give respect and limited obedience to them, while giving worship and total
obedience to the risen King. Indeed, as Peter has argued for, their respect for the former
is only in response to the latter! More threatening still: their nonviolence is not just a
benign act of compliance, but a re-enactment of Gods own victory over empire, evil,
death, and suffering. Thus, in a very upside-down way, 1 Peters nonviolent enemy-love
toward Caesar is in reality an act of outright sedition and subversion. This is a
submission which, in Gods economy, subverts the empire.
Conclusion
First Peter has been a book of paradoxes salvation entails suffering, subversion
includes submission. Neither the revolutionary nor the status-quo can easily hold their
ground before its wisdom and inspired meditations on the social outworking of the
crucified Gods victory. Peters epistle is miles from the civically flaccid status that many
have esteemed it with, and burrows with bleeding rigor to the heart of Christian civic
duty, but re-imagined around the cross and exile.
As John Howard Yoder wisely penned, The willingness to suffer is then not
merely a test of our patience or a dead space of waiting; it is itself a participation in the
character of Gods victorious patience with the rebellious powers of creation. We subject
11
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
12/13
ourselves to government because it was in so doing that Jesus revealed and achieved
Gods victory.26 Truly: let us continue in 1 Peters wisdom and Gods power to subvert
todays empires with deep love, and receive what suffering that may come with joy as our
very salvation.
Bibliography
Bartlett, David. L. The First Letter of Peter: Introduction, Commentary, and
Reflections, in The New Interpreters Bible, Volume XII. (Nashville, KY:Abingdon Press, 1998)
Hays, Richard. The Moral Vision of the New Testament. (San Francisco, CA:HarperCollins, 1996)
26 Yoder, 209.
12
-
8/15/2019 Suffering and Salvation, Submission and Subversion: Grounding Nonviolence in 1 Peter
13/13
Klassen, William. Love of Enemies: The Way to Peace. (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress
Press, 1984)
Piper, John. Hope as the Motivation for Love: 1 Peter 3:9-12.NTS26 (1980)
Winn, Albert Curry. Aint Gonna Study War No More: Biblical Ambiguity and theAbolition of War. (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993)
Wright, N.T.Jesus and the Victory of God. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996)
-------------. The New Testament and the People of God. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress
Press, 1992)
-------------. Pauls Gospel and Caesars Empire, inPaul and Politics: Ekklesia, Israel,
Imperium, Interpretation. Essays in Honor of Krister Stendahl. Ed. Richard A.
Horsley. (Harrisburg, PA: TPI, 2000)
Yoder, John H. The Politics of Jesus. 2nd edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994)
13