[Read 1 Peter 2:1-12]
Since it’s Mother’s Day, I thought I should begin by talking about an experience with which mother’s are very familiar. You have been working on supper diligently, doing your best to prepare a special meal for everyone. You’ve thought it through. You’ve bought the special ingredients. You’ve followed the recipe and added your own bit of “flair” to make it your own. As supper is getting close to being finished, you call the family down to eat. As everyone begins to gather in the kitchen or dining room, someone inevitably asks, “What’s for supper?” As you respond to this question, there will almost always be two very different responses. Some in the family will respond by shouting “YES!” and doing a little dance. Others will respond with a look of utter terror and disgust and a groan coming up from the deepest parts of their being.
It’s really an interesting phenomena if you think about it. You have a group of people coming into “contact” with the exact same thing and responding completely differently. Some come into contact with this food and rejoice, others despair. Some devour it, others reject it. Some love it, others hate it. Yet, it’s the SAME thing.
Our passage talks about the same thing in relation to Jesus Christ. He is a Rock that everyone will come into contact with. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change. Yet, not everyone responds to him the same way. Peter writes, “For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.” (1 Peter 2:6–8, NIV). Some will come into contact with this Rock and will trust Him and see Him as precious. Others will come into contact with this Rock and will reject it and stumble and fall. Some will come into contact with this Rock and shout “YES!” and do a little dance. Others will come into contact with this Rock with a look of utter terror and disgust, with a groan coming out of thier deepest being. Some love Him, others hate Him.
The question is, “Why?” Why do some people respond to Jesus by loving Him, trusting Him, and seeing Him as precious, and others respond by hating Him, rejecting Him, and seeing him as “blah!”? Our passage answers that question two different levels.
On one level, it’s because of God’s purposes and plan. This passage makes that comment very directly. It says, “They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.” (1 Peter 2:8, NIV). They were destined to stumble and fall. Yet, as we already mentioned at the beginning of this series, others are “the elect”—those chosen by God before the foundations of the earth. They were destined to rejoice in him and love him.
I understand that this is difficult for us to grasp and understand at times. Not that it’s difficult to understand the concept (I thinkn that’s fairly easy), but it’s difficult to understand WHY God would function this way. That’s alright for us to wrestle with these truths. It’s alright for us to wonder why God would work this way. However, we must also not allow our wrestling to affect the way we read God’s Word. This is what He has told us about himself. He’s very clear throughout scripture that He works in this way. So, we don’t have the option of ignoring it. We can wrestle with it, but we can never reject it.
After we’ve wrestled with it for a while, I really believe this begins to give us some humility and comfort and courage. It humbles us because we realize that we have embraced the gospel not because we were smarter or better than anyone else, but simply because God has worked in our life. It comforts us because we know that God will finish the work He started in us. We weren’t smart enough or strong enough in the beginning and we aren’t strong enough or smart enough to finish, but God is. It gives us courage to live out our faith and to speak the Gospel into the world because we know that it is God who is doing the work, not us. Sure, we are the ones who are out there living out our faith and sharing the Gospel, but it is God who is at work drawing people to himself. We don’t have to have a perfectly crafted presentation. We don’t have to say all the magic words. We simply have to be faithful and trust that God is going to work. Some will reject our message. Others will embrace it and love it.
So, on the one hand, people will respond differently when they come into contact with Jesus because of God’s plans and purposes, on the other hand it has to do with “tastes.” Peter writes, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:2–3, NIV). We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. That’s why we embrace and love Christ when we come into contact with him. In connecting this with the previous reason, God has actually changed our tastebuds. As he changed our hearts, he also changed our tastes. Things we once thought tasted really good, now disgust us because we’ve tasted the real thing—we’ve tasted the goodness of God.
Yet, others come into contact with Christ like a toddler to any new type of food. You place a new type of food in front of a toddler; they look at it in disgust; and say, “I don’t like it!” “What do you mean you don’t like it? You haven’t even tasted it!” “I don’t like it!,” they pout and refuse to eat any of it. They’d rather continue eating the nasty pureed turkey gravy baby food. (Have you ever tried that stuff? It’s nasty!).
This why people continue to live in destructive patterns and habits. It’s why people continue to live lives filled with malice, deceit, hypocricy, envy, and slander. They still like the taste of these things. They enjoy a bowl of malice with a side of envy in the morning. They enjoy some grilled hypocricy with a bottle of deceit.
That’s why, when we place the banquet of Christ before their eyes, they have a look of terror and disgust and say, “I don’t like it!” You respond by saying, “What do you mean? You’ve never even tasted it!” And they slap the spoon away from their mouth. They haven’t tasted and seen that the Lord is good.
