Following in the suffering footsteps of Jesus
Suffering Well: How to Put God on Display in the Hardest Moments of Life
(1 Peter 2:21-25)
There is a question that most of us would rather avoid: what do we do when life becomes unbearable? When the pain is not the result of our own poor choices, when the accusation is false, when the wound was not deserved? Suffering is not a topic anyone eagerly signs up to discuss. And yet, every single one of us will face it. The question is not whether suffering will come, but what we will do with it when it arrives.
The letter of 1 Peter was written to a scattered group of believers living as exiles and foreigners in a world that was not always friendly to them. But here is the thing worth noticing: the words Peter wrote to those early Christians are just as alive and relevant today as they were then. If you were to place the names of your town, your valley, your neighborhood into that letter, the message would not change. God is speaking to his people, here and now, about how to live in a way that puts him on display, even in the middle of suffering.
Called to Be a Royal Priesthood
Peter draws from one of the most foundational moments in Israel's history, reaching back to Exodus 19, where God declared to his people that they were to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. A priest, simply put, is someone who puts God on display. That was the calling of Israel. That is the calling of the church. Not just in comfortable moments, not just when life is going well, but in every season, including the hard ones.
God scattered the tribe of Levi throughout the nation of Israel so that every community would have an example of what it looked like to follow God faithfully. In the same way, followers of Jesus are scattered throughout their communities, their workplaces, their neighborhoods, to be living examples of what it means to walk with God. The question worth sitting with is this: what does that example look like when things fall apart?
The Example Jesus Left Behind
In 1 Peter 2, verses 21 through 25, Peter points directly to Jesus as the model for suffering well. He draws heavily from Isaiah 53, the famous suffering servant passage, where the prophet describes one who is pierced for the transgressions of others, crushed for iniquities, and wounded so that healing might come. Peter connects these ancient words to Jesus, and then makes a striking claim: Christ suffered for us, leaving an example that we should follow in his steps.
What does that example look like in practice? When insults were hurled at Jesus, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. He did not go on the offensive. He did not try to seize control of the situation. Instead, he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. That word entrusted carries a rich meaning: to give something over into another's power, to deliver something to be kept, used, cared for, and managed. Jesus handed the situation to his Father. He let God be in control of what God was already in control of.
That is far easier to say than to do. When someone hurts us, the gut reaction is to defend, retaliate, or attack. We want to take control. But taking control and entrusting the situation to God are two very different postures, and only one of them leads to the kind of peace that passes understanding.
The Healing That Comes From Wounds
One of the most profound truths in this passage is found in 1 Peter 2, verse 24, where Peter describes how Jesus bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness, and adds that by his wounds, we have been healed. This is the stunning reversal at the heart of the gospel. God took the most unjust event in all of human history, the death of his innocent Son, and turned it into the source of healing and salvation for the entire world.
And then he invites us to partner with him in that same kind of reversal. When we choose to entrust our suffering to God rather than letting bitterness and retaliation have the final word, something remarkable can happen. The wounds that others have caused in our lives can become, in God's hands, a source of healing for others. How we walk through suffering can be the very thing that leads someone else to the healing wounds of Jesus. Suffering does not have to get the last word. Jesus can.
Peter's Failure and Restoration
Perhaps the most personally striking element of this passage is how it must have landed on Peter himself when he wrote it. On the night Jesus was on trial, being falsely accused, spat upon, and insulted without retaliation, Peter was in a nearby courtyard denying that he even knew Jesus. Three times. The third time so vehemently that he called down curses on himself. He saw Jesus across the courtyard. Their eyes met. And Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Peter, the man who swore he would die with Jesus, went astray like a sheep. But Jesus did not leave him there. In John 21, Jesus meets Peter on the shore, shares a meal with him, and restores him, once for each denial. Three times Jesus asks if Peter loves him. Three times he commissions him to care for his sheep. And then he says the same two words he spoke at the very beginning: follow me.
That restoration is not just Peter's story. It is the offer extended to every person who has ever failed, wandered, or allowed suffering to pull them away from their shepherd. Jesus meets us at the shore. He restores. He recommissions. He says, follow me.
Giving Jesus the Last Word
None of this means suffering is easy, or that those in abusive or dangerous situations should remain silent. Speaking up, seeking help, and pursuing justice are right and necessary. But for every believer navigating pain, loss, accusation, or grief, there is an invitation: entrust it to the one who judges justly. Let God keep it, use it, care for it, and manage it.
Our suffering does not have to define us. It is part of our story, but it is not the end of it. When we place it in the hands of the God who brings beauty from ashes and life from death, Jesus gets the last word. And his last word is always one of healing, restoration, and hope.
