![\"Christ](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/731\/2012\/04\/Christ-dead-being-held-realistic-sculpture-CC-Image-courtesy-of-Librarian-by-kevin-on-Flickr.jpg\")
<\/a>1 Peter 2:11-25<\/b><\/p>\nOne year when I was teaching freshman English at All Saints Episcopal school in Tyler, Texas, and we began the year by coordinating some of the literature with ancient history, I taught my students about Greek philosophy and religion so that they might understand Greek literature.\u00a0 I had them compare and contrast Christianity and the Greek religion, and in my meditation on this comparison, a humorous idea took hold of me (many do, when I\u2019m teaching and interacting with young people).<\/p>\n
I asked my class if they thought anyone in Athens c. 400 B.C. went around wearing armbands and bracelets that said \u201cWWZD,\u201d that is: \u201cWhat would Zeus do?\u201d\u00a0 My point was that no one in his right mind would want to pattern his life after the Greek God Zeus, for Zeus was a hot-headed, skirt-chasing, fickle god who did not make for a good role model.<\/p>\n
But this morning we are commanded by St. Peter to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, who left an example for us.\u00a0 We are left to think this morning, not so much WWJD \u2013 \u201cWhat would Jesus do?\u201d, as if we can figure out how He might tackle 21st<\/sup> century culture, but WDJD \u2013 \u201cWhat did<\/i> Jesus do?\u201d<\/b> and WSID \u2013 \u201cWhat should I<\/i> do?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Here, on Good Friday, we are to consider the terrible facts of what Jesus did and the heavy and heavenly call we have to follow our Good Shepherd in all His ways.<\/p>\n We are first to follow Jesus in His righteousness.\u00a0 The righteousness of Jesus is not a relative righteousness but an absolute one.\u00a0 In Him there was no sin and no guile, and even when terribly persecuted and wronged, He did not revile.\u00a0 On the positive side of righteousness, He loved, that is, He thought more highly of others than Himself.\u00a0 Only a love so defined could compel a man, especially a God-man, to the Cross.<\/p>\n And so on this terrible day when we re-imagine and re-create the death of Christ Jesus and attempt to apply that death to our lives, we find that Jesus leads us into righteousness.\u00a0 All that we meditate on today and in our lives about His death was for our righteousness.\u00a0 As St. Peter says in verse 24: He suffered and died for you, that you might live for righteousness, for God, and not for yourself.\u00a0 In this way, His righteousness is to become our righteousness and His love is to become our love.<\/p>\n Our covenant with God is like the Marriage Covenant: Christ is the Bridegroom, and the Church is His Bride.\u00a0 \u201cI take thee, Jesus, to my wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, and to obey, till death us do part; and thereto I give thee my troth.\u00a0 With this water, I thee wed, with my Body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.\u00a0 Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n This following Jesus in His righteousness doesn\u2019t sound like such a bad deal at first.\u00a0 But then the realization dawns on us that to follow Him in His righteousness, we must follow Him to the Cross.\u00a0 For the way to righteousness and holiness is to deny yourself, take up your cross, and crucify your Old Man.<\/p>\n Peter has to go and spoil the party by saying this: that you were called for suffering as Christ did.\u00a0 You were called to suffer for Christ and to bear it as Christ did.\u00a0 Therefore, following Christ in His righteousness means following Him in His Cross by picking up our Cross daily, for even the Son learned obedience through what He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).<\/p>\n Jesus Christ suffered for you; and now He asks you, in this life that He has given you, to follow Him in that suffering.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need to look for it \u2013 it will come.\u00a0 It may not be the kind of persecution that the early Christians faced, but you will suffer, and when you do, it is intended to lead you to Christ.<\/p>\n The question is: How will you respond?\u00a0 You have a supermarket of possible responses.\u00a0\u00a0 You could: complain; blame God; doubt; try to find relief in the lusts of the flesh; stoically try to ignore it; blame others; pickle yourself in your favorite substance; etc.\u00a0 OR . . . you could set your face like flint toward Jerusalem and follow Jesus Christ in His suffering.\u00a0 You could follow Jesus and seek to be with Him \u201cwho, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself<\/i> to Him who judges righteously\u201d (verses 22-23).