The Victory that Speaks Into Our Suffering

Last Updated on: May 25, 2026

“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.”

It’s from the first letter of Peter (chapter 3, verse 18), but you’d be forgiven for assuming this was Saint Paul or one of the other New Testament authors, as it’s solid, stock-standard biblical teaching, isn’t it? Even so, the verses that follow this are probably the most obscure and difficult sentences in the Christian Scriptures!

I’ll read those verses in a moment, but first a question: ‘Did anyone else receive a text message last Monday featuring an image of someone wielding a lightsabre?’

Joy and I sent complimentary BitMojis to each other last Monday morning, with each of us holding lightsabres of different colours. Last Monday was, of course, Star Wars Day – May 4^th (‘May the Fourth be with you’).

I know not everyone loves Star Wars as we do, but it is, unquestionably, one of the defining narratives of our generation, and if you don’t know how the story was written, George Lucas deliberately built it around “The Hero’s Journey” as outlined in Professor Joseph Campbell’s book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”.

Campbell believed that all great tales and communal narratives, including the Bible, follow the same basic plotline, and Lucas constructed the Star Wars narrative to fit that storyline, which is why Professor Campbell was invited to Skywalker Ranch to preview the movie before it was released to the public.

Now, don’t fear! I’m not going to construct a sermon on how it was Jesus who really destroyed the Death Stars and brought down The Empire, but this is pretty much what Peter was doing in chapter three of his first letter. Let me continue with it:

“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight lives, were saved through water.” (1 Peter 3:18-20)

Biblical scholars do see these words from Peter as amongst the most difficult and obscure passages in the entire New Testament.

Who are these spirits?
What is this prison?
What exactly did Jesus proclaim?

Some have seen this as a reference to ‘purgatory’ – the place where souls go after death if they’re not good enough for heaven but not bad enough for hell – but there’s nowhere else in the Scriptures that gives the slightest hint that such a place exists!

2^nd-century theologian Clement of Alexandria suggested thatj when, after the crucifixion, Christ descended into hell (as is affirmed in our creeds), he preached to the tortured souls from Noah’s day, but the Bible never describes hell as a prison, and why would Jesus be singling out Noah’s contemporaries for a second chance?

Saint Augustine suggested that Christ, in His pre-existent Divine nature, preached through Noah to the people of his day who were ‘imprisoned in sin and ignorance’.

This interpretation seems the most unlikely of all, as Peter says Jesus was first “put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18), so whatever was happening happened after the resurrection, not thousands of years earlier.

No. What seems to be happening here is that Saint Peter is drawing on a well-known story that was a defining narrative for the people of his generation, just as the Star Wars story is a defining narrative for many in ours.

Peter was drawing on a story from the first book of Enoch (chapters 6 to 21) where a group of 200 angels, called ‘the Watchers’, rebelled against God, descended to earth, took human wives, and taught forbidden knowledge – sorcery and astrology.

The story is inspired by Genesis 6:1–4, which mentions some “sons of God” taking human wives who produce giant offspring. This lead to the world becoming so full of violence that the flood becames necessary in order to give humanity a fresh start!

In Enoch’s narrative, God sends archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel to imprison the Watchers until the final judgement, which is where they are when, according to Peter, they hear Christ’s proclamation of victory.

As I say, the Enoch story was something of a defining narrative for Peter’s people . This should not surprise us. They were living at a time when their community was being abused, and the first book of Enoch was a story of survival and triumph.

Peter’s church included men, women, and slaves. Slaves were being abused because they were slaves. Women were abused because they were women. Others were being abused simply because they were Christians. Abuse seemed built into the system, and many believed therefore that the system had to be destroyed by revolution. Peter, though, saw another way — the way of Christ, who defeated violence not by hitting back but by enduring it.

Through His death and resurrection, Peter says, Christ beat the system, and whatever form evil takes in our world – whether it comes from religious zealots or from the empire or from strange spiritual forces in the heavenly realms – all these powers have been disarmed and defeated by Christ through His resurrection!

