[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube[1], December 2020]
Jesus offered his disciples a peace that the world didn’t offer. So what’s the difference?
We have been, over this Advent period, looking at different subjects: the first week was hope, second week was faith, last week was joy and this week we’re going to be looking at peace. There’s these words that Jesus said to his disciples – found in John chapter 14 verse 27 – He said this:
“I give you peace; the kind of peace that only I can give isn’t like the peace that this world can give so don’t be worried or afraid”
I’m just wondering what is the difference between the peace that Jesus offers us and the peace that the world offers. See, the time that Jesus was ministering in the world about 2000 years ago things were relatively peaceful. At least that’s what it appeared like on the surface. It was the ‘Pax Romana’, the Roman peace where the Roman empire was at the at its height. It was its height in terms of its population and in terms of the territory that it covered. It’s a time where people could travel the empire freely in relative safety and yet it was a superficial peace because this peace was held in place by violence and war, where harsh and strict rules limited individual’s freedoms and stopped any whisper of unrest or dissent.
When you read between the lines of the gospels what you see bubbling below the surface is this discontent, this hate towards the Roman empire that held the Jewish people in bondage. In fact, it was only a few years later there was a Jewish Roman war which saw the destruction of Jewish towns and the displacement of the people and the destruction of the temple.
See, there’s a big difference between being a peacekeeper and being a peace maker. A peacekeeper will do its best to keep the peace, to keep the status quo. You know, it’s stepping on eggshells in an abusive relationship; it’s learning to keep your mouth shut when injustices are seen, it’s doing nothing when things are not as they should be, so as not to ruffle any feathers.
Yet Jesus called the children of God ‘peace makers’ not ‘peacekeepers’. What is the difference? You see, the Jewish word that would have been familiar to Jesus and his hearers that we translate as peace is ‘shalom’, and shalom is so much more than just the absence of conflict. It’s about wholeness, it’s about well-being, completeness, it’s about prosperity and welfare. It’s this idea of taking that which is broken and fixing it, making it whole, making it as it should be. This is the kind of peace makers that Jesus is calling his people to be and this is the kind of peacemaker that Jesus was.
Jesus is the light of the world that stepped down into a dark and broken world, a world that is not as it should be, so that through his life and ministry he hinted, he demonstrated a different kingdom, a different way of being, a different world – the kingdom of God. Through his death and resurrection he has set us on a pathway which leads to complete peace – shalom, completeness where the broken world is made whole again and that is fundamentally what the message of Advent, the message of Christmas, the message of Jesus is all about. There will come a time where things that were once broken, the broken world that we live in will be made whole again. It will be made as it should be, where the kingdom of God will come fully and there will be no more pain, no sickness, no more death, and God will take his throne and his proper place as Lord of all. That is what we have been promised and that is what we are waiting for.
Thank you so much for watching our Advent series. We’re going to take a break for a couple of weeks over the Christmas period and we’ll be coming back in 2021 which hopefully will be a much better year than 2020. Do subscribe to our YouTube channel, do share these videos with your friends and family through Facebook and look after yourself. Have a great Christmas and see you next year. ‘bye!
[1] YouTube link: Are you a Peace-Keeper or Peace-Maker?
Bible references: John ch 14 v27
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Contributed by Martin Shorey; © the Author