<\/p>\n As in marriage, when a man and woman vow to live in love with their spouse \u2013 for richer, for poorer; in sickness or health; for better or worse \u2013 so you vowed the same thing to God (check your baptismal vows and read the Bible if you\u2019re not sure about this!)<\/p>\n He was abandoned in His suffering by His disciples, but now His disciples do not dare abandon Him in their own suffering.\u00a0 Jesus leads us in our suffering, as our Shepherd.\u00a0 He has been there before: He has suffered \u2013 and done it without sin.\u00a0 Christ\u2019s shepherd crook . . .\u00a0 the means by which he disciplines, guides, and protects you . . . is a Cross.<\/p>\n But we follow Jesus not only for poorer, not only for sicker, or for worse.\u00a0 We follow, knowing that He knows the way to better things.\u00a0 He knows the Father, for He and the Father are one.\u00a0 He knows the way to heaven \u2013 because He is<\/i> the Way, and He is Heaven itself.\u00a0 We must follow Jesus in depending on God for all things, suffering and otherwise, and so commit ourselves to Him who judges righteously.<\/p>\n Keep your eyes on Jesus \u2013 follow His footsteps \u2013 because He will lead you to the Father.\u00a0 When good things happen, you should be led to God, who is the giver of every good gift.\u00a0 Acknowledge God: don\u2019t take credit for what He has done.\u00a0 Really, if you think about it, isn\u2019t it ridiculous for a man to say: \u201cLook at how great I am because I\u2019m so intelligent?\u201d\u00a0 But who created your brain, and who gave your parents genes for intelligence?\u00a0 Or \u201cLook at how great I am because I\u2019m so successful in life?\u201d\u00a0 You fool!\u00a0 Who planned for you to be born in the U.S., the richest nation ever, where there are more opportunities for success than anywhere else?\u00a0 And who gave you the mind, the ideas, the desire, the hands, the colleagues and family and friends to enable you to be a success?<\/p>\n When you suffer, you should be led to God just as much, if not more.\u00a0 Every cause of suffering in this life \u2013 from the least to the greatest \u2013 is God calling to you to depend upon Him.\u00a0 Depend on Him, commit yourself to Him, even as Jesus did.\u00a0 When you pick up our cross daily, when you suffer for Jesus Christ, it doesn\u2019t end there: you are to give your cross up to God<\/i>.<\/p>\n All things, then, should lead you to God.<\/p>\n Follow the steps of Jesus Christ, for He is your Good Shepherd.\u00a0 He has been through everything you will go through \u2013 and more \u2013 and yet without sin.\u00a0 Follow His steps, because He came to give you an example of how to live in love of God and obedience to Him.\u00a0 Follow Him in all things, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, for better worse.<\/p>\n For if you follow Jesus Christ, the Shepherd of your soul, though He leads you first to the Cross, then He will lead you home \u2013 home to the Father, home to heaven, and home with Himself forever.<\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.\u00a0 Amen.<\/b><\/p>\n Point for Meditation:<\/b><\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Consider the suffering in your life.\u00a0 In what ways do you suffer?\u00a0 How have you sought to deal with this suffering?<\/b><\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 How did Jesus deal with the suffering He underwent?\u00a0 How can He apply that same attitude to you in your life?\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 How might God be desiring to use the suffering in your life as a means of bringing you closer to Him?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Resolution:\u00a0 I resolve to consciously see all of my suffering today as the Cross of Jesus and a means of uniting me to Him.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n \u00a9 2014 Fr. Charles Erlandson<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1 Peter 2:11-25 One year when I was teaching freshman English at All Saints Episcopal school in Tyler, Texas, and we began the year by coordinating some of the literature with ancient history, I taught my students about Greek philosophy and religion so that they might understand Greek literature.\u00a0 I had them compare and contrast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2856,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[154,265,266,268,301,412,425,11,895,1009,1019,1532,1788,2291],"class_list":["post-4674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-give-us-this-day","tag-anglican","tag-bible-commentary","tag-bible-devotional","tag-bible-study","tag-book-of-common-prayer","tag-christs-death","tag-christs-suffering","tag-fr-charles-erlandson","tag-give-us-this-day-daily-devotional","tag-good-friday","tag-good-shepherd","tag-meditation-anglican","tag-prayer","tag-the-cross"],"yoast_head":"\n