Peacemaker

9 “Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children. 10 “Happy are people whose lives are harassed because they are righteous, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “Happy are you when people insult you and harass you and speak all kinds of bad and false things about you, all because of me. 12 Be full of joy and be glad, because you have a great reward in heaven. In the same way, people harassed the prophets who came before you.

It is amazing how the Holy Spirit works out week after week what he wants to communicate with us. I had planned months ago about preaching this series of messages. At the time I had no idea that Russia would invade the Ukraine. Sure they had been acting belligerently towards their neighbor. But who knew that they would actually invade.

The death and destruction that they have caused has been horrific. Millions have been uprooted from their homes and are seeking a place of safety in other countries. Billions of dollars in loss to the Ukrainian economy. Every day people around the world are being impacted with the price of gas which has skyrocketed. Who knows where it will end. This is causing an increase cost to everything that we purchase.

We wait to see what happens next. Will China be embolden by Russia’s action and attack Taiwan? Will Russia proceed to attack other of their neighbors? Will the United States and other western nations be drawn in to war which could result in World War 3?

We do not know what will happen next, but I firmly believe that God is in control. We know that there will be wars and rumors of war before Jesus returns.

Our focus today is on that of a peacemaker. The call to be a peacemaker may be the most difficult of all the Beatitudes to live out.

Some of the Beatitudes are more passive, "peacemaker" is a strongly active word. It calls us to make peace in the world around us, an especially difficult task in a world that seems to revel in violence.

It would make sense, then, that the call to be a peacemaker is next to a word of blessing for those who are persecuted. These two may be more connected than we think because, in a world that loves violence, being a peacemaker may well lead to persecution.

What It Means to Be a Peacemaker?

The Greek word for "peacemaker" here is eirénopoios. It's the only time in Scripture when this word is used, but the related word eirene ("peace") is used ninety-one times in the New Testament.

The Greek word for peace is used in place of the Hebrew word shalom in the Old Testament. This implies that peace isn't about passivity or lack of conflict. It is about wholeness and being mended together. This is something deeper and fuller than just not having conflict.

Because peace is at the heart of the word peacemaker, we can infer that those who are peacemakers aren't merely devoted to the absence of conflict in the world but seek wholeness and restoration.

"Peacemaker" is sometimes recast as "peace worker"-someone who works for peace. This is an important distinction because we can mistakenly interpret a peacemaker as one who keeps peace, but working for peace implies more than that. We could also wrongly assume that a peacemaker lives in peace, but working for peace doesn't inherently mean living at peace; it is a pursuit of peace. Also, because peace means wholeness and mending together, it could also mean walking through conflict in order to come to a place of peace.

It is also important to distinguish peacemaking from passivity or pacifism. Peacemaking isn't merely a passive, nonviolent stance. It is an active move toward restoration.

The second thing we can learn about

Being a Peacemaker in a Culture That Loves Violence

The culture we live in loves violence.

This might seem like a bold statement, but a quick look at some major parts of culture illustrate this reality plainly: the high amount of sales of movies, television shows, and video games that have violent themes; news stories that sensationalize violence, often for the sake of higher viewership ("if it bleeds, it leads"); violent videos spread quickly through social media avenues.

In the list of the top 10 Video games for February, 5 of them contained violence and killing.

Since the end of World War 2, there have been over 2.9 million civilians who have been killed during armed conflicts.

Every day we hear of a shooting or a murder. We hear of horrific abuse of a child. A few weeks ago, one of my clients told me about his 16 year old cousin was murdered when another teen pulled a gun and shot him in the back.

While we might be horrified by the consequences of violence, overall our culture relies on violence as a problem solver: capital punishment, war, weapons that we keep in our homes to defend against potential intruders, etc.

These can be very controversial things, but the reality stands that in this type of culture, it is hard to be a peacemaker. We often make the mistake of viewing peace as something that can be achieved by force, instead of worked on diligently as a means of restoration and healing.

The culture into which the Beatitudes were written is also a culture of violence.

The Roman Empire is famous for its use of military might and intimidation. It also embraces cruel forms of capital punishment which should be obvious to us since it is how Jesus himself was killed.

