| The Third Sunday after Easter , 2001
1 Peter 2:11-17 Living Before the World
In 1896 Antonio the Counselor began gathering around him a scraggly band of followers. The Counselor was a tall, gaunt mystic who roamed from village to village in a dark purple habit. His hair came down to his shoulders and his eyes looked like burning coals. The apocalyptic end of the world message he preached began to mysteriously attract the impoverished masses of the Brazilian interior. A magnetic speaker, he condemned the many modern changes that the secular Government of Brazil was imposing upon the backlands. In his sermons he attacked such things as paper money, private property, civil marriage, income taxes, the metric system, the census, and decimal numbers. Such things he insisted were tools of the Antichrist, the president of Brazil. In his tirades, the government became the Great Dog; his ragtag disciples he called the elect. Some people left all they had to follow him. They kissed his hands and feet.
The conflict between the Counselor and the government escalated in stages. First the Governor from the state of Bahia tried to curb his diatribes. He sent inland a couple dozen police officers to arrest the Counselor. When they came to take him away, his supporters defended him. Armed with sticks, sickles, stones, knives, and a couple of shotguns, the rebel group charged the police battalion. Some of the Counselor's fighters fell to the ground, their chests riddled with bullets and heads blown off, yet they continued to advance. The police soon found themselves surrounded, beaten up, and injured. The humiliated squad had to return to the coast and admit to their superiors that they were unable to capture the Counselor.
The Bahian governor was outraged. He responded by sending an expedition of one hundred soldiers to take out the troublemaker. It was not to be. The expedition was routed in a town called Uaua. Again the Counselor's elect fought with a ferocity and fanaticism rarely seen.
At this juncture the Counselor decided that his party needed to put down roots. He chose an isolated waterhole surrounded by stony hills called Canudos in Portuguese. Canudos would be the New Zion, the City of God, a great church and fortress that would survive the imminent end of the world. The Counselor began an ambitious project to build a stone temple. Walls and trenches were constructed around the structure. During the next weeks and months groups of the curious, of sinners, of the sick, of prostitutes, beggars, and bandits, came from the North and South, the East and West. They erected dilapidated houses of clay bricks, branches, straw, and whatever they could find. The city of God looked more like a shantytown, but the people were confident of their cause.
After the humiliating defeat at Uaua, the governor of Bahia sent his crack battalion of 500, armed with the finest canons and machine guns. The armies clashed. While the Counselor remained in the temple praying, his elect descended upon the battalion of red and blue uniformed soldiers with a fury that was beyond human. The government troops retreated in fear and confusion. The governor of Bahia was flabbergasted at the strength of the Canudos resistance. He could only appeal to the federal government for help. To make a long story short, the Brazilian army was forced to wage four military campaigns. The Counselor's guerillas wiped out every assault. Finally, equipped with artillery and well supplied with munitions, the fourth and last expedition laid siege to Canudos. A titanic struggle ensued. The soldiers could only capture the Canudos shanties by means of desperate hand-to-hand combat. The canons reduced the settlement to rubble. When the dust cleared, not a single male defender had survived. Tens of thousands were slaughtered. Of the 12,000 Brazilian soldiers, 5,000 were killed.
The Canudos insurrection is a bizarre chapter in Brazilian history, hardly known today. It certainly deserves more attention. [See The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa.] History is a good teacher. Although the Counselor claimed to be a devout Roman Catholic, the movement he launched hardly had biblical warrant. Our epistle lesson from 1 Peter 2:13 opposes the Counselor's tactics. The Apostle Peter admonishes us, "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of those who do good."
The Early Church took to heart this instruction. They regularly sought to obey civil authorities and prayed for their stability even during overt persecution. Through the Gospel of peace they were able to take over the Roman Empire after a few centuries. The New Testament teaching laid the foundation for that conquest. We will now explore our epistle passage for that theme.
