BLESSED ARE THE
PEACE MAKERS
FOR THEY WILL BE CALLED SONS OF GOD
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet
of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who
proclaim salvation, who say to Zion,“your God reigns!”
Isaiah
52:7
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem
“May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls
Prosperity within your palaces”
For the sake of my brethren and companions
I will now say, “Peace be within you.”
Because of the house of the Lord our God
I will seek your good.
Psalm
122:6-9
Conflict is relationship’s Siamese twin.
Though nothing would please us more than to
enjoy
the relationship without the conflict, the
two are bound
together beyond our ability to divorce
them.
If you want one you must accept the other…
It is not until we conflict that we
discover whether love
binds us together or merely convenience.
Tim
Woodruff
The Peace of Jerusalem
Hebrews
understand peace in the form of a concept known as shalom. Shalom is a noun
that comes from the root word shalem
that means, “to be complete or whole”. A
person who is “at peace” is one who is both self-fulfilled and enjoying a good
relationship with God and his fellow men.
Shalom is used as we may use the common greeting, “How are you?” It is also similar to the Hawaiian word,
“aloha”, in that it is used both as a salutation and a benediction. The phrase
literally asks the person whom you greet, “ Is all well with you?”, and
implores to someone departing, “May things be well with you.” Shalom is a concept that includes both
personal well-being and success. In both
the salutation and benediction, the use of shalom
imparts a hope for health, happiness and well-being. The concept of peace then is more than mere
absence of conflict, but truly is the affirmative presence of good and positive
things, both temporal and spiritual.
President
Bill Clinton used the occasion of addressing members of the Israeli parliament
to display his New Testament acumen.
Proud of recent efforts to eliminate hostilities between Israeli and
Palestinians, the President attempted to quote the seventh Beatitude. “Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall
inherit the earth”. It is easy to
forgive the President for misquoting the Bible.
For President Clinton, and others who read the seventh Beatitude, the
words may “sound like a mere conventional religious generalization, even a
sententious platitude of the kind too often favored by people who are anxious
to be edifying without having anything in particular to say.”(The Sermon on the
Mount, by Emmett Fox, p.40) It may have
been politically expedient for President Clinton to bless Middle Eastern
peacemakers with an inheritance of the earth, but Christ has chosen to bless
peacemakers with a greater moniker, “for they shall be called sons of God”. The
phrase, “Sons of…”, is a description of a personal characteristic. For example, if you were called a “son of a
lion”, you would be considered fearless; a “son of a dog”, you would be
considered a scoundrel. Therefore, a maker of peace is a person who exhibits
qualities of God Himself. Peace is a concept we all understand. It is a condition of life we hope to
maintain. “Peace be with you”, “Peace, brother”, “Make Peace not War”, and “No
Justice, No Peace” are all slogans with which we are all familiar. The Apostle Paul admonishes Christians “as
far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Rom. 12:18 ) Christians should be peaceable people. We must pray for those who make our lives
miserable and bless those who curse us. Vengeance must be left to God. Christians should avoid conflict for both
temporal and spiritual reasons. On the other hand, peacemaking is not a concept
so well understood. As with each preceding Beatitude, this is a word Jesus chose
to describe His disciples. Peacemaking,
like poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger for righteousness, mercy,
and purity of heart, are not attributes naturally found within the human
psyche. Rather, these are
characteristics of the new man Jesus is creating in each of us. With this in
mind, let’s consider how we become peacemakers.
The
prophet Isaiah describes Jesus as the “Prince of Peace”. Yet, history teaches that countless people
have lost their lives in war and persecution in the name of Jesus. Peace among men has not resulted from the
presence of Christians in this world. How then is Jesus the Prince of
Peace? Eschatological teaching promises
an eternal kingdom in which the Peace of Jerusalem will reign in the hearts of
all men. Theologically, Jesus is the “maker” of peace between God and man. A rift exists between man and God. Our sin, our enmity breaks down our
relationship with our Creator. Nothing
we can do will ever restore the relationship.
Our differences are irreconcilable. God is God and we will not obey.
Jesus makes reference to a certain type of peace that He brings to the
world. “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world
gives do I give you. Let not your heart
be troubled neither let it be afraid… Find your peace in me.” (Jn 14:27 ; 16:33 )
Jesus is referring to a theological peace. It is a peace between man and God. His death and resurrection reconciles the
Creator with His creation. Paul calls
Christ “our living Peace”. (Eph.2: 14)
In his letter to the church in Rome ,
Paul concludes: “Since it is by faith that we are justified, let us grasp the
fact that we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have confidently entered into
this new relationship of grace, and here we take our stand, in happy certainty
of the glorious things he has for us in the future.” (Rom 5:1-2) By our faith in Jesus, we are made right with
God. All is well with our relationship with our Creator. The peace of Jerusalem is ours! Shalom!
Becoming
a peacemaker does not end with mere acceptance of the saving grace of
Christ. In fact, as Jesus sets forth the
Beatitudes, He is not describing the results of justification. Rather, He is describing attributes developed
in each of us through sanctification. As Jesus is a peacemaker, so also shall
we be instruments of His Peace. We cannot just bask in the reflection of His
great accomplishment. Instead, we must
understand as we are reconciled to God, there are attendant consequences to
such reconciliation. Consider the observation of the Apostle Paul: “All this is God’s doing, for he has
reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ; and he has made us agents of
reconciliation. God was in Christ personally reconciling the world to him…and
has commissioned us with the message of reconciliation. We are now Christ’s
ambassadors as though God is appealing directly to you through us. As his personal representatives we say, ‘Make
your peace with God.”(II Corin.5:19-20)
Peacemakers
have a burning passion. Seeing what God
has done in their own lives, peacemakers have to tell others. As disciples of Jesus, we are His living
breathing advertisement. We reflect His
glory; we are His light in a dark world. Christians have something that the
rest of the world is looking for. We
have the peace of Jerusalem
Consider
the father of the prodigal son. A rift
had developed between the father and the son. The rift was in no way the fault
of the father. The son was greedy,
inconsiderate and rebellious. He took
his inheritance, sold it for cash and moved to a far off country. There the son squandered his money on the
wildest of extravagance and soon found himself destitute and alone. Knowing his father to be a good man, he
decided to return home, hoping for mercy.
At worst, he would be killed; at best, he may be allowed to work as a
servant. Seeing the son approach, the father had a choice to make. He could reject the man as his son. He could
accept the man as a servant. He could
embrace him as his lost child returning home.
The relationship with his son was broken through no fault of his own. Yet, the choice he was to make would
determine if rift would be mended and reconciliation would take place. The father understood something about
intimate relationships. Without hesitation, the father ran to meet his son.
Embracing him, he led him home where he clothed him with his own robe and
celebrated his return with a feast. The father is a peacemaker. As he watched
his child walk up the road, the father was moved with emotion. His son was a most pitiable sight. Understanding the plight of his son, any
father would have had compassion.
Unfortunately, emotion alone is not enough to foster reconciliation.
Seeing the needs of his son, and feeling compassion for him, the father could
have exhibited mercy by allowing the son to work as a servant. This act of mercy would have met the needs of
the son, but would not have reconciled him with his father. In addition to compassion and mercy, the
father offered grace. Peacemakers must be more than compassionate, and must do
more than offer mercy.
Peacemakers
must be bridge builders. “A peacemaker
is a person who comes to that difficult point in a relationship – when it’s
time to put up or shut up, stay in or get out – and decides to ‘make every
effort to do what leads to peace’. A peacemaker refuses to give up on people
they are tied to by blood or commitments or faith. To the best of their ability,
peacemakers preserve the relationship by pursuing peace.” (Walk This Way, Tim Woodruff, p.161)
In a world of disposable families and unreliable friendships, how
refreshing is it to see Christians working to restore broken
relationships? How blessed are those who
work to reconcile relationships with family and friends! Shalom!
In
1992, Kernersville
Moravian Church
Christians
must take responsibility for their own attitudes. That is why Jesus instructs His that should
a disciple have anything against another brother in Christ, that such conflict
should be confessed, and the slate cleared immediately, lest the conflict
interfere with their relationship with God. (See Mt. Jerusalem
is meant to be a city inhabited by citizens bound firmly together by a love of
God.
How
blessed are we to enjoy the peace of Jerusalem ! Shalom!
Lord make me an instrument of your peace!
Where
there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where
there is injury, let me sow pardon.
Where
there is doubt, let me sow faith.
Where
there is despair, let me sow hope.
Where there is darkness, let me sow
light.
Where
there is sadness, let me sow joy.
St.
Francis of Assisi
