Matthew 5:1-12
When he strode into town, they knew something was going to happen. For three years the Purdy gang had controlled the mayorâs office, the bank, the saloon and everything else in town. The decent, honest citizens of Prairie Gulch had been despondent as their lives had for so long suffered from these foul men.
But now hope stirred in the steps of this brave man walking down the dusty streets to confront Bill Purdy and his gang. The town grew silent, awaiting the outcome of this confrontation. They hardly dared breath, let alone hope that this stranger would bring peace to their town.
And then there were shots and more shots and when the dust cleared, the peacemaker was the one who walked from the ring of dead bodies around him.
âYou have your town back. Peace has come to Prairie Gulch,â and with the thanks and admiration of the townspeople, off he rode into the sunset.
I suspect that is the kind of peacemaker we would like to be. We step into a situation, strong and powerful and through the force of our personality and our power we defeat those who have been disturbing the peace without our having to suffer in the process.
But there is another kind of peacemaker. In Shakespeareâs play, Romeo and Juliet, it is the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet that brings peace to the Montagues and the Capulets. Two young lovers, one a Montague and the other a Capulet, fall in love and through a tragic set of circumstances and miscommunication, they die and their death makes people realize what a folly it has been to be at war with each other.
If you had to choose which sort of peacemaker you wanted to be, which would you choose? The one who brings peace and rides out of town with the cheers and adulation of the crowds echoing in your ears, or one who has died not even knowing that peace will result?
Who wants to step into a situation to bring peace if it means you will get shot to pieces in the process? If you are walking down the street and see two dogs fighting, does a wise person reach into the snarling ball of fur and try to separate the dogs? Why be a peacemaker if it means you might get hurt?
When Jesus taught in todayâs Beatitude:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
What concept of peacemaking did he have in mind?
As with the other beatitudes, if we want to see the quality that Jesus said was blessed, we need to look at Jesus. Jesus was and is the perfect peacemaker. To whom did Jesus bring peace?
Ephesians 2
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
Jesus came to bring peace to we who were far away from God
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made [Jews and Gentiles] one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Jesus came to bring peace by reconciling Jews and Gentiles to God through the cross.
Because of our sinful nature we are at war with God. God is a peacemaker but the devil is a troublemaker. Because of our sinful nature, we are on the devilâs team, stirring up trouble in our relationships and community. Given a choice between worshiping God who we cannot see or a golden calf that we can see and touch, we worship the calf. Given a choice between enjoying our money and possessions or selling them all, giving the money to the poor and following Jesus, we hug tight to our chests our money and possessions. Given a choice between our will and Godâs will, we choose what we think will be best in our limited understanding of what is best for us.
Jesus came to bring peace and one of the first to experience the benefits of the peace Jesus brought was the thief who hung on the cross next to Jesus. In the midst of his suffering, he cried out to Jesus: âremember me when you come into your kingdom.â Jesus answered him, âI tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.â
Today you will be with me in paradise. That is the hope and promise we have because of the peace Jesus has made between ourselves and God. That is the hope and promise that sustains the International Church in Islamabad this morning. This is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus. Today, you can be at peace with God by submitting to him, offering your life to him and accepting his free gift of salvation.
This is not the focus of the sermon but it could be the part you need to listen to. If you are not at peace with God, if Godâs peace is not part of your experience, stop listening to me and pray and ask God to open your heart and mind to his presence. Submit yourself to him, offering your life in gratitude for what he has done for you. Be sure to talk to me or someone else in church and let us know what you have prayed so we can encourage you in your faith.
But now we move on. In looking at Jesus as the peacemaker, we learn two things about peacemaking. The first is that to be a peacemaker, we need to be at peace.
The word peacemaker is found in the Bible only here in Matthew and is used rarely in secular Greek. Since Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience, it is most likely that his use of this term carries with it the Hebrew sense of ĹĄ?lĂ´m. To understand peacemaking, we need to understand ĹĄ?lĂ´m.
Ĺ ?lĂ´m is the Hebrew word for peace and is used as a greeting – like the Arabic word salem and it carries with it a sense of general well-being. Š?lĂ´m was perhaps best defined some 1600 years ago by Augustine of Hippo, the Berber bishop of what is today Algeria, as âthe tranquility of order.â Ĺ ?lĂ´m is the state of tranquility that exists in the midst of chaos because a personâs life is in order.
