Suffering for Others

Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is to your credit if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, where is the credit in that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
‘He committed no sin,
   and no deceit was found in his mouth.’
When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

I Peter 2 

The idea of suffering has always been a tough one for me to accept. I do not want to suffer. It is as simple as that. But what we are called to is even tougher than that (sadly, I am not sure that I ever really understood this before). We are CALLED to suffer unjustly FOR THE SAKE OF THE ONES WHO CAUSED THE SUFFERING IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I have always focused on the command to endure suffering even if it's unjust, that we bless those who curse us, do good to those who harm us, etc. But it is more than that. We are called to suffered as Christ did ON BEHALF OF THE ONES WHO CAUSE THE SUFFERING. In this passage I think that we are identified by Peter as those who caused the unjust suffering of Christ (He bore OUR sins in his body on the cross), and yet we are the ones who have been healed. Because he did that for us, we have returned to the one who cares for, provides for, and looks after our souls (remember that souls refer to who we are). This isn't just some sort of spiritual legal transaction on God's books. Christ being willing to suffer unjustly, his torture coming as a result of our sins, touched us in a way that caused us to return to God.

We are called to imitate Christ in this way. Suffer on behalf of others, suffer unjustly at their hands, for their benefit. We live in the hope, not that they will "get theirs" but that they will return to God precisely because of our suffering unjustly at their hands. 

Will everyone be touched and respond to our unjust suffering? If people's reaction to Christ is any indication, the answer is no, of course not. But other people's response is not what determines who we are. We are people who love those who do not love us, and that is a hard hard thing for us to do or even understand. The important thing for us to remember is that we have been called to follow him in just this way: a willingness to take on unjust abuse precisely for the sake of those who abuse us.