Some of the remaining ruins of the Roman Empire are examples of the violence the Romans loved, with the Colosseum representing perhaps the largest and most obvious example, as a place where violence was treated as a game, a sport, and entertainment.

Peacemaking, true, hard restoration and healing that brings about the peace of Christ. In these types of worlds stands out as a stark contrast. Someone who does that type of work looks peculiar to the world.

The third thing is that

Peculiarity Can Lead to Ridicule and Persecution

Among those who prefer conflict, someone who seeks a way of peace will provoke anger and frustration.

We all know people who prefer conflict, those who constantly find themselves in the middle of interpersonal drama, and who seek out situations where they can manipulate and create conflict.

There are people that thrive on drama. They love to keep things going.

We have a culture that isn't just saturated in violence but loves all forms of conflict. Reality TV has made millions from creating, and then exploding powder-keg situations and we always watch and are captivated. Reality TV producers do not tend to hire or cast peacemakers because peacemakers do not increase ratings.

The animated movie Ferdinand is a great example of anger and persecution directed toward peacemakers. Ferdinand the bull is devoted to a way of peace, but the other bulls mock him, saying their choices in life are either the bullfighting ring or the chop house. Ferdinand asks, "What if those aren't the only two choices?" The other bulls continue to mock him for his dedication to peacemaking because he refuses to live how they think bulls are supposed to live.

Paul wrote

Romans 12:18 CEB

18 If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people.

Barbara Bush when she was the First Lady said in a commencement address that what happens in the White House is not as important as what happens in your house.

He was abused as a child. For the least little offense, actual or imagined, his father would beat him. He did not even call his own son by name. Instead, he whistled for him like a dog when he wanted him. Feelings of hatred, though never expressed, deepened into rage. As a young adult, the boy discovered that his father had Jewish ancestors. In his twisted mind he came to blame his father's behavior on his Jewish blood. You know his name. It was Adolf Hitler.

I wonder, would the healing of a small boy's wound have prevented the Holocaust? What is even more important for us is would the healing of some child's wound today prevent an act of terrorism or shooting spree on some tomorrow? (Isaiah 9:2-7 - War and the Prince of Peace, n.d.)

It is not easy; it is just essential. You see, the crabby little girls of today become the crabby old women of tomorrow. The controlling little boys of today become the controlling men of tomorrow. What we are talking about is essential stuff. In the routines of life, peace is a relationship essential.

Our world often calls peacemakers "sissies" or various other names. This ire is often directed at men in particular. Warrior men are glorified, not peacemaking men. In a culture that glorifies cutthroat and ruthless tactics, those who live toward and create peace are often outsiders.

The fourth thing we learn about is

Peacemaking as Part of Righteousness

As we discussed last week, this scripture does not exist in a vacuum. Peacemaking in verse 9 and righteousness in verse 10 are next to each other for a reason. Righteousness is doing the right things for the right reasons. Peacemaking is one way that righteousness is lived out in the world.

The other Beatitudes in previous verses also show ways that righteousness is lived out.

Living the Beatitudes sets one apart as peculiar because the priorities for a person living out this type of righteousness are so different from the world.

The fifth thing we learn is

The Kingdom of Heaven Belongs to the Righteous

Last week we talked about the ways that these verses illustrate a different kingdom as a stark contrast to the kingdoms of this world. This idea is once again emphasized here.

Those who are persecuted, beaten down, or bullied are often viewed as weak until they overcome, and then they are survivors, conquerors, victors.

The supreme example of this is Jesus. You and I know he brought nothing but good into the world. He was the one who lifted the shadows from strained minds, who restored human souls to health and wholeness. But he was different.

Some of the things he said were in direct contradiction to the standards of the world: turning the other cheek, walking the second mile, loving your enemy, forgiving an unlimited number of times. He broke all the established patterns. Simply by the way he lived, he caused people to judge their own standards of living. He compelled them to think and examine themselves and their misconceptions about religion. And the world didn’t like that. So it engineered his death. The world thought it would destroy him by nailing him on a tree.

