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! I. Introduction
On Wednesday, I attended the Remembrance Day service at the school.
We heard “In Flanders Fields” read, heard the senior choir sing and heard from a war veteran.
On Friday, many of you had a day off and perhaps some of you attended services or watched them on TV.
This week, we have been reminded of war and have thought about how peace has come to us.
What does the Bible have to say about war and peace?
Sometimes we have conflicts, not on the international scene, but in our own lives.
We discover that our neighbour is building his fence 2 feet onto our property.
A friend ignores us or hurts us.
What does the Bible have to say about personal conflicts and peace?
Our EMC Confession Of Faith summarizes our understanding of the Biblical teaching when it says:
“We believe in the life of peace.
We are called to walk in the steps of the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace.
Everything about His life, His teachings and His redemptive death on the cross, summons us to a life of non-violence.
As non-resistant Christians, we cannot support war, whether as officers, soldiers, combatants or non-combatants, or direct financial contributions.
Instead of taking up arms, we should do whatever we can to lessen human distress and suffering, even at the risk of our own lives.
In all circumstances, we should be peacemakers and ministers of reconciliation (Isaiah 53:3-9; Matthew 5-7; 28:18-20; John 18:36; Romans 12:13; Philippians 2:3-4; Colossians 2:14-15; Hebrews 1:1-2; 2:14; I Peter 2:9, 20-23).
In this confession, we declare that we believe that a part of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus is to be a person of peace.
Why do we believe this?
What does this mean in life?
!
II.
The Prince Of Peace
In the book The Power of the Lamb John E. Toews says, “Jesus is the center of the Christian faith.
Everything before him points to him, and everything after him flows from him.
Jesus is the measuring stick for Christian thinking and action.
Therefore, Christian peace teaching and witness must be anchored in Jesus.”
As we look at the life and teaching of Jesus, we do indeed see that He was the Prince of Peace.
!! A. His Teaching
The teaching of Jesus included peace teaching.
Several of the things which he said in the Sermon on the Mount were teachings calling his followers to a life of peace.
In Matthew 5:7 we read “blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
When we show mercy, Jesus says that we will be shown mercy.
Although it it is true that if you are nice, others will be nice to you, it is more likely that it means that if we show mercy, God will show mercy to us.
In Matthew 5:9, we read, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Being a peacemaker follows after the pattern of Jesus who came to this earth for this very purpose of making peace.
When we are peace makers, we are like God and so peacemakers will be called sons of God.
The emphasis in this passage is on “making” peace.
A peacemaker is a person who actually makes peace, who comes between angry and fighting people in order to make peace.
It is a person who seeks to bring Shalom.
Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace and means so much more than absence of conflict.
It means wholeness and is concerned for the well-being of another person.
Another passage which also comes out of the Sermon on the Mount is Matthew 5:38-42 in which Jesus instructs us to set “aside the law of retaliation.”
The natural tendency of human beings who want to both seek justice and punish people who do wrong is to really hurt someone who has hurt us.
We see the unlimited retaliation of Lamech in Genesis 4:23 when he says, “I have killed a man for wounding me.”
When God established a relationship with Israel, he commanded them to limit retaliation to eye for eye and tooth for tooth.
In the giving of the law, he said to them in Exodus 21:23,24, “But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot…”
Jesus raises this to a new level when He says, “don’t pay back the evil-doer.”
In other words, don’t retaliate at all.
He then gives four examples in which this was to be practiced.
They come from four areas of life.
He says that in interpersonal relationships “don’t resist the insult of a backhanded slap in the face.
Turn the other cheek.”
In the area of law he teaches his disciples the “surrender of everything rather than insistence on legal rights.”
In Jewish law, a coat could not be taken because it was needed to keep warm at night, but Jesus says, give it up anyway.
In the area of politics he encourages the “acceptance of a draft into temporary military service.
Most Jews refused such requests and often even felt justified in abusing the soldiers.
Jesus teaches a different way.
In the world of business, Jesus says, “give money instead of lending it when a loan is requested.”
One writer says, “More difficult instructions could hardly have been given by Jesus in first century Palestine.”
Following this call not to retaliate, Jesus raises the standards for disciples even further in Matthew 5:43-48.
In this passage, he teaches that his disciples must love their enemies.
In teaching this, he pointed out that this is how God acts.
God does not distinguish between good and bad people in giving the good gifts of sun and rain.
So when we love our enemies, we are acting like God is acting.
He points out further that as disciples, this is unusual behaviour compared to the rest of the world.
If we only love those who love us, he says, then we are no different than anyone else.
If we love our enemies, then we are like God and that is what we are to be as His disciples.
Loving enemies means many things, but the one thing he mentions in this passage is that it means that we pray for them.
!! B. His Life
But Jesus did not only teach peace.
He also is the perfect model of what he taught.
In one way of looking at things, we may suggest that Jesus was anything but a peacemaker, but was rather a warrior.
He came as a conqueror to defeat the powers of sin, death and evil.
The Bible even uses this kind of language in speaking about what Jesus accomplished.
In one encounter with a demon possessed man, the evil spirit cried out, “Have you come to destroy us?”
That is exactly what Jesus came to do.
In Luke 10:18 Jesus comments, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.”
The work of Jesus was to come and destroy evil and the evil one.
Colossians 2:15 describes that victory when it says, “having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
But two questions need to be asked about Jesus as a warrior – What were the methods of his battle?
and What are the implications of that victory for us now?
The verse in Colossians 2:15 tells us the method that Jesus used to bring about the victory over sin.
He did not gather an army and fight.
Rather, he died.
He gained victory through the cross.
The peaceful means Jesus used, the radically different strategy of gaining victory for the kingdom of God are demonstrated in his whole life and particularly in his death.
To Pilate he said, in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world.
If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.”
The method of Jesus is seen once again in Matthew 26:52.
When one of the disciples began to use his sword Jesus replied, “Put your sword back in its place…for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”
Philippians speaks volumes about the method Jesus chose to bring victory.
There we learn that He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Through the cross, through accepting suffering, through being willing to die, Jesus gained the victory.
This is a much different strategy for victory than we are used to and was the most effective method ever for actually gaining a lasting and eternal peace.
For the present, Jesus has called us to live by the same strategy for victory.
We are a special people, as I Peter 2:9 says and we are called to live under His leadership and example.
Commenting on Luke 10:18 one writer says, “Jesus victorious war with demonic forces means peace has been won.
Jesus teaches his followers to live in peace and to be peacemakers.”
I Peter 2:20-23 also encourages us to take up the method of willingness to suffer and die, in order to follow the example of what Jesus has done for us.
There we read, “…if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
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