Matthew 20 records the incident of James and John’s mother asking for the right and left hand sides of Jesus in His Kingdom. The wife of Zebedee went in to bat for her children. She asked that He would grant her request for them. Jesus then turned to the boys

“Can you be baptised with the baptism I am baptised with, and drink of the cup I drink of?”

A sort of multiple choice test. Yes /No answers. Out of the love the two young men had for Jesus, and the desire to be in the Kingdom with Him, they both said

“Yes, we are able”

 Jesus marked their multiple-choice exam on the spot.

“You will be baptised with my baptism, and drink of my cup.”

They passed. They got both questions right! They may have had every reason to believe that their request would now be granted. But then they heard the words;

“But your request is not mine to give..it is for God to decide.”

Then why had he asked them? If he knew he couldn’t grant the request, why put them through the test.

But both young men left that day knowing an answer to a question that they hadn’t asked. They would both be baptised with His baptism, and drink of His cup.

And as they watched him set his face toward Jerusalem, and say “I have a baptism to be accomplished, and how worried I am until it is done”, how they must have wondered at their destiny. And when they saw His sweat as great drops of blood, and heard Him whisper “Father, remove this cup“, the terrible realisation of the prophecy they owned must have hit home. So James and John start their new life knowing that they will share His cup and baptism.

Then the risen Lord stands before Peter. He says, “a day will come, when you’ll be dressed by others, and be led where you don’t want to go”, signifying, not the manner in which Peter was to die, but the manner in which he was to glorify God.  That makes dying worthwhile.

The three young men, Peter, James and John, knew they would participate in Jesus’ sufferings. It came early for James. Acts 12 tells the story of how James was taken and killed by Herod, and when he saw how it pleased the Jews, he took Peter, and jailed him with the intent of having him killed. But the church made desperate prayers for Peter, and God sent an angel to release him, and bring him back to the brothers and sisters. So the prayers of the saints resulted in Peter’s release. But weren’t the same prayers made for James? But God was to be glorified in the death of James, and in the life of Peter. I strongly believe that one of the reasons that Peter was saved from death at the hand of Herod, was that he had yet to write the letter of 1Peter. Only Peter – not a Paul, or John or Judas, could write it.

The letter of 1 Peter was written to the believers in Turkey who were about to be tortured to death at the hands of the Romans. It was written in about AD64, probably at the time of the start of the Nero persecutions. It was to prepare the Turkish believers for the more fierce persecutions of the Emperors Domitian (AD 90) and Trajan (AD 100), especially the latter, who with the Governor of Bythinia, Pliny the Younger, was the first Roman Caesar to persecute people for just bearing the name Christian.

How do you prepare people to be burned at the stake, crucified in the circuses, be thrown to wild animals? Or, harder still, how do you prepare believers to see their loved ones, their husbands and children to be thrown to the lions. This is Peter’s job. How?….by constantly reminding them that Jesus did it first for you. But, in every reference that Peter makes to Christ’s suffering, he immediately follows with a reference to His glorification, and the subsequent glory of the believer who follows in His steps. The emphasis is that if you suffer for righteousness now, you’ll follow Him to glory.

1 Peter has 3 main themes.

1. There is a Trial to come upon you.

References are to a fiery trial, and your adversary going about like a roaring lion. All alluding to type of the death they were to suffer.

1 Peter 1:6,7  ;   2:19-21  ;  3:14-17  ;  4:12-16  ;  5:8-10.

2. Following Christ’s suffering to Glory.

If you suffer as He did, you’ll be raised to glory as He was.

1 Peter 1:4-5, 9-11  ;  2:21  ;  4:13  ;  5:1.

3. How to behave in the face of this persecution.

You must make your behaviour exemplary, so when you suffer, as you will, it will be for righteousness sake.

1 Peter 1:14-16  ;  2:11-13  ;  3:16-17  ;  4:15-16

The believers were accused of incest (because they called their wife their sister), cannibalism (they ate the body and blood of their Lord), and treason (they refused to accept the deity of Caesar). The punishment inflicted by the Romans varied in intensity from torture followed by death, to maiming ( right eye removed, right leg cut off), to simple property confiscation, depending on how passionate the local governor was about the persecution.

              The follower of Jesus had 3 choices in this persecution.

1. to stand up for Jesus, refuse to worship Caesar, and accept the consequences.
2. to deny Jesus, worship Caesar, and be set free.
3. To bribe their way to freedom. They could purchase certificates, saying that they had sacrificed to the Roman Gods, or worshipped Caesar, when they in fact hadn’t…all at a price.

Many (maybe most) took the third alternative. The persecution passes. How would they feel, coming back to the assembly of believers? Ashamed, they would sneak in the back, seeing their brothers and sisters sitting down the front, who had suffered for Jesus. How worthless they feel amidst those who were maimed, or lost loved ones, those who stood up for Jesus. How they could hardly lift their eyes to meet those of their fellows, these ones who had denied their Lord.

Then they realised who had written their letter to them.

A failure!!

The very disciple who had purchased the certificate and sworn that he did not know Jesus had written them the letter. Now they saw why only Peter could have written for them. He had denied Jesus. If you fail, pick yourself up, dust yourself down, throw yourself on Jesus, and start again in his strength.

PLINY, LETTERS 10.96-97

Pliny to the Emperor Trajan

It is my practice, my lord, to refer to you all matters concerning which I am in doubt. For who can better give guidance to my hesitation or inform my ignorance? I have never participated in trials of Christians. I therefore do not know what offenses it is the practice to punish or investigate, and to what extent. And I have been not a little hesitant as to whether there should be any distinction on account of age or no difference between the very young and the more mature; whether pardon is to be granted for repentance, or, if a man has once been a Christian, it does him no good to have ceased to be one; whether the name itself, even without offenses, or only the offenses associated with the name are to be punished.

Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished. There were others possessed of the same folly; but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be transferred to Rome.

Soon accusations spread, as usually happens, because of the proceedings going on, and several incidents occurred. An anonymous document was published containing the names of many persons. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ–none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do–these I thought should be discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.

They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food–but ordinary and innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceased to do after my edict by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political associations. Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.

I therefore postponed the investigation and hastened to consult you. For the matter seemed to me to warrant consulting you, especially because of the number involved. For many persons of every age, every rank, and also of both sexes are and will be endangered. For the contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities but also to the villages and farms. But it seems possible to check and cure it. It is certainly quite clear that the temples, which had been almost deserted, have begun to be frequented, that the established religious rites, long neglected, are being resumed, and that from everywhere sacrificial animals are coming, for which until now very few purchasers could be found. Hence it is easy to imagine what a multitude of people can be reformed if an opportunity for repentance is afforded.

Trajan to Pliny

You observed proper procedure, my dear Pliny, in sifting the cases of those who had been denounced to you as Christians. For it is not possible to lay down any general rule to serve as a kind of fixed standard. They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it–that is, by worshiping our gods–even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance. But anonymously posted accusations ought to have no place in any prosecution. For this is both a dangerous kind of precedent and out of keeping with the spirit of our age.