August 2024
1 Peter 7 – 25/08/24. Readings: Matthew 11:25-30 & 1 Peter 4:1-14
Peter was the man whom Jesus chose to head up his church, and if Jesus chose him for THE key role of the new era, he must have been quite a guy. For the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at the letters he sent to the young churches in Turkey, and today we’re going to wrap up the first of those letters by studying the passage that ……. just read for us, and which is headed in the NIV “Living for God”, but in the Massage, interestingly “Learn to Think Like Him".
Before we get stuck in, let’s just look very briefly at what Peter has already said to us, just to put what is quite a meaty passage into some sort of context.
He started the letter by talking about the “living hope “that we have, of a new life, and of a future in God. Then he went on to encourage holiness and to talk about Jesus, the “living stone” and us, his “chosen people”.
Then there was the passage about being submissive to authority, the bit we missed about husbands and wives, both as part of our Christian witness, and then his encouragement that we should always be ready to answer people’s questions about our faith, and about the way that we live.
On a number of occasions, we’ve noticed Peter mention the word “suffering”, in fact I was surprised to count the words suffer and suffering no less that 17 times in this letter alone. That’s more than anywhere else in the Bible. It’s true, isn’t it, that life as a Christian can be tough, and perhaps we don’t need Peter to remind us of the fact.
So that’s why I chose the reading from Matthew.
John the Baptist was is prison and probably feeling very discouraged. I expect that he feared for his life, justifiably so, as it turned out, and so he sent some of his disciples to ask Jesus if he really was the Messiah that John supposed him to be.
Having given John’s friends the answers that they were looking for, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds, and about a number of other things, including the way that we judge one another, and then he finished by talking about our getting weary from all the burdens that we carry.
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, Is that you? … I will give you rest said Jesus. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Peter said something very similar at the end of our second reading.
“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Can you relate to that? Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.”
The picture that Jesus painted was of two oxen ploughing. The “yoke”, a piece of wood that was placed across their shoulders, allowed the two beasts to share the load equally. But if one animal was stronger than the other, it also allowed that stronger one to take most of the strain.
This is the picture that Jesus and Peter were both painting, albeit in very differfent ways. “LET GO AND LET GOD” they were saying.
But the reality is that we don’t, do we? I don’t anyway. The world tells us “Go for it, you can do it” with all the emphasis on the you. But that’s not how it needs to be. More than that, it’s not how it SHOULD be.
So going back to what Peter was saying about “Living for God”.
There’s a key verse in this passage. It’s towards the end and it’s the one that says "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." Just hold onto that for a moment, we’ll come back to it.
The passage starts by encouraging us to have the same attitude that Jesus had when he was on the cross. The same attitude that Jesus had when he was on the cross ? What attitude was that? As they drove the nails into his hands, and as he hung in agony on the cross for some six hours, finally succumbing to his wounds for your sins and mine, what attitude do you think he had toward sin?
I’ll tell you - it was his understanding of God's desire for you and me to be free from sin's pollution and degradation in our lives.
In the previous chapter Peter said that Jesus "died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God" (1 Peter 3:18). He was done with sin. He paid the uttimate price to set us free from it , once and for all, and now he no longer has anything to do with it. That was his attitude, and the attitrude that Peter is encouraging us to have, to "arm ourselves" with, as he puts it.
If we do, he says, we’ll be “finished with sin”, not “spending the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, doing the evil things that godless people enjoy, their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols”. Instead, he says, we will be “anxious to do the will of God”.
But that, Peter warns us, yet again, will bring us suffering because our different behaviour, our different values, our different life-style makes other people feel uncomfortable. As Jeremiah prophesied “This is what the Lord says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But they(those of the world) they reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’”
Deep down they know who’s choosing the better path, but it makes them feel uneasy, and so, trying to justify themselves, they criticise us, often behind our backs, and that hurts. It really does.
But at the end of the day “they will have to give an account”. They’re the ones who will be called on the carpet, and before God himself, as the Message version puts it.
Ah, they tell themselves, but this judgement day business is all a load of nonsense ….
But it’s not. It’s real, and it’s something to be frightened of - or not frightened of, depending on how you look at it. That’s the good news of the gospel. …
“The end of all things is near,” says Peter and that’s something we’ll talk about when we look at 2 Peter in a couple of weeks’ time. “The end of all things is near. Therefore, he says be clear minded and self-controlled, … love one another … offer hospitality without grumbling … use your gifts to serve others … faithfully administering God’s grace …”
That’s the key verse that I mentioned earlier, remember?