Yet, Peter says, you HAVE tasted and seen that the Lord is good. You’ve tasted the goodness of the Lord. You’ve tasted the beauty and glory and peace of following Him. So he says, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” (1 Peter 2:1, NIV). Since you’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good, why are you still tempted to eat that nasty baby food? Why are you still digging food out of the dumpster? Why are you eating food that doesn’t taste good and will kill you? Stop it. Get rid of all that nasty stuff like malice, deceit, hypocricy, envy, and slander. Throw it in the dumpster and don’t look for it again.
On the other hand, Peter says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:2–3, NIV). Now that you’ve finally got a taste of the good stuff, crave that more and more. Crave to taste more fully God’s goodness. Crave to drink more fully from the stream of living water. Crave to grow deeper in you faith and to walk faithfully with the Lord. Crave it like you crave your favorite meal.
As many of you know, I’ve been watching what I eat, trying to live a healthier lifestyle. That’s not been easy because I really love food. Yet, as I’ve been working on eating appropriate amounts of food each day, I’ve noticed something. When I know we’re going to be eating one of my favorite meals for supper, it’s a lot easier for me to say “No” to the snacks throughout the day, because by saying “No” to the snacks I will be able to indulge myself a little more (not a lot more, but a little more) when it comes to eating my favorite meal.
That’s what Peter is talking about in living the Christian life. When we’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good—he’s our favorite meal—it’s much easier to say “No” to all of these other things and say “Yes” to indulging in Him.
It’s in seasons of difficulty that our true tastebuds come to light. That’s when we really begin to see what we crave and desire. I would ask you to take some time to reflect on this in your own life. What is it that you are craving right now? What is it that you desire right now in the midst of this difficulty? For some, this time of difficulty and trial is revealing to some who thought they were Christians, that they never really tasted and saw that the Lord is good. They never really craved and longed for the Christian life. For others, this time of difficulty is helping them to see that they really love and long for Christ. Some are finding out that they crave malice and bitterness and envy and slander, just like the rest of the world. Others, as they scroll through Facebook, are realizing they no longer love the taste of these thigns. It disgusts them. They want to taste the goodness of the Lord.
So, Peter says to crave to be more fully what we already are. He says, “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4–5, NIV). As those who’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is Good, we are living stones (each one of us) in the temple of God. The temple is no longer a physical thing that can be destroyed—it’s no longer a building. WE are the temple—together—in the world. WE are the presence of God in the world. Our church buildings may be “closed” for a season, but the temple of God—his presence in the world—will never, can never, be closed because WE are still in the world.
We’re not only the temple, but we are priests in the temple offering our lives as living sacrifices. Later he says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9–10, NIV).
Have you ever taken a moment to think about what the temple smelled like? What it was like to be a priest? There was a time when I only thought about the smell of the slaughterhouse in the temple. Yet, I had a professor who reminded me that they were also grilling these animals. Yes, they slaughtered them but they also grilled them over a fire. That’s the pleasing aroma God is speaking about—the pleasing aroma of grilled meat.
You all know that sensation, don’t you? When you’re out for a walk or a bike ride and you all of a sudden catch a wiff of someone grilling? Mmmmmm. All of a sudden you’re hungry and you want to grill, right?
That’s what our lives are supposed to be in the world. As living sacrifices in the world, our lives are to be that pleasant aroma. As people see us laying down our lives for other people and laying down our lives for Christ, they should have that same sensation as smelling someone grilling—the sensation that causes them to go home and want the same thing. Our living sacrifice in the world—as priests of God—should smell like the pleasing aroma of grilled meat, helping create a desire in others to taste and see that the Lord is good. That’s why Peter ends this passage saying, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:12, NIV).
I think this is even more important right now in the midst of this difficult season. It’s even more important for every Christian to realize YOU are a priest of God in the world—wherever you are. It’s not just the pastors and paid staff who are priests of God. You are a priest of God, part of the temple, offering up a living sacrifice wherever you are.
I think this season of “closed” church buildings needs to be driving this reality home in our lives. We have relied too heavily on church programs and activities. We have relied too heavily on church staff members. We have relied too heavily on pastors. Now, many of these things have been removed from us for a time. Yet, that hasn’t hindered God’s plans and purposes one bit! God’s kingdom is still coming and his will is still being done. And he’s doing that work through every single one of you—as priests of God in the world. You enter your families and workplaces as a priest—proclaiming the goodness of God and offering your life as a living sacrifice. You are the ones God is using to build his temple and kingdom in this world and he’s still using you—maybe even more than ever—to do that right now in the midst of this difficulty.
So, taste and see that the Lord is good. Crave to taste more and more of his goodness and to grown in your faith. Crave to offer yourself more fully as a living sacrifice to God. Crave to be the priest God has called you to be in the world. Crave that God would give you boldness and courage to proclaim his goodness to the world. And Crave to live a life that smells like grilled meat—a pleasing aroma to the world and to God.