God’s Constitution, Pt 8: Peacemaker
Matthew 5:9 9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Isaiah 52:7 7How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Ephesians 2:13-18 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
I remember a time many, many years ago when my wife and I were called upon to mediate a dispute a married couple were having. We had not been married very long. She had been a believer for many years, a member of what is called ‘high church’ and I had just become a believer through a charismatic community. I remember hours spent talking to no avail. There was much emotion and accusation and we rose to the occasion of every outburst. We thought we were ‘making peace’ when really all we were doing was enabling. In the end we just gave up, ended the day, and the two couples went their own way.
This is not the sort of peacemaking presented in Scripture; ours was entirely secular with no God involved but Scriptural peacemaking is entirely Jesus-centric. Jesus is the ultimate peacemaker; he reconciles God and man, and man and man. But whereas we thought we were focused on resolving issues of deep dispute they were ultimately just surface issues. Godly peacemaking focuses on issues of sin, self-worth, identity, and relationship with God. These sorts of issues are at the root of all surface issues, and it is here that real peace can be found.
But this kind of peacemaking is not free; it involves great cost. Coming near the end of the Beatitudes we have to consider what has gone before. This peacemaker is poor in spirit because they recognize their own deficiencies, and they mourn because they fall so short of the righteousness of God. They are meek and humble as a result, and they continue to seek the righteousness of God with every ounce of their being. Such people are uniquely qualified to recognize that division, bitterness, and strife are only surface symptoms of internal roots of anguished isolation from God. They are qualified because they have paid the price of self-discovery, of deep repentance, of submitting their sin-nature to the Cross, and of fully submitting themselves to the will of God. The giving up of pride, self-importance, and self-determination can be very painful, but the rewards of submitting to God in the everyday facets of life are far more rewarding. Such blessings are not easily discernable though and require concentrated effort to turn away from the ways of the world and turn toward the ways of God.
Such peacemaking is not gut level though; not like the emotionally involved efforts of my wife and me. The Spirit-led mind is involved too. There are limits. We are called upon to love all persons, but not to become involved in their sin. We are to be civil but not let ourselves to be drawn into their iniquity. We are not required to put ourselves into danger. Physical danger certainly is to be avoided, but also the spiritual. We must be true to our conscience and true to God. Making peace does not give a person warrant to deny one’s relationship with God.
Peacemaking is not a one-off. It is a lifetime endeavor. Those qualities of poorness of spirit, meekness, and righteousness are not natural human states, but neither are they learned overnight. They require development and practice. Peacemaking is not a switch to be turned on or off, but rather is a continuous state of being. A peacemaker is that person who softens quarrels and dissentions among people just by being present. He is the guy who avoids backbiting, slander, and contention as a matter of course, and further, he is the guy who models Christ in his actions. This person is not perfect of course, but he is further along the road than most. The peacemaker is that person also who redirects contention and dispute to the ultimate Source of well-being. In that failed effort of so many decades ago my wife and I should have gotten each of the parties to recognize their own deficiencies and to realize just how much they needed Jesus to help them. A sense of frailty and fragility is a powerful moderator of tension and strife.
Peacemakers are children of God precisely because of the qualities just described. In the doing of these things, they are modeling the love and affection of Christ. This is pleasing to God. The peacemaker recognizes he is ultimately accountable to God and so lives his life in a way that is pleasing to God. Peacemaking is not the goal; it is the result of the goal. Think about the implications of living a life pleasing to God. Such a person is obedient and humble. He filters his words and deeds through grace. He is cheerful and eager to see God. He groans, as does all of creation (Romans 8:22), for the coming return of his Savior.
So peacemaking is not as much reconciling man to man as it is man to God. The earthly reconciliation is subsumed in the heavenly and is completed in the heavenly. When people find their hearts restored to God, their hurts swabbed, their judgments soothed, and most importantly their alienation from God rectified, they discover their mundane hurts are of no consequence. Godly healing trumps earthly hurts! Amen!