And why does he say that we should we do those things? Because ”then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.”
It’s not about us, it’s not about me, it’s about HIM. It’s about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It’s also about the church that Jesus was talking about, to Peter coincidentally, when he said “I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not overcome it.”
So, to conclude, Jesus predicted that there would be battle going on, and that it wouldn’t be easy.
But whatever your age, whatever your gender, whatever your marital status, whatever the colour of your skin, whatever your background and your history, whatever your political persuasions, willing or unwilling, comfortable or uncomfortable, if you are a Christian, that’s your calling, or part of it anyway.
But wait, there’s good news.
As a Christian you are never on your own. God the Holy Spirit is with you wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, however you feel, and he says “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For myyoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Let’s pray. Lord, when we consider where we have come from, we realize how unworthy any of us is of the glory that you promise. Nevertheless we give you praise and thanks. You have been so merciful to us, so gracious, to use us, to speak through us and to show your love to others. Help us to be clean, dedicated vessels, available for your service whenever you choose to use us. And Lord, let that which comes through us come with a purity of message that marks it as coming from You. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
1 Peter 6 – 18/08/24. Readings: Psalm 34:1-10 & 1 Peter 3:8-22
I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears. Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces. … Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! Fear the Lord, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need. (Psalm 34:4-5, 8-9)
I chose Psalm 34, this morning, not just because it is packed with wonderful promises, but also because it’s the psalm that Peter quotes in chapter 3 of his epistle, the chapter that we are studying at the moment.
For the last few weeks we’ve been looking at the ministry of the apostle Peter, and more particularly the letters that he wrote to encourage the baby churches that were springing up in what is modern day Turkey.
Last week we talked about being ready to answer people’s questions about why we go to church and why we believe what we do. Tempting as it would have been to jump forward into chapter 4 this morning, and talk about living for God, there are some important things in chapter 3 that we need to look at first.
"… all of you, Peter says, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing." (1 Peter 3:8-9)
Integrity, says Peter, needs to infuse Christians' relationships with each other in the church. If we expect to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit out there in the world, which we are, and where it's tough, we must be able to love each other in our churches, where we're among friends.
So, in those two verses, Peter spells out for us six or seven ways in which we can achieve that. These are things that we will probably say that we’ve heard umpteen times before, especially if you heard Lectio 365 yesterday which talked, perhaps more succinctly, about Paul saying something remarkably similar in Romans 12.
They are things that we probably tell ourselves that we already do.
But as we go through them, whether you’re a visitor here this morning, or whether you’re a regular member of our congregation, can I encourage us to ask ourselves, in genuine humility, whether that is REALLY true for us personally.
I’m not pointing any fingers, I’m not making any accusations, I’m just highlighting a very important piece of scripture.
1. Live in harmony, he says, according to the NIV. "Be all of one mind" says the KJV, and "have unity of spirit" says the NRSV. This doesn't mean that we all have to agree on everything. We can agree to disagree about less important matters, but on important issues, we must diligently seek to understand what the Bible teaches, and then refuse to let disagreements separate or distract us. The devil’s favourite ploy is dividing churches, and he’s very good at it, and that perhaps why living in harmony is first on Peter’s list.
2. Be sympathetic, that’s both the NIV and NRSV, "having compassion one of another" is the way that the KJV put it. This word was originally used for one who has the same pathos, "one who is, or has been, affected by the same sufferings”. So it means being willing to feel what our brothers and sisters are feeling. Paul put it this way in Galatians, "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).
3. Have mutual affection for each other as brothers and sisters – and - be compassionate and tender hearted. In some churches they call each other "brother" or "sister" all the time while other churches find those terms uncomfortable. I have a very good friend who was a missionary in France but now lives in the States. We text each other every single day and often we use the term “brother”. The fact is, though, that whether we like the terminology or not, we really are brothers and sisters in Christ.
Peter calls us to have the same affection for each other as we should with our biological brothers and sisters. Yes, families have problems, brothers and sisters do not always see eye to eye, …. but deep down we do love them. We are family, and this means that we are responsible for looking after each other.
4. Be humble. Whoa! This is a biggy because our western culture teaches the exact opposite. Peter calls us to be humble, modest and courteous toward one another, as opposed to being superior, proud, insolent, or arrogant. Jesus, for example, describes himself as "meek" and “lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29), one who comes to serve, and he calls us to see ourselves as servants too.
