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Peace Through Violence? No!
A peacemaker, as Jesus talks about it, isn't someone who goes to physical war to get what they want.
Matthew 5:9
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Jesus says in the Beatitudes in Matthew Chapter 5 he says
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9)
Blessed are the peacemakers? Jesus says this? Christians say this? Yet, maybe you’ve heard “Christianity is responsible for more wars in this world than any other religion.” Maybe you’ve heard that before. Yet, blessed are the peacemakers?
A peacemaker like the Colt 45? I was doing a children’s sermon on this once so brought a cap gun into church, wouldn’t recommend doing that. But the peacemaker? Yeah, we make peace through violence, right? No.
A peacemaker, as Jesus talks about it, isn’t someone who goes to physical war to get what they want. Perhaps a lot of those wars that Christians are responsible for were sinful and not focused on the right thing. Christ says he wants us to be peacemakers and he doesn’t even want us to just be peace keepers, trying to make everybody happy, and not make anybody mad, and just keep the peace like the middle child in the family does. But he wants us to actually be peacemakers, who recognize the peace that Christ accomplished for us.
And that was violent, wasn’t it. That’s the only violent kind of peacemaking for the Christian, recognizing the violence that was done to Christ. That he, the perfect peaceful person who never did any physical wrong to anyone, was taken up on a cross and nails or put through his hands and through his feet and he was murdered.
But the Bible says that in that situation he gives us peace. The hostility that was between us, the law with all of its stipulations that we were supposed to follow, all of it all our sins were nailed to the cross with Jesus so that he could take away the hostility. And give us peace. So that he could give us a new heart where we don’t try and solve our differences with violence, but share Christ’s peace with the world, how he’s given us peace by taking our sins and how he’s won forgiveness for every single person in this world.
Let’s tell them about it. So that peace can be theirs too. Blessed are the peacemakers. Share that peace for they will be called sons of God. And I want to see those other children of God in heaven with us one day.
