Christ’s blood is imperishable. So are you! Death could not keep Him down, and you are born of the same stuff, the blood that has been delivered to you in the Word, the good news.
Two major observations this week and a readthrough of the rest of 1 Peter 1, a great chapter from a great epistle, and so apropos for the Easter season. Observation number one: Perishable and imperishable is the name of the game in this Easter 3 pericope. It resonates with Peter’s opening remarks from last week’s reading, where he talks about faith tested as precious metal in a refiner’s fire. He takes the content of the analogy and kicks it up a notch to highlight the superiority of Jesus’ ransom for Peter’s direct audience, and His redemption of the world. Jesus accomplished His saving work by paying out, not gold or silver, but blood, sacrificial blood. The biblical sermon that takes its cues straight from the text will go far on this model: Christ’s blood is imperishable. So are you! Death could not keep Him down, and you are born of the same stuff, the blood that has been delivered to you in the Word, the good news (1 Peter 1:25). So, death cannot keep you down either. Imperishable! The Word of the Lord abides forever, and, therefore, so will you.
The other observation this week is a couple of remarks on the plethora of metaphors the Apostle engages to deliver the goods. This is one more valuable tool in the preacher’s back pocket. Do not shy away from employing them yourself and adorning the message with a richness of image and sensory experience. Illustrating the sermon should not be confined to a mild joke or reduced to a Reader’s Digest story here or there to grab people’s attention or wake them up, put them in a good mood or make them think you are clever. They should tune the ears to hear, sharpen the focus to see, in any way whatsoever to receive the goods you have to give. That is what Peter does, so you do it too.
As a Lutheran sort of person, 1 Peter 1:18-19 makes me stand up and cheer. It is the centerpiece, the bullseye of Luther’s explanation of the second article of the Apostle’s Creed in his smaller catechism: “Jesus Christ has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, from the power of the Devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own...” This should be the bullseye of your preaching as well. “The good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25), is the Gospel, and the Gospel is what a sermon is for, to be delivered to save your hearer.
Peter’s emphasis on the sacrificial nature of this death is an important nuance. It reinforces the centrality of Christ’s vicarious death. It also connects His death to the promises of God’s presence and communion with His people in the Old Testament. Therefore, it helps us interpret “the futile ways inherited from your forefathers” (1 Peter 1:18) as, likely, not a criticism of Jewish tradition, but, rather, a natural-man, left-to-himself, way of living apart from God’s will (pursuing evil desires and what not, like he brings up at 1 Peter 2:1). Peter could just as easily left it at “ransom,” stayed with the single slave-market/money exchange metaphor, but he raises the stakes on it by calling it sacrificial.
Remember this focus on Christ’s precious and sacrificial death as you work through the text, because it may be easy to slip into reading the balance of the pericope, hear where it tips to faithful response in the hearer (“conduct yourselves with fear,” 1 Peter 1:17; “obedience to the truth for brotherly love,” 1 Peter 1:22), and think it more salutary to emphasize these points for the hearers in your own context. Even if you do, recognize that the source of fear and obedience, all reverence, love, and trust in God for daily living, is the death and resurrection of Christ on our behalf.
Even if you do, recognize that the source of fear and obedience, all reverence, love, and trust in God for daily living, is the death and resurrection of Christ on our behalf.
Peter will not let us forget it. That is the point of his linking the “perishable/imperishable” theme from 1:18-19 to his hearers’ identity as born-again folks: “Born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable” (1 Peter 1:23). This verse is the heart and soul of who your people are in Christ. This is identity talk that matches Peter’s salvo at the start of the letter: “He caused you to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus” (1 Peter 1:3). Your hearer’s identity is forever changed because Jesus rose again from the dead.
What a Jesus! His blood is imperishable. Gold and silver, pretty, precious, diamonds, unbreakable, these will all pass away, but the blood of Christ is forever. Therefore, born again by His blood and resurrection, so are you! Even the grave cannot hold down the forever body and blood of Christ. And those who have the forever body and blood of Christ in them cannot be held back by the grave either! What a promise to proclaim at a funeral. What an encouraging invitation to receive the blood from the cup around the table at the Lord’s Supper. What a brilliant promise to proclaim from this pericope this week!
And Peter gets organic on us too, explaining the born-again business not with Nicodemus notions of reentering a mother’s womb. Rather, he cites seed, spora, (interestingly a hapax legomenon here, where New Testament lit most often prefers sperma or sporos), perhaps because he really wants to get to the vegetation prophecy of Isaiah 40 to clinch the perishable/imperishable theme. Perhaps, this is because it resonates with his audience which he has named the Diaspora of elect exiles in 1 Peter 1:1 (there might be an interesting rabbit hole to dive into for the commentary-minded). But in my opinion, it is just as likely that Peter has Jesus’ preaching in his mind. Consider the Parable of the Sower. The Word of God is sown everywhere, and where it grows it produces fruit. Consider the death and resurrection proclamation of Jesus at John 12:24-26: “Amen, amen, I say to you: Unless a kernel of wheat (here, the word is kokkos) falls to the earth and dies it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much of fruit... where I am there also My servant will be.”
I cannot help but overhear John 1:11-13 in this new birth and Word of God business. The organic, natural way of human birth is from a mommy and a daddy, from “bloods” (haimatōn), from the will of the flesh, from the will of a husband. But as many as received Him, as many believed on His name became children of God, were born of God. That same faith is what saves the born again in 1 Peter 1:20-21. It is for your sake that Christ was made manifest in these last days, for the sake of you who believe, so that your faith is in God, the God who raised Him from the dead; and raises you too, rebirths you by the Word, the good news, the Gospel (1 Peter 1:25).
I love how Peter stacks up his metaphors. I will not go so far as to say mixes here; there is a rhetorical purpose in this, poikilia, variety, offering his hearers and readers a richness of sense, thought, image, and meaning that invites them to see the miracle of Christ’s death and resurrection in multiple facets, refracted through different lenses (there is me mixing my metaphors). But, notice how he does this. 1 Peter 1:17, forensic: God is judge. 1:18, ransom and exile: You are ransomed and exiles, sojourners, and your ransom has a price, a value marked in real currency. 1:19, sacrifice: The currency is sacrificial, like a lamb without blemish. 1:22, washing: Purified souls love one another. 1:23-25, organic rebirth: Born again from imperishable seed – and the Word of the Lord, the Gospel, the preached good news is that seed.
Peter will stack one more metaphor right on top of this heap. Seeds grow, and so do those who are born again. The Apostle will highlight this in his next sentences, at 1 Peter 2:2, which we will hear as the epistle pericope two weeks from now. There, however, he pivots from the agricultural metaphor in favor of nursing children. Like newborn babes (quasi modo geniti!), crave pure spiritual milk. We will leave that emphasis for Easter 5. For this week, preach the imperishable blood of Christ for the imperishable, born again listeners who hear the good news you deliver.
God bless your preaching this week!
Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on 1 Peter 1:17-25.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you preaching 1 Peter 1:17-25.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