(1 Peter 2:21-25)
There is a question that most of us would rather avoid: what do we do when life becomes unbearable? When the pain is not the result of our own poor choices, when the accusation is false, when the wound was not deserved? Suffering is not a topic anyone eagerly signs up to discuss. And yet, every single one of us will face it. The question is not whether suffering will come, but what we will do with it when it arrives.
The letter of 1 Peter was written to a scattered group of believers living as exiles and foreigners in a world that was not always friendly to them. But here is the thing worth noticing: the words Peter wrote to those early Christians are just as alive and relevant today as they were then. If you were to place the names of your town, your valley, your neighborhood into that letter, the message would not change. God is speaking to his people, here and now, about how to live in a way that puts him on display, even in the middle of suffering.
Called to Be a Royal Priesthood
Peter draws from one of the most foundational moments in Israel's history, reaching back to Exodus 19, where God declared to his people that they were to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. A priest, simply put, is someone who puts God on display. That was the calling of Israel. That is the calling of the church. Not just in comfortable moments, not just when life is going well, but in every season, including the hard ones.
God scattered the tribe of Levi throughout the nation of Israel so that every community would have an example of what it looked like to follow God faithfully. In the same way, followers of Jesus are scattered throughout their communities, their workplaces, their neighborhoods, to be living examples of what it means to walk with God. The question worth sitting with is this: what does that example look like when things fall apart?
The Example Jesus Left Behind
In 1 Peter 2, verses 21 through 25, Peter points directly to Jesus as the model for suffering well. He draws heavily from Isaiah 53, the famous suffering servant passage, where the prophet describes one who is pierced for the transgressions of others, crushed for iniquities, and wounded so that healing might come. Peter connects these ancient words to Jesus, and then makes a striking claim: Christ suffered for us, leaving an example that we should follow in his steps.
What does that example look like in practice? When insults were hurled at Jesus, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. He did not go on the offensive. He did not try to seize control of the situation. Instead, he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. That word entrusted carries a rich meaning: to give something over into another's power, to deliver something to be kept, used, cared for, and managed. Jesus handed the situation to his Father. He let God be in control of what God was already in control of.
That is far easier to say than to do. When someone hurts us, the gut reaction is to defend, retaliate, or attack. We want to take control. But taking control and entrusting the situation to God are two very different postures, and only one of them leads to the kind of peace that passes understanding.
The Healing That Comes From Wounds
One of the most profound truths in this passage is found in 1 Peter 2, verse 24, where Peter describes how Jesus bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness, and adds that by his wounds, we have been healed. This is the stunning reversal at the heart of the gospel. God took the most unjust event in all of human history, the death of his innocent Son, and turned it into the source of healing and salvation for the entire world.
And then he invites us to partner with him in that same kind of reversal. When we choose to entrust our suffering to God rather than letting bitterness and retaliation have the final word, something remarkable can happen. The wounds that others have caused in our lives can become, in God's hands, a source of healing for others. How we walk through suffering can be the very thing that leads someone else to the healing wounds of Jesus. Suffering does not have to get the last word. Jesus can.
Peter's Failure and Restoration
Perhaps the most personally striking element of this passage is how it must have landed on Peter himself when he wrote it. On the night Jesus was on trial, being falsely accused, spat upon, and insulted without retaliation, Peter was in a nearby courtyard denying that he even knew Jesus. Three times. The third time so vehemently that he called down curses on himself. He saw Jesus across the courtyard. Their eyes met. And Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Peter, the man who swore he would die with Jesus, went astray like a sheep. But Jesus did not leave him there. In John 21, Jesus meets Peter on the shore, shares a meal with him, and restores him, once for each denial. Three times Jesus asks if Peter loves him. Three times he commissions him to care for his sheep. And then he says the same two words he spoke at the very beginning: follow me.
That restoration is not just Peter's story. It is the offer extended to every person who has ever failed, wandered, or allowed suffering to pull them away from their shepherd. Jesus meets us at the shore. He restores. He recommissions. He says, follow me.
Giving Jesus the Last Word
None of this means suffering is easy, or that those in abusive or dangerous situations should remain silent. Speaking up, seeking help, and pursuing justice are right and necessary. But for every believer navigating pain, loss, accusation, or grief, there is an invitation: entrust it to the one who judges justly. Let God keep it, use it, care for it, and manage it.
Our suffering does not have to define us. It is part of our story, but it is not the end of it. When we place it in the hands of the God who brings beauty from ashes and life from death, Jesus gets the last word. And his last word is always one of healing, restoration, and hope.