Jesus was under no illusion about the way the world would react to his ministry. Although it broke his heart to be so misunderstood and rejected, he reckoned with it from the very beginning. Three times he said something to his disciples about the fate in store for him. He made no effort to conceal it. And he made no effort to conceal what would happen to them if they followed his way of life.

With an almost startling honesty, he told his followers what they might expect, some of the dangerous consequences of discipleship. When he sent them out on their first mission, he gave them three warnings: "I am sending you out as sheep among wolves." "You will be arrested, and tried, and whipped in the synagogues." "You will be hated because you belong to me." (Matthew 10)

In those last hours he spent with them, he gave them a final warning: "If you belong to the world, it will love you. But if you belong to me the world will hate you." Jesus was always trying to make a would-be follower aware of the inevitability of persecution and rejection. For we, our world - always suspect the different.

Christians are different. As far as the public is concerned, conformity is the way to a trouble-free life. Christians are inevitably non-conformists.

Those early Christians were different. They were different in their moral life, different in their social life, different in their working life, different in their economic life. Their difference was lived out in the world.

Paul did not write to the saints in the desert or to the saints in a monastery. He wrote to the saints in Philippi and Rome. Those Christians daily confronted their world with their different life-style. And the world couldn’t stand it. For the presence and life of the Christians were reminders of what life ought to be and a silent condemnation of the world as it was.

In imagination and in spirit, we have listened to Jesus give some marvelous promises about being a part of the Kingdom of Heaven, inheriting the earth, receiving mercy, seeing God, being his children. We have also heard him give the programs that must precede the promises, programs requiring that the recipients be poor in spirit, merciful, peacemakers, pure in heart. He finishes up this prescription with a warning that following the program will make you different. It will make people irritated with you, and angry with you; they will take advantage of you, dislike you, ostracize you, reject you, even persecute you. "But blessed are you if this happens to you, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven."

We have to be very careful when we look at this particular program, for there are three words that we must not ignore: "Blessed are you if you are persecuted ... for righteousness sake." Persecuted not for the sake of self-righteousness, but the sake of righteousness.

I think a lot of us feel at times that some of the antagonism toward Christian people and the church might be spared if Christians would not deliberately go out of their way to provoke it. Sometimes our dogmatism turns us into intellectual bullies. I am always suspicious of the self-professing Christian who knows it all. If we’re not careful, it can make us intolerant and argumentative, critical and rebellious.

Unhappily, some of us Christians have a streak in our nature that enjoys being disliked and persecuted, and we derive from our martyred feelings a sense of morbid satisfaction. We enjoy being unpopular because we think it makes us feel that we are morally superior and proves that we really are Christians. It is only too easy to let our difference turn us into snobbish Pharisees who pray in the temple, "God, I thank thee that I am not like other men." (Matthew 10:1-42, Matthew 5:1-12 - Do I Dare Be Different?, n.d.)

But the kingdom of heaven is for the overlooked, the bullied, the knocked down-even before they have survived or overcome or conquered. But it isn't just anyone who is knocked down; it's those who are persecuted because of righteousness-because they are doing the right things in a world that pursues the wrong things. It is for the Ferdinands of this world who seek a third way, despite the criticism they receive from those around them. It's for those who seek peace in a world saturated in the celebration of violence.

We are called to be peacemakers in this world. In a world that revels in conflict, we are to call for another way-not a way that avoids conflict but one that walks into it in order that relationships may be restored and people might see a new way being forged.

We are called to that work, but it is not work that is often celebrated or applauded. Instead, this righteousness lived out in the form of peacemaking will very likely be ridiculed. It will not gain for us kingdoms in this world, but it will illustrate our citizenship in the kingdom of heaven. So we must ask ourselves,

In what kingdom do I want to live?

May we choose the hard path of peculiar righteousness that leads us to the heart of the kingdom of heaven.

Isaiah 9:2-7 - War and the Prince of Peace. (n.d.). Sermons.com. Retrieved March 13, 2022, from https://www.sermons.com/sermon/war-and-the-prince-of-peace/1442478

Matthew 10:1-42, Matthew 5:1-12 - Do I Dare Be Different? (n.d.). Sermons.com. Retrieved March 13, 2022, from https://www.sermons.com/sermon/do-i-dare-be-different/1342233