What Is Peace?
We all want peace, from our homes and workplaces to the halls of state and national governments around the world. We want to live in harmony with others. We want the absence of conflict. We want to end fighting and destruction.
What does it take to have peace?
In our homes, a short-term peace might look like giving in to a child or a partner in order to keep the peace. It may mean not holding firm on a boundary that defines peace for you in order to avoid conflict with a friend or neighbor.
Who decides what is peaceful?
It would be very peaceful for me to help myself to my neighbor’s hot tub, but entirely unpeaceful for them to find me enjoying their property without an invitation! One country’s definition of peace may be the occupation of a rival territory, but it isn’t peaceful for that territory’s citizens.
In the latter part of the Christmas story, we learn that King Herod sent the Wise Men to find the baby Jesus and report back to him, but they didn’t.
“Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the stars first appearance.” (Matt. 2:18 NLT)
Herod was desperate for peace. His version of peace, though, was to preserve his kingdom at all costs, which he used to justify the infanticide of an entire region. His version of peace was anything but peaceful to the families of those baby boys, the soldiers who had to carry out the order, and for the family of the Messiah, who fled to Egypt. Peace for only one person is not peace.
Peace may not look like what we envision. God promised for centuries that he would send his people a Savior, someone who would right their wrongs, avenge their enemies, and bring peace to their lives. Finally, the Savior arrived, but everyone was looking for a king, a leader, a mighty warrior who would take up sword and shield and fulfill the desire for revenge they had stored up during the many years of oppression.
God’s version of a Savior, of peace, was not a warrior. He was a baby, born not in a palace but a barn. He would right all the wrongs and bring peace, but it wouldn’t look the way the people had imagined.
That’s how God works. He brings peace in the most unexpected of ways in the most unexpected of places.
As Jesus walked and taught and healed, bringing peace and righting wrongs, the Pharisees—the religious rulers—saw that he was causing conflict for them. They went to the high priest to seek peace.
“Then the leading priests and the Pharisees called the high council together. ‘What are we going to do?’ they asked each other. ‘This man certainly performs many miraculous signs. If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman army will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation.’ Caiaphas, who was high priest at that time, said, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about! You don’t realize that it’s better for you that one man should die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.’” (John 11:47-51 NLT)
The priests were desperate for peace because Jesus was upsetting their control. He dared to heal in God’s name, cast out demons, and teach from the Scriptures. He forgave sins and stopped punishment they had ordered. They wanted their version of peace, just as Herod had. Peace for one group of people is not peace.
The death of Jesus on the cross was not peaceful. Afterwards, the followers of Jesus were anything but peaceful. They were hiding in fear. Again, God came in an unexpected way to unexpected people and brought true, lasting peace.
I think I know how I want my life to be. I have goals and plans that, in my estimation, will bring about peace in my life, my family, my community. But is my definition of peace the same as God’s? Am I acting like Herod and the Pharisees, working to bring about my personal peace at the expense of others? What is the cost of my peace?
God knows about peace. He is the author and perfector of peace.
Instead of working to bring about my version of peace, I am asking God to bring about his peace, his plan, his power in my life.
is rooted like a turnip to the plains of North Dakota where she raises great food, large numbers of farm animals, and three free-range kids with her husband. You can find her with either a book or knitting needles in her hands as she dreams up her next adventure.
Photograph © OC Gonzalez, used with permission