St. Peter wrote his first letter to the churches of Asia Minor at a time when they were enduring oppression for the sake of Christ. Nonetheless, it is hard to say just how widespread and severe their suffering was. The first major persecution of the Church began under the emperor Nero. When in AD 64 he burned down a large part of the city of Rome he searched for somebody to blame it on. He decided to blame it on the Christians. Did Nero's persecution reach the churches of Asia Minor? We don't know. Maybe it did. In any event, even if the official persecution of Nero had not overtaken the Christians of Asia Minor, they at least faced sporadic hostility and social pressure.
Why was this so? Emperor worship was developing throughout the Roman Empire and Christians were unwilling to participate in the activities and festivals connected with that. Furthermore, the believers abstained from the drunkenness, prostitution, and bloody gladiatorial games of the coliseum. Hence, Christians were accused of being nonconformists, of offending the gods, and thus, of bringing divine disfavor upon the towns and cities. They were even blamed for harming the economic conditions of the Empire. The Christian lifestyle seemed strange and aloof. Their obsession for the body and blood of Christ smacked of cannibalism. Their rejection of the emperor's deity was interpreted as atheism. As a result, Christians were regularly accused of antisocial acts, even criminal behavior, and were frequently harassed. Nero was a debauched ruler, and after the burning of Rome he came down brutally on the Church. What was Peter's advise for such persecution? First Peter 2:13-14 tells us.
Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.
Peter could have ordered the Christians to withdraw from all contact with the corrupt society. He could have recommended armed rebellion. He could have advised outward conformity to the pagan practices in order to avoid offense. These were possibilities. Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit ordered submission and obedience to corrupt and immoral leaders. Subordination to authority has always been the general Christian posture. However, absolute and unlimited submission is not in view. In extremely rare circumstances Christian resistance is justified. This is a very complex issue, so let us explore just a couple more aspects of it. We will back up to verses 11-12.
Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Notice that Peter addresses the believers as "sojourners" and "pilgrims." In Greek, that word "sojourner" can mean "resident alien" and "pilgrim" signifies an exile. In ancient times foreigners and exiles did not enjoy legal protection and social acceptance. To be exiled was a terrible punishment. An exile was treated badly. So Peter is suggesting that they get used to the fact that they are aliens and exiles in their own land. After their conversion they no longer should consider the cities of Asia Minor their homeland. Where is their home? Where will they feel the protection and security of home? Heaven. Heaven is the home of the Christian. The New Heavens and New Earth are our inheritance, (1 Peter 1:4) the only place where we will feel completely at home.
The application for us today is that we also should not expect to feel totally accepted and tolerated in our non-Christian culture. We may be American born, and citizens of the United States, nevertheless, in a thousand ways we are reminded that we are really exiles. Our ethics and attitudes set us off from the surrounding society, our hopes and dreams are different, our worldview and purpose for life is different. There is no avoiding the fact that we are non-conformists. We had better get used to it. The way we raise and educate our children does not conform to the dominant culture. The way we spend our time and money should be distinct. As my family becomes involved every year with little league baseball we are bothered by the rudeness and disobedience of the children toward adults, and the bawdy jokes and comments of the adults around the children. We feel out of place. Travel to almost any museum and national park and we have to put up with evolutionary propaganda. Television increasingly bombards us with hedonistic commercials and programming. It is sometimes painful to realize that we are exiles in our own country, but it is true. And more importantly, we must strive to maintain our status as exiles and aliens. If not, then we may end up aliens of heaven as well.
How else does the apostle Peter tell us to live in a pagan culture? He says, "have your conduct honorable among the Gentiles" (v. 12). In other words Christians should try to keep a good name among nonbelievers. This theme recurs often in Scripture. (1 Cor. 10:32; Col. 4:5; 1 Thess. 4:12; 1 Tim. 3:7; 5:14; 6:1; Titus 2:5) It is based on the fact that there is some overlap in what Christians recognize as good and what pagans recognize as good. Perhaps not a lot, but enough that unbelievers may come to appreciate someone who refrains from "malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking" (1 Peter 2:1). They come to like a person who is hospitable and does not whine and complain (1 Peter 4:9). Peter understood that it is possible to deflect hostility by means of good works. In the day of visitation these unbelievers will remember the good deeds of Christians and glorify God (v.12).
