Suffering For the Sake of Righteousness

6th Sunday of Easter – A                                                                     LSB #’s 475, 713:1-3, 6; 932
Text – 1 Peter 3:14a
 
But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. 
 
SUFFERING FOR THE SAKE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
 
 
“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.  He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”  (Psalm 23:1-3 ESV)    It’s a well-known & well-loved Psalm, used at many funerals because it can bring great comfort in the midst of our suffering. 
However, as we find comfort in the thought of Jesus leading us in paths of righteousness, we’re probably not considering the words of Peter from the sermon text.   Those very paths of righteousness that Jesus leads us on can also be what causes the world to slander or persecute us.   You only have to look at Cain & Abel to see what can come of it:
“By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous…”  (Hebrews 11:4a ESV)    At the hands of his older brother, Abel suffered death for the sake of that righteous offering.   Abel simply did what was good, right & God-pleasing.   It cost him his earthly life.    Note that key distinction – his earthly life. 
No matter how much value anyone places on this life all of it, all of it,   is temporary.   Everything in this room will be gone in fairly short order compared to eternity.   Each of our most treasured possessions will be gone sooner than we realize.   The same is true of our suffering in this broken world.   All of it will be over in short order compared to eternity. 
God the Holy Spirit is at work blessing us   through any suffering we endure for the sake of righteousness.   That’s what St. Peter is teaching us in the Epistle lesson, but reading it & living it are vastly different experiences.    No doubt you’ve done a good deed & still caught flack for it.  Or maybe the person you helped was totally not appreciative.   Not once did they thank you.  It’s happened to all of us.  Were you disappointed?  Did you get frustrated & angry?  Did you pray about it & discover something about your motive for doing good?   If the Holy Spirit is guiding you, examining those motives is always dangerous territory.   Each time sin will be discovered beneath it all.   Even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags.  (Isaiah 64:6) 
If our motive for doing good is the recognition we hope to receive,   in addition to suffering for righteousness’ sake we also will experience frustration & anger.   The frustration & anger reveal that our motives were not pure.  When we do good & suffer for it, how we endure that suffering reveals something about us.  
You might remember this from the Epistle lesson two weeks ago: “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.   For what credit is it if, when you sin & are beaten for it, you endure?   But if when you do good & suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”  (1 Peter 2:19-20 ESV) 
The next time you do something righteous & suffer for it, Peter encourages you not to be frustrated & angry.   He’s calling you to see it as a gracious thing in the sight of God.  When you do, then realize that your motives are improving.   Jesus calls us to love our neighbor & our enemies simply because God loved us when we were His enemies. 
If we do good with God’s love as our motive, it doesn’t matter if the one receiving our help is ungrateful or even belligerent.   The heavenly Father always appreciates the righteous things we do when love for Him is our motive.  If we suffer for it, He will see that & He will bless us.   How God blesses us is not under our control, but His Word promises that He will. 
Whatever Satan means for evil God is able to turn for good.  The next time you do good, try tapping into the pure joy of working alongside your Lord & Savior.   That is a far greater reward than any sinful being can ever give you.   Earthly recognition, even in its highest form, is here today gone tomorrow.   Your heavenly Father’s recognition is perfect & pure & it never ends.  “…even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.”   (1 Peter 3:14a ESV)   That is Christ’s promise to us & He should know.  As Peter continued:
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh…”  (3:18 ESV)   Jesus suffered for righteousness’ sake all the way to death   that He might restore you & me to the eternal family of our holy Creator.   Jesus suffered horribly so that He could be blessed with your presence in heaven. 
That may sound a little over the top because you have not yet met your holy & totally perfect self.  However, do you know how long Yahweh has known the self that you will become in heaven?  St. Paul gave us that answer in Ephesians 1:
“Blessed be the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy & blameless before Him…”  (1:3-4 ESV)   Since before the foundation of the world – that’s how long Yahweh has known your perfect self. 
Would you like to meet that you – the holy & blameless you?    We tend to think of heaven in the sense of no more sin, sorrow or suffering.   Yet, there we will meet the self none of us has ever known, & best of all, it will never ‘go to our head.’   Never again will we be ‘full of ourselves,’ expecting everything to revolve around me, myself & I. 
We will be perfectly grateful & filled with joy just to be completely in the presence of Jesus.  Everything else will be ‘icing on the cake.’   All that, is what the book of Hebrews refers to, when it says of Jesus: “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…”  (12:2 ESV)   Jesus wants the opportunity to create the perfect you when He raises you from the dead. 
Hebrews continues: “Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against
Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”  (12:3 ESV)  That living in this world can be difficult is an understatement.  That’s why the Holy Spirit coordinated St. Peter with Hebrews, “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.”  (3:14a ESV)  He’s not just talking about blessing in this life.   Peter is also speaking of heaven. 
As the sermon hymn put it: “Yet even though I suffer  the world’s unpleasantness,  & though the days grow rougher  & bring me great distress,  that day of bliss divine,  which knows no end or measure,  & Christ,  who is my pleasure,  forever  shall be mine.”  LSB 713:6.  
The context of Peter’s letter is our daily Christian living, the ‘undeserved’ suffering it brings, & the resulting attitude we take toward those who cause the suffering.   Hostile, aggressive self-defense is the knee-jerk reaction to the world’s harassment.  Jesus teaches & models a different way, yet, ultimately, Jesus accomplishes that new way for us.  
He doesn’t let us ‘off the hook’ for loving our neighbor even when we suffer for it, but Jesus does accomplish that to the perfection our heavenly Father requires.  Because Jesus did that perfectly, & on our behalf, those who follow Jesus will have a 2nd & eternal chance in heaven.  There, everyone will perfectly love their Lord & their neighbor in every way. 
When times are tough, we can lose sight of what is good & true.  The time we have left here is short, especially in comparison to eternity.  The suffering we have left here is short, especially in comparison to joy & glory of eternity.  In the meantime, we have Psalm 23, & our Good Shepherd has promised that He will never leave us.  Amen. 
 
 
When those whom I regarded as trustworthy & sure have long from me departed, God’s grace shall still endure.   He rescues me from sin & breaks the chains that bind me.   I leave death’s fear behind me; His peace I have within. The Lord my life arranges; who can His work destroy? In His good time He changes all sorrow into joy.   So let me then be still:  my body, soul & spirit His tender care inherit according to His will.  Amen.  LSB 713:2-3.