Day 4, Saturday, 17th February, 1 Peter 3.18-22

What is this text all about? The previous section in the apostle Peter's first letter can be entitled "The new Way of Life". He gives sage advice on living as God's people. The contrast with their previous way of life, before they became followers of Jesus the Messiah, is stark. I can understand a senior Christian giving sage advice to more junior ones, particularly because this new, tiny movement was under pressure from both Judaism, from which they were emerging, and the Roman empire's multi-ethnic and religious but almost entirely pagan population. In the history of the world, and certainly of the Roman empire, perhaps only Judaism otherwise gave a hint at what the character of God's special community was supposed to look like, and even they got it terribly wrong. So it's no wonder that early Christian leaders, Paul especially but also Peter, James, the writer to the Hebrews, John and no doubt others, wrote letters to the tiny, widely dispersed Christian churches, trying to help them to work out the implications of following Jesus.

But in all of this Peter has, ominously, much to say about suffering. It's better to suffer for good conduct," he says, "than for bad." That's a reminder of the persecution that Christians both then and now, and in all times and places have suffered.  Several weeks ago I was in conversation with a minister has been troubled for some time. He wondered whether God had paid any attention to the faithful service he had rendered over many years, and the good he had done. Peter's riposte to this thinking is direct and quick:

"For the Messiah, too, suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring you to God."

That, at least, is explicable, even though many of us have moments like my colleague's, when we'd like to think that God owes us for services rendered! But what comes next may be beyond the ken of most of us. Although the messiah died bodily His spirit was alive, says Peter. Well yes, that quite likely is what many of us think about the afterlife. If so, we forget that when Christ was resurrected He returned IN A BODY. That is what we his sisters and brothers have to look forward to too.

But be that as it may. Because Peter THEN says several things that just don't fit in our mental toolboxes. He says that as a spirit Christ proclaimed to the spirits in prison, the ones who had been disobedient during the days of Noah. He says that the rescue of 8 people from the flood in the ark points forward to baptism. And he says that baptism is less about washing clean and more about "the appeal to God of a good conscience."

And now we've come to a point that illustrates why bible study is so important! There is no time  for a detailed explanation of these 4 very strange statements, so I'm going to hop over a whole layer of "exegetical explanation". But the trick, as usual, is to remember that Peter was not writing to us; he was writing to Christians 2,000 years ago in a very different context from our own. Remember that they were facing persecution. What we need to know, when facing trouble or persecution is that:
- Jesus the Messiah has fulfilled the hope of Israel by defeating all the spiritual powers in the world.
- Although, then and now, people focus on other humans when they are faced with problems it is these spiritual powers who were responsible for wickedness and corruption from ancient times.
- Though it doesn't look like it to the little Christian communities facing the possibility of suffering, their baptism places them alongside the Messiah in His victory. They must keep their heads up, keep their consciences clear, and trust that his victory will be played out in the world to which they are bearing witness.

And so should we.