5. Be grudge-free. "Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult," Peter exhorts us. If we do, it is a sure sign that we haven't forgiven. When we insult in the same way that we've been insulted it shows that we carry grudges. How many quarrels at church break out because of some supposed offense that happened years ago? How many church disputes are due to carrying grudges? Too many! Peter tells us to “grow up”.
6. And lastly be full of blessing. Peter’s idea is that we should be so full of God, that when we are wronged, insulted or wounded, we give blessing in return. "Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing." You and I are called to be a blessing even to those we dislike, even to our enemies.
When we suffer, we bless. When we are slandered, we bless. When we are hurting, we bless. Why? Because we are called to bless! And as we bless, we inherit the blessings of Jesus. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34) said Jesus on the cross about the people responsible for and carrying out the horrendous torture that is crucifiction, “
Then Peter goes on to quote from Psalm 34, the one Tess read earlier, but different verses, and he does so to bolster his case for a pure tongue and a clear conscience.
"Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." (Psalm 34:10-16a)
Let’s face it, our tongues are naturally all too prone to evil, especially when we are under pressure. We complain. We blame. We are negative. I’m as bad as anyone else.
Try not to say anything negative for one day and see how hard it is. We LOVE being negative, but these two verses in Psalm 34 that Peter is directing us towards, say “keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.” (Psalm 34:13-14)
Notice that Peter uses four verbs that are all active:
Keep (your tongue = control your tongue) - Turn (from evil) - Seek (peace) - Pursue it (also about peace).
And then, before encouraging us to be ready with our answers, that we talked about last week, he talks about not being afraid of suffering.
The history of the last 2000 years is littered with examples of people, and not just Christians, suffering, dying even, for their faith. Even today, in France, Christians are dismissed and ridiculed because of what we believe.
Too often, over those years, Christians have compromised, thus bringing discredit on Jesus and on Christianity in general. Instead, Peter suggests that we should be eager, zealous, earnestly committed even, to doing good, and he tells us that even if we suffer for that, God blesses us.
1 Peter 5 – 11/08/24. Readings:- Psalm 8 and 1 Peter 3:8-18
Before I start, let me tell you about something really beautiful that happened on Friday ….
I chose Psalm 8 as our first reading this morning for no better reason than they read it on Lectio 365 on Monday morning and I was reminded how beatiful it is. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens!
I’m sure that you’ve heard the name Joni Eareckson. She was born to John and Lindy Eareckson, in 1949, in Baltimore, Maryland. The youngest of four daughters, she was actually named “Johnny” as opposed to “Joe-ny” after her father, John, who was both an Olympic wrestler and a member of the local Reformed Episcopal church, where “Johnny”was confirmed as a young woman.
As a child she lived a very active life. She particularly enjoyed riding horses, hiking, tennis, and swimming. Sadly all that came to an end when she was 17 years old. She went swimming one day in Chesapeake Bay, on the East coast of the United States. As she dived in, she misjudged the depth of the water, hit a rock submerged under the surface. She’s been paralysed from the neck downwards ever since.
During her two years of rehabilitation, according to her autobiography, simply entitled Joni, she experienced anger, depression, suicidal thoughts, and religious doubts. However, during occupational therapy, she learned to paint with a brush between her teeth and began selling her artwork. She also learned to write in a similar way as well as to use voice recognition technology for writing. To date, she has written over forty books, recorded several musical albums, starred in an autobiographical movie of her life, and is an advocate for people with disabilities.
She has had an amazing career and ministry, publishing books and albums, fighting cancer twice, and positively affecting the lives of millions of people.
But after her wedding, at the age of 33, she wrote this in her journal:
On the morning of my wedding, my helpers laid me on a couch to dress me in my gown. They heaved and shifted my paralysed body this way and that, trying to fit me into it, but when I sat back in my wheelchair, I groaned.
In the mirror, I looked like a float in the Rose Parade.
Right before I wheeled up the aisle, my bouquet slid off my lap. I wasn’t able to pick it up.
That’s when I spotted a greasy tire mark on my hem.
I was not the picture-perfect bride.
Then I caught a glimpse of Ken at the front. He was craning his neck, looking for me.
My face grew hot, and my heart began to pound.
Suddenly, my wheelchair and my clumpy dress with its smudges faded away. I had seen my beloved, and it didn’t matter how I looked.
I couldn’t wait to get to the front to be with him. I may have felt unlovely, but the love in Ken’s face washed it all away.
