If you’re anything like me, apologizing
is one of the hardest things to do. That
mostly has to do with the fact that in apologizing, we are admitting that on
some level, in some way, we bear guilt or responsibility for whatever has gone
wrong. However, Peter would tell us that
apologizing is not just something we do when we are wrong. Before we get to that however, a quick note
on the suffering that is connected to the “apologizing” Peter encourages us to
do.
Peter uses part of a text from the Old
Testament, to help focus the minds of his readers on the importance of enduring
as a righteous people before God. In
Psalm 34, sandwiched in between an invitation to “taste and see that the Lord
is good” and the ending where it speaks of the redemption the righteous find in
God, there is a section that heavily implies that life will not always be a bed
of roses for those who seek to do the right thing. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
That would have been one of the next verses of that psalm had Peter
continued quoting it. Why didn’t Peter
just quote it then? Like any good
teacher, I think Peter recognizes the value of helping his readers reach the
answer on their own, so he leads them partially to it, and then hopes that in
their mind they will hear the rest of the psalm. It’s an old technique referred to as metalepsis, whereby an author, in our
case Peter, quotes the beginning of a passage, hoping that the reader or
listener will be brought to a remembrance of the entire thing. If I said to you, “four-score and seven years
ago”, what would you think of? First of
all, you would probably continue to envision the Gettsyburg address, and in
your mind continue by thinking “our fathers brought forth on this continent a
new nation.” By just saying a few words,
your mind has been flooded with not just all the ideas in Lincoln’s speech, but
you also might have imagined the tall, slender figure of our sixteenth
President, adorned with a stove-pipe hat, addressing the crowd gathered for the
commemoration of the cemetery on that famous battlefield.
Just a simple quote from a famous speech
can send our mind into a state of deep reflection about our past as a
nation. Likewise, for people of faith a
short quotation from a well-known psalm can invoke all the promises and
reassurances that psalm has to offer.
The suffering endured because of righteousness is troubling, but not
expected. And because God expects it, He
has made plans to deliver those who endure it.
That’s why Peter tells us
that we should always be ready to make a defense, or to explain the hope that
is in us. The Greek term for defense is apologia, which is the word from which
our words apologetics and apology come. This is a different type of apology than the
kind we are used to though. For too
long, Christians have been doing the wrong type of apologizing. We have presented ourselves with hat in hand to
society, apologizing for the absolute truth of our claims. We have apologized for the high moral
standards that we strive to attain, and that we challenge others to
pursue. We even
apologize for a God who dares to not conform Himself to what society feels He
should be. I
think if we look back to our own history as a people of faith, we will find
examples of apologies that are altogether different from the ones we have been
offering. They are more in line with
what Peter encourages here in this passage, not awkward admissions of guilt or
regret for daring to proclaim the truth about a God that makes society
uncomfortable. But rather, a passionate,
and yet at the same time compassionate, defense of the truth concerning who God
is. One example from the past of such a
defense is that of Apollonius. Apollonius’ was a Roman citizen whose talent had
caused him to rise to the rank of senator.
He was accused of being a Christian before the Pretorian Prefect
Perennius. In his trial in front of the
senate, instead of defending himself against the charges, he acknowledged them,
and began an impassioned defense of the nature of the Christian faith. As a result of his acknowledgement,
Apollonius was condemned to death based on the law established by the Emperor
Trajan. He endured two trials, one by
the Pretorian Prefect, and the other by a group of senators and jurists. The whole trial was conducted in a very
courteous manner. The only interruptions
were pleas by Apollonius’ colleagues to temper his remarks, as they were
sealing his fate. He was “digging his
own grave” with his unapologetic apologia,
but that made no difference to
him however; for he was not afraid to die.
According to Apollonius, "there is waiting for me something better:
eternal life, given to the person who has lived well on earth." There is disagreement among the sources as to
the exact nature of his death. Some say
that Apollonius died after having his legs crushed, others say he was
decapitated. Though we aren’t sure
exactly how he died, we do know how he lived.
What a marvelous life it was.
How many of us would have
acted as Apollonius did? My guess is
that many of us would have done a different type of apologizing. But here’s the thing, does the renouncing of
our faith make the truth of who God is any less true? I think Apollonius stood there and refused to recant
because he believed with all his heart that Jesus was who he claimed to
be. I think he knew that suffering and
death will come to us all, and if it’s going to come, better to endure it while
maintaining our confession, that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord. In the words of Peter, “it is better to
suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.”
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