Have you ever known a non-Christian to be impressed by the behavior of Christians? While I was in the Peace Corps in Paraguay, Latin America there were about 160 volunteers. Of the 160, only about five of us were outspoken Christians. I remember many non-Christians who enjoyed our company. Kevin was one of them. He was a bright and popular young man who could have made friends with anybody he wanted. He let everyone know that he was an atheist, yet for some reason he seemed drawn to the Christians. Peter implies that this kind of thing would happen more often if the children of God were to show morally upright lives. It would quell some of the anti-Christian oppression. Let us move to the next verses, 1 Peter 2:15-17.
For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men -- as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
This is a passage about honoring and submitting to the king that Antonio the Counselor must have overlooked while he was leading his rebellion in the backlands of Brazil. First of all when the Bishops of the Church asked him to stop his rebellion he ignored them. Then when the governors asked him to obey the law, he dismissed them. His followers admired his defiance, but that very anti-authoritarian impulse came back to haunt them. The Counselor wore a purple monks habit but he had never taken any vows, nor been ordained. He was a self-proclaimed prophet, priest and king who then took absolute control of those who surrendered to him. The Counselor's rule over Canudos became despotic. Challenges and appeals were not tolerated. And so rebellion against legitimate authority led to totalitarianism, and totalitarianism led to wholesale slaughter.
There is a little bit of the rebel in each of us. Hierarchy is inevitable, and we must all submit to the authorities over us. The newspaper reported a violent demonstration by a band of anarchists in Long Beach this week. Anarchists are a confused and ignorant lot. They think that the world would be a better place if institutions and authorities were eliminated. Nothing could be further from the truth. The real symbol of anarchy is blood running in the street. Anarchy creates a vacuum of violence that begets tyranny. St. Peter commands us, "submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake." Christians are called upon to honor those in authority, whether that authority is the leaders of civil government, the church, the family, or any legitimate institution. As much as possible we must honor authority.
Yet, God does not ask us to give unquestioning obedience to whatever anyone may command. There are limits. The context of 1 Peter is the increasing tendency of the Roman Empire to regard the emperor as divine. Peter is refuting that notion in this passage. How does he do this? First in verse 13 he says, "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man." That phrase "ordinance of man" means literally "human being." Peter is calling the king or emperor a human being, not a god. This is a subtle way for Peter to deny the emperor's divinity. Secondly, he reminds us in verse 16 that we are bondservants of God. We are slaves of God. As slaves of God, our superior and absolute submission is to God alone. Here is another reason that Christian submission to authority should not develop into obsequious, unquestioning servility. Our obsequious unquestioning servility belongs to God alone. Thirdly, verse 17 is interesting. The first and last phrases should be compared. The first phrase says, "honor all people"; the last phrase says, "honor the king." Christians honor all people and the king. But it means that the honor we pay to the king should not be dramatically different than the honor we pay to all people. Again, it seems that Peter is nicely restricting the allegiance we give to imperial authority. There is a balance between militant rebellion and absolute subordination. Neither extreme is permitted. That seems to be the conclusion of the matter.
There are some cases in the book of Judges where Ehud, Jael, and Samson resisted authority with force. We should not rule out these examples, but neither should we casually look to them as an excuse for militant resistance. First Samuel 15:23 states that "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." Militant rebellion should be an extraordinarily rarely chosen option. Perhaps one out of every million cases deserves a violent response. In all other situations the Christian is to submit to and obey the authorities over him. This is the norm. This is what pleases God. This is what His infallible Word requires. Return to Sermons |