In his eyes, I was the pure and perfect bride.
Isn’t that such a beatiful picture of us and Jesus on the day that we go and meet him face to face? We will be stained, we’ll feel unlovely and unlovable, but when we see him all that will fade away. And when he sees us, when HE sees YOU, you will be what Joni called “the pure and perfect bride”.
That’s the excitement, the anticipation that Peter wants us to have, as Christians, as we contemplate heaven.
This is the hope we have in Christ Jesus. The hope “of future glory” that Peter talked about in chapter 1 and which dominates this letter.
Remember, when God set out to save you, He didn’t merely save you from your sins, though that would be wonderful in itself, and He didn’t merely provide a way to give you the perfect righteousness of His Son.
He didn’t just give you His Holy Spirit to seal you, and guide you, and sanctify you, and to make you more like Jesus in your character.
He did much, much more - He chose you before the foundation of the world, so that He would lead you out of your shame and guilt and into His glorious presence!
Our Almighty God wants you to share in the glorious inheritance and the glory of Jesus Christ, to spend eternity with Him, and to enjoy Him forever!
Then, and only then, will God’s plan of salvation be complete.
Let that set your hearts on fire, the way Joni Eareckson’s heart was on fire when she saw her husband’s joy on their wedding day. Your earthly struggles pale in comparison to the glory and honour that will be yours when Christ returns!
If this is our hope as Christians, then Peter says we should do two things.
The first is to live it out. We’ve talked about that in this series and this epistle is a very helpful guide.
We don’t know whether the man who paid for our friend’s croissants on Friday was a Christrian or not, but if so, what an example that was! Or maybe he was an angel, who knows?
If you’re following this series closely you’ll notice that we finsihed last week at the end of chapter 2, and picked up again a good third of the way into chapter 3. That’s because we’ve skipped the section on wives submitting to their husbands, and husbands honouring their wives. I’ve skipped it not becaause I don’t think it to be relevant in today’s western culture, far from it. Nor because it’s a sensative and potentially contraversial subject about which there are any number of opinions, but because it’s perhaps a little bit of a red herring and I don’t want us to lose momentum.
Suffice it to say, that with marriage held so lightly today, even, sadly, by the established church, how we treat our spouses and honour our pledges is an itegral part of our witness as Christians, that Peter has been telling us about.
The second thing Peter tells us in this passage, in verse 15, is to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and respect;”
“Always be ready!” True, we witness in the way that we live, behave, and so on, but here Peter takes us one step further.
I said the other day that we are not all called and gifted to be evangelists, but nevertheless Peter encourages us to be AWAYS READY, so that when people ask us we can talk to them about our personal experience of our Christian faith, and to do it with humility, gentleness and respect.
In France today, we aren’t in imminent danger being imprisoned or tortured for our faith as Peter’s some of audience were, we are not likely to.
But we are beginning to face very soft persecution, that of being ignored or excluded, or that of being thought small minded or unloving, and it’s true that these things can seriously hinder our attempts to speak about the Jesus to our friends and loved ones.
So the antidote to our silence is the hope of future glory, knowing that, as strangers in this world, any isolation and humiliation will be temporary, and God will include us in His kingdom, giving us honour, glory and a permanent home with Jesus Christ!
Remember that there is a dying world out there that desperately needs to hear about this future hope too.
That’s the attitude Peter wants you to have when it comes to answering questions someone might have about the hope in your heart.
People don’t expect us to, and more often than not, don’t want us to preach to them about the theology of salvation. They just want us to answer questions like
· How do you know that God really exists?
· If God does exist, why is there so much suffering in the world?
· Is Jesus a real person?
· Why do you go to church?
· Etc.
And thy don’t want to know what the books say or what the preacher says, they want to know what YOU THINK.
These are simlple honest questions that merit simple honest answers, and Peter says that we should be ALWAYS READY to give them.
We’ll probably refer back to this next week, but in the meantime give some thought to how you might answer simple questions like those, and how you might do it with humility, gentleness and respect.
And in the event, when those questions come, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and give you the words when you need them, because He will. Just be yourself and be honest, and see what God will do through you!