Has anyone here ever been in a hurricane or typhoon? These are two names for the same storm. Atlantic and eastern Pacific storms are given the name hurricane after the West Indian word huracan (big wind) and western Pacific storms are given the name typhoons from the Chinese taifun (great wind). They have winds of up to 160 to 300 km/h (100 to 180 miles per hour) that whirl around in a spiral causing great destruction of property and life and yet at the center of the storm, in the midst of the terrible destructiveness of the winds is the eye of a hurricane. In the eye of the hurricane there will be blue skies, a calm and beautiful day. While all around the eye there is terror and destruction, in the eye there is peace and tranquility.
This is the image I have of Jesus when he was arrested, put on trial, condemned to die, tortured, made to carry his cross and then finally nailed to the cross to die. Throughout the turmoil, strife, harassment and confusion of his suffering, he was the one person in the scene who was at peace with God and himself. While the religious leaders met to plot how to kill Jesus, while the disciples fled for their lives and abandoned him, while the Romans tried to figure out how all this would affect their position of power – Jesus was able to carry with him Godâs ĹĄ?lĂ´m through the events of Easter week.
It does not mean that he did not suffer physically and emotionally. But he was at peace with God and with himself, whole with the wholeness of God and thus able to move through the week, doing what he knew he was called to do.
A peacemaker is one who is filled with ĹĄ?lĂ´m and comes to the conflict with a pure heart and pure motives. No selfish ambitions. No ulterior motives. Just a pure heart and a sincere desire to see peace.
One who is a peacemaker is first of all one who is at peace.
Do you want to be a peacemaker in the lives of people around you? God wants you to be a peacemaker. Jesus considered peacemakers blessed. Will you be a peacemaker in your world?
Then seek Godâs peace in your life. When all is in turmoil around you, you can be a center of calm in the midst of the storm. When you are faced with a choice to be obedient to God or take an easier path of disobedience, choose the path of obedience. Be willing to earn less money, have less power, give up control for the sake of being at peace with God and yourself.
Submit your will to Godâs will. âNot my will but yourâs be done,â should be your prayer as it was the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Give up your dreams of wealth and glory in this world. Be content with never having a beautiful home or a large bank account or getting the promotion you have longed for. Do this so you can have Godâs peace.
Soak in your experience of Godâs love. Discover what it means to have an intimate relationship with God. Explore the pleasure of serving others with the love God has given you.
Be at peace with God, yourself and the world around you and you will be able to be a peacemaker.
To be a peacemaker, you must first be at peace. But there is a second part to being a peacemaker as Jesus understood it. To be a peacemaker, you must also be willing to die for peace. This too is found in the example of Jesus.
Paul in his letter to the Colossians wrote a beautiful description of Christ, a passage that was read this morning to us. In this passage there is a description of Jesus as the peacemaker:
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Jesus set the example for us. He came willing to die for peace. If we desire to be peacemakers, we will do the same. We must be at peace and be willing to die for peace.
This past Wednesday a man died outside of Marrakech in a car accident. I preached todayâs sermon to him in the church in Marrakech last Sunday and his death has made me take a more careful look at what I am preaching. He wasnât killed for his faith but it was because of his faith that he was here. He came to bring Godâs peace to men and women in this country and died in the process.
Are you willing to die in this country in the process of being a peacemaker?
Living in a country that is not your own, in a culture that is not your own, with a language that is not your own is difficult. Each time I go back to the United States or to France for a week or more, I struggle in coming back because I have to accept that life here is more difficult. I have to be willing to die to a part of myself to be where I am certain God wants me to be. We who come to this country to work to make Morocco a better and stronger nation, to improve the quality of life in this country, have to be willing to die to ourselves to do so. Life here may be more difficult, but we choose to live here so peace may come to this land. In this sense we need to die to ourselves so we can bring peace.
If in this country there develops freedom of religion, a time of persecution may well precede and accompany it and then there may be a more literal death that we would face. Are you willing to die to be one of Godâs peacemakers?
None of us wants to be a martyr and to state confidently how we will react when the time comes is dangerous. The apostle Peter made a bold prediction to Jesus of how he would defend him only to find himself denying he knew Jesus. But I think it is important for us to pray and ask for Godâs help to endure whatever suffering may come in the future. With Godâs help we will be able to endure what comes our way.
The history of the church is full of those who did literally die for peace. From the beginning of church history up to the present day, there are those who died in the process of bringing peace. They are dramatic stories and important for us to hear, but this morning I want us to focus on peacemaking that causes us to die in a different way.
A friend promises to help you in a business venture and then is unable to help causing you to go into debt. This puts a strain on your relationship and feelings of anger begin to arise and peace disappears.
An old friend moves into town and you introduce him to your girlfriend. Over time you discover that they have a strong attraction to each other and your girlfriend breaks up with you to date the new love in her life. You feel hurt and betrayed and donât want to see either of them any more. But the situation is complicated because you all go to the same church. There is conflict in the community of faith.