Did Peter literally believe the stories of Enoch, or did he see them the way we might see Star Wars — as powerful narratives that convey deep truth even if the events they portray didn’t literally happen? I don’t think it matters. What Peter understood is that every evil in our world – real and imagined – is powerless against Christ! On account of His death and resurrection, the writing is already on the wall. Evil is on its way out, and liberation is near!

And this is where Peter’s message becomes our message.

I look around our world and I see so much evil. There is so much greed and violence in our world at the moment that we seem to be just about ready to self-destruct! Even so, what can we do? The power of the ‘dark side’ seems so overwhelming!

Peter tells us to look up! Christ has already proclaimed His victory to those spirits in prison. He has already spoken His word of triumph into the depths!

For there is no darkness that he has not entered, no enemy that He has not faced and no fear that He has not already confronted!

So let us stand firm, lift up our heads and walk in hope, for the Christ who descended to the depths now walks beside us, and His victory speaks into our suffering even now.

Our Sunday Eucharist

We had a wonderful time with our Sunday Eucharist broadcast last weekend. It was great having David and Tom back with me on the panel, and I must say that AI Saint Paul was in particularly good form.

I’ve posted an edited version of our discussion on Acts 7:55-60 at the end of this post – the Stoning of Stephen – and I would encourage you not only to listen to it yourself (for a second time if you’ve heard it already) but to consider passing it on to a friend. We are at our best here, discussing Old and New Testament teachings with Islamic perspectives on both and some left-field thinking from AI Saint Paul.

I’m not sure if our virtual brother was a bit confused, as he spoke of those who stoned Stephen as ‘disciples’, but he came up with this fascinating idea that when the lynch mob laid their coats at the feet of Saul, there was a symbolic transfer of spiritual power from Stephen to Saul (later ‘Saint Paul’).

Let me know what you think. As I say, I think this was Bible Banter at its best!

As per usual, the two most popular shorts from the past week that are still online are directly below. Unfortunately, the best of last week’s shorts was taken down by YouTube and I was penalised for posting it! If you’re wondering what it was that was so offensive, check out the Sunday Eucharist Facebook page, where it is still up!

You can see all our shorts on the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page, and all our videos (apart from those that have been forcibly removed) on my YouTube channel.

This coming Sunday I’m very much looking forward to having two old friends back with us – Rob Gilland and Doug Pyeatt.

Join us from noon (Sydney time) via Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia, Streamyard or TheSundayEucharist.com.

Invite your friends by directing them to Facebook, giving them the YouTube link, or directing them to the Streamyard registration page.

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What’s On?

Sunday, May 10th – Our Eucharist from noon @thesundayeucharist.com, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia or Streamyard
Tuesday, May 12th – Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm
Thursday, May 14th – Online Bible study group meeting from noon @ www.thesundayeucharist.com/bible
Thursday, May 14th – Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm
Saturday, May 16th – Boxing at the Legends Gym in Kensington from 3 pm

I’m going to conclude this week’s newsletter briefly, as it’s past 6 am, and Im yet to get some sleep, which could be problematic if I’m going to perform in the boxing ring this afternoon.

It’s been a big week for me. Joy and I travelled down to Binacrombi mid-week along with our good friend Diane (see pic below), who plans to brave the cold and the isolation of the bush for the next few weeks. Please keep her in your prayers.

On Friday I had the privilege of lunching with the Hon. John Ruddick, MLC, who is the first Libertarian Party member to enter our state Parliament. John thinks I may be of some use to the party and to the cause of freedom, so … watch this space!

As you can see from the pic above, my good friend, Mimi, was at the luncheon too, and we bumped into Shaoquett Moselmane while we were there. It was a big day, and it concluded with my brother Rob’s birthday dinner, so … it’s time for bed …

Keep up the good fight, my friends, and learn to balance your schedule better than I do.

Your brother in the Good Fight,