PEACE BE WITH YOU

 

             If you look in any hymnal you will find several Advent hymns that focus on the great themes of this season. A familiar one, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” speaks of peace in the fourth stanza as it says: “O come Desire of nations, bind all peoples in one heart and mind. Bid envy, strife and quarrels cease; fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.”

            When Isaiah spoke of the coming child (9:6-7) he called him “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” and added, “of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.”

            The child, who became the man Jesus, met with his apostles for the last time in the upper room. There, according to John’s Gospel, he spoke at length, preparing them for his departure. Several times he spoke about peace. For instance, he said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives” (14:27). Near the end of his teaching he said, “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace” (16:33).

             He wants them to have the gift of his peace. He said, “I do not give to you as the world gives.” He, and they, knew all too well how the world gives peace. Their world was a Roman world. How did that world give peace? At the point of a sword and by crucifying anyone who was a threat to their rule of peace. The Pax Romana, the “Peace of Rome,” was in force and they meant to keep it that way. Jesus saw firsthand how the world gives peace. As a boy he lived in the small village of Nazareth, close to the major city of Sephoris. A rebellion in Sephoris about the time when Jesus was born ended quickly with the death of some 30,000 citizens, including 2,000 who were crucified. Jesus would have learned that the cross was the symbol of how the world gives peace.

             Jesus said he wanted to give them his peace. Amazingly, the cross became his symbol of peace.  In Romans 5 Paul points out that it was through death on the cross that Christ reconciled us to God, thus making peace. And as for the hostilities and divisions we experience in the world, Paul explains in Ephesians 2 that he put these to death through the cross as well. The symbolism of the cross was transformed when Jesus was crucified.

             There is a beautiful verse in Ps 85 which, I think, summarizes the symbolism of the cross for us: “Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” As we take communion today may the cross be both righteousness and peace for us.