You have worked for your organization for many years and have sacrificed much to do so. Then a colleague is promoted to the head of the organization and institutes rules that threaten your work. All you have worked for is about to fall apart and you try to use whatever influence you have to resurrect your work, but that fails. Anger and bitterness begin to creep up in your heart and there is no peace.
You got married on a bright sunny day full of promise and hope with family and friends and a celebration of flowers and music and food. But over the years, your spouse has not been as attentive a mate as was promised in the wedding vows. There have been disagreements and fights. Words have been said that cut deeply into your heart. So many times you have been hurt, knocked down and then have climbed back up to stand beside your spouse to whom you promised your heart. Finally it just hurts too much and instead of being at peace in your marriage, a strong wall of silence and pain has grown up between you.
The lack of peace in relationships is far more likely to be our experience than the more dramatic experience of life-threatening conflict. Do you want to be a peacemaker in your relationships?
How are we to bring peace into our relationships? We do just as Jesus did. We come to the relationship at peace with God and at peace with ourselves and then we die to ourselves. What we want, what we need, what we feel has to be put to death so that the relationship can be healed. That sounds simple but to anyone who has had to push aside what you want, what you need, what you feel for the sake of a relationship, you know how incredibly difficult that is.
The problem with the lack of peace in relationships is that we are part of the conflict. We do not come in from the outside to objectively deal with the situation. We are on the inside. We are hurting and in pain because of the conflict. To put to death our wants, needs, feelings and rights is a very painful process.
We are never totally innocent in a conflict but we may have suffered unjustly at the hands of someone else more than they suffered because of us. It doesnât matter. If you want to be a peacemaker, you have to be willing to die to yourself. This is painful. This is difficult. But this is the path to peace Jesus took and it is the one we must take.
This morning you may be in a relationship that has conflict. It may be your marriage, it may be with a family member, a friend or a colleague. You may be in a little bit of pain or a lot of pain.
Do you want to be a peacemaker?
Your spouse may not be sensitive to your feelings. Your spouse may insist on his or her rights and ignore your rights. If you die to yourself, your spouse can take advantage of you. Are you willing to be a peacemaker? Are you willing to die to yourself so Godâs love can flow through you to the one you pledged to marry for better or worse?
I am not talking about physical or mental abuse. That no one should accept. If you or someone you love is being physically or mentally abused, getting away from the abuser is the right thing to do.
But I am talking about who does the dishes, who cleans the house, who takes care of the kids, who goes off to be with friends leaving you to take care of daily responsibilities. I am talking about wanting to have someone to listen to me and hear my innermost thoughts and have that be reciprocal. I am talking about a marriage of the heart. Are you willing to die to those longings and needs in your life so you can be a peacemaker in your marriage?
To be a peacemaker, you need to come to your marriage filled with Godâs peace and being ready to give up your rights, your privileges, your needs.
Are you willing to do what Jesus, who brought you peace, did? Jesus who humbled himself and was born as a man. Jesus who gave up his heavenly rights and privileges to suffer the limitations of being human. Jesus who humbled himself and suffered on the cross for us.
Are you still carrying with you the hurts from the way your family divided up your parentâs possessions? Have you distanced yourself from your family because of your hurt?
Be a peacemaker. Let die your desire to have the family silver or some special piece of furniture or the painting of your grandfather.
But perhaps the hurts you have are too powerful. You cannot give them up. As I say this, do you find yourself thinking, âHe doesnât know my circumstance. He doesnât know how unfairly Iâve been treated.â
Godâs voice speaks to you, “Peace be with you.” “My peace I give you.” God does not ask more of you than he himself suffered.
So I ask you again, do you want to be a peacemaker? You have to choose. You can be one of Godâs peacemakers or you can continue to be one of the devilâs troublemakers. It is your choice.
Are you willing to die to yourself to bring peace in those relationships? Are you willing to give up the hurts you have experienced so you can no longer use them to bring justice for yourself? Are you willing to give up your power to protect yourself, to become vulnerable?
The way of peacemaking is not easy and it does not come without cost. When you leave church this morning and go home and begin to think about strained relationships in your life and you conclude you simply cannot die to yourself to bring peace, meditate on the peacemaker who brought you to salvation.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Be a peacemaker in your family. Be a peacemaker with your friends. Be a peacemaker in the company where you work. Be a peacemaker in this land where you live.
Seek out the peace of God so you can live in this chaotic world in peace. Live with the tranquility of order. Be willing to die for the sake of peace.
Are you willing to follow the one who brought peace to you and be one who now brings peace to others? God will be with you and help you as you take up your cross and follow him.
Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.
