An Easter Benediction: The Living Hope
Peter wrote to persecuted believers in the dispersion in his first letter (1 Peter 1:1 and 6). In our day and age, his greeting would be a bit sadistic: “May grace and peace be multiplied to you” (1:2). We are often quick to find the difficult lot in life, the storyline that makes us feel like the victim. What rude council this must seem like, we may assume! But the believers in dispersion to whom Peter writes had a starkly different outlook. Peter does not say take a break, seek out self-care, or vilify their attackers. Instead, Peter encourages multiplied grace and peace amidst persecution and commands them to “be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution” (2:13), even to the emperor!
How can this possibly be? How can Christians stand respectfully in the face of evil institutions who, from time to time, wish harm to the Church? Christians are those who are “…born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1:3). Having been totally reborn by the Sprit into Christ, this living hope inspires, by the Holy Spirit, a Christian’s ability to grow in holiness, submit to earthly (even foolish or hateful) authorities, and to suffer for Christ’s sake, along with all the other things Peter instructs throughout his letter. The resurrection, therefore, shines as a beacon throughout the whole of the Christian life influencing everything we do and encounter.
The living hope of the resurrection of Jesus affects everything but it is not in everything. Sin has a strong and devious grip on a world influenced by death and Satan. But, as the Church of the resurrection we are the salt and light of the resurrection’s living hope for the watching world. We bring the living hope of resurrection to our neighbors by proclaiming the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ: Christ came to save sinners, so repent and believe. Yet, we also bring living hope in our daily lives through “unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love; a tender heart, and a humble mind” (3:8), among other directions for the renewed life in Jesus (e.g., 4:8–11).
When we face the misery of this life, our only hope is Jesus Christ because he has been raised from the dead! This changes everything! It rewrites what seems to be natural and overturns what seems to be solid. The living hope of the resurrection in Jesus faces death and says, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” Live in the living hope of the resurrection each day, for the sake and cause of the gospel!