1 Peter 4 – 04/08/24 – Readings Acts 3:1-10 & 1 Peter 2:13-23
In our first reading we heard about Peter, and his friend John, being confronted with a situation that you and I probably face most weeks when we go to SuperU or Lidl - someone begging for money. It’s embarrassing, isn’t it? I’m never quite ready for it, I never quite know whether to give or not to give, and if to give, how much? Are these people REALLY needy, one asks. A neighbour of mine once chatted to a beggar outside Lidl in Carcassonne who told him that he made so much begging in the mornings that he was able to go home at midday. Not only that, his income from begging enabled him to go on holiday in the Caribbean every year. I’m sure that some of them are genuinely needy, though, and even if they aren’t, those situations tell us more about us than they do about them. ….
The beggar in Acts, though, was genuinely lame, and certainly in financial need. Peter wanted the man to give them his full attention, so that he could say to him, ‘Look at us! We are going to give you something that you’re not expecting.”
Never, in his wildest dreams, did that beggar expect to walk again, let alone jump. But he did!
More importantly, more significantly, though, he wasn’t the only one who experienced something that they weren’t expecting that day. Our passage tells us that “when all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognised him …, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. So much so, in fact that many who heard the message believed, putting the number of believers up to about 5000.
But it didn’t stop there. There was such a commotion that Peter and John got themselves locked up overnight. The next morning, they found themselves up in front of the top bods who told them off good and proper for causing a disturbance of the peace, and commanded them to “stop speaking and teaching in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, ‘Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’
Luke goes on to say that after further threats they let them go, and that they couldn’t even decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened.
I am not for one moment suggesting that we try to do what Peter did, though some preachers might argue that if our faith was sufficient, we could. But I am suggesting we have the same mindset, the mindset that he was laying out so clearly in his letter, a mindset that focuses on the needs of others, rather than our own, a mindset that says that a person’s need for salvation is far more pressing than his need for healing or for food, a mindset that says declaring the good news is more important than our personal comfort.
Yes, Peter wanted to minister to the lame beggar, but he also wanted to challenge both the onlookers and the authorities with a manifestation of God’s power.
So let’s turn to our second reading which talks about submitting and about suffering like Jesus.
Last week we saw Peter reminding his readers of who we are: “a chosen people, a royal nation, a holy priesthood, living stones built into a spiritual temple, citizens of the Kingdom of God, who for a little while are living in exile in a foreign land”. The French have an expression that describes it perfectly – “en passage”. We also talked about the importance of living correctly both when other people are watching, as well as when they’re not.
Live such good lives among the pagans, Peter says, that, even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they can’t help but see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Now Peter begins to flesh out just what kind of lives we are called to live in this world, lives of humble submission in an unjust world, following Jesus’ example.
It is easy to dismiss the passage about slaves obeying their masters because we are not slaves ourselves, and we don’t have any slaves. It might interest you to know, however, that according to the latest global estimates 49.6 million people still live in some sort of modern slavery, and that roughly a quarter of those are children.
However, in Peter’s day, in the Roman Empire, slavery was common. Most slaves would have received a modest wage, but they weren’t free to leave unless they could purchase their freedom. Many of them were well-educated and served their masters in highly responsible trades and professions. Our good friend Joseph was a classic example!
For the most part, slaves were well treated and laws protected them, so perhaps "servant" carries the appropriate level of meaning in modern vocabulary. What Peter says, therefore, can be equally applied to modern day employees, so is indeed as relevant today as it was then.
Today, as then, employers can be good or bad. So again, Peter’s advice is just as pertinent today as it ever was, and behaving correctly is critical to our Christian witness.
But Peter is the first to admit that that isn’t easy, and so by way of encouragement he talks about Christ’s example of suffering.
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’ Peter says quoting from Isaiah 53. [
When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’ For ‘you were like sheep going astray,’ Isaiah 53 again but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
So, in nconclusion, here are 5 things to take away with us today, but I have to admit that they’re all somewhat counter-intuitive.
1. Jesus didn't sin with his words. That is so incredibly hard to achieve when evil people are badgering us!
2. He didn't deceive his enemies. In self defense sometimes we resort to half-truths. But not Jesus. He was open and honest under pressure, even though he knew his words would be twisted by his enemies.
3. He didn't retaliate. There's a great satisfaction in telling someone off, and in getting our revenge. Jesus resisted that temptation.
4. He didn't threaten. How tempting and easy it is to do that.
5. He did trust his Father. Jesus was at peace under pressure, persecution, and suffering because he trusted his Father to right all wrongs, to take care of him, and to bring about His perfect will for all mankind.
That’s 1 Peter 2:21-23, Peter telling his readers “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. … because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. … When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly