Death to Peace!

Now THAT’S a provocative headline, eh? But before you jump to any conclusion that I’m some kind of peace hating, war mongering wacko, let me assure you that I definitely am not. (Well…maybe the wacko part…) So I guess I’d better clarify what I’m saying here.

Those of you who’ve been following along with me over the past few months know that we’ve been looking at the so-called “Beatitudes” from a slightly different perspective: Each one describes a characteristic of someone who is open and willing to embrace the changes Jesus wants to bring into our lives. I call these “The Marks of a Changeling,” and if you’d like to read through this series from the beginning, just click here.

It seems Jesus saved the deepest and most profound of these traits for last:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. (Matt. 5:9)

In the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day, peace (or “shalom”) included concepts like wholeness, safety, and friendship. The Greeks at that time based their word for peace on a root word which means “to join together.”

But no matter how you define it, peace is something we all want, right? We all want to have peace with God and the people we know. As John Lennon famously sang, “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” Unfortunately though, we know too well how elusive peace is. Whether at home, work, school, church or across the world, living in peace can seem almost impossible at times. I believe that’s why Jesus included this statement in His list…to challenge us to be the ones who will bring peace where none now exists.

He says we can actually make or create peace in people’s lives and situations. But how? Should we march with signs waving, organize sit-ins and other demonstrations, or just send flowers and cards and hope for the best? Somehow I don’t think that’s what He had in mind.

Instead, let’s take a look at what Jesus said will happen as a result of peacemaking, i.e., what will people see and experience when a true peacemaker is at work? Jesus said that peacemakers “will be called sons of God.” That means people who are touched by a peacemaker will see something profound in that person which will remind them of God.

Think about this: The whole human race became God’s enemy through Adam & Eve’s sin. We turned our backs on Him and rejected the relationship He offered and longed for. Yet despite all that, He never gave up His quest to reconcile with us and restore us to the relationship He envisioned from the beginning. From Genesis through Malachi, the Old Testament records His careful planning and work toward His final goal, which was accomplished through His Son, Jesus.

Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, passionately describes this fulfillment of God’s heart:

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Cor. 5:18-20 NIV)

And again in his letter to the Romans he explains further how this was accomplished:

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's judgment. For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God--all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God. (Romans 5:6-11 NLT)

So I think we can see pretty clearly that, when it came time to “make peace” between Himself and us, the Lord God was willing to do whatever it took…even to the point of putting His only Son to death. Through His death, Jesus removed the barrier (sin) that kept us apart, and cleared the way for us prodigal children to be reconciled with our grieving heavenly Father.

He is a peacemaker…out of His death we receive peace with God. His death led to peace. Death to peace. Get it?

So what does all this mean for you and me, as we think about being peacemakers ourselves? It can only mean one thing: whenever we are led to be peacemakers, it will inevitably require a sacrifice on our part. We will have to take up our cross and die in some way in order to see the path of reconciliation open up.

If you’re dealing with war between yourself and another, what are you willing to “die to” in order to see God’s peace released? Your right to “be right” in that situation? Your right to have your way in it? Your right to punish the other person?

Or maybe you’ve been called to be a peacemaker between two others. Again, what are you willing to die to in order for peace to be released between the warring factions? Your time? Your agenda? Your preferences? Does it matter if someone’s salvation is at stake?

Then, of course, is the matter of your own personal peace. How much stress are you dealing with everyday? How much worry, anxiety and fear do you experience? The lack of peace in your life is a sure indicator that something in you needs to die. Could it be your need to control everything? Or perhaps your unwillingness to forgive someone who has wounded you?

The only way to “increase the peace” in your life is to allow the Lord to reveal what needs to die, and then bring it to Him for crucifixion. It’s Romans 12:1 and Galatians 2:20 becoming more and more real every day.

These kind of difficult changes are necessary in order for the Lord to effectively use us to represent Him, so we are truly seen by others as His sons and daughters. The ultimate test of any Changeling is our willingness to die for Him...to allow changes in ourselves that are so deep they feel like a death.

But once we reach that level of surrender, we are well on our way toward actually becoming true sons and daughters of the living God…because after every God-ordained death, there’s always a resurrection to new life!