BEING PEACEABLE

Borrowing from Gordon McDonald, the word “peace” in its general definition means any system in which there is order, justice, and security. The Romans talked about peace (Pax Romana), but their system was sustained through violence and intimidation. The Jews of Jerusalem had their own concepts of peace: a kingdom that mirrored the ancient reign of David. These were concepts of peace imposed from the outside of a person.

But then Jesus came, speaking of a peace that took root inside a person. This peace was unaffected by any form of opposition. You can do away with the body, Jesus said, but never the soul. His was a radical idea: that the most important of all things has to do with a person's heart.

Monks years ago made this point with a story: A cruel warlord confronted an old monk, commanding the monk to bow to him, but the monk refused. “Do you know who I am?” bellowed the warlord. “I am he who has the power to run you through with a sword.”  “And do you know who I am?” responded the monk. “I am he who has the power to let you run me through with a sword.”  This old man, unbowed, was peaceful from his core. He operated out of an ordered heart.

Jesus said His peace was not compatible with the “world's” view of peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).  He created a movement whose trademarks were humility, compassion, mercy, and a breaking down of barriers that traditionally separated people.  Paul referred to this as “the peace of Christ,” and he urged the Christ-followers of the Colossian church to reorient themselves around this trait.

At the same time we shouldn’t confuse the peace of Christ with niceness, or feeling good, or the avoidance of conflict. The peaceful Jesus was not a wimp. When He wreaked havoc on the Temple money-launderers He was justifiably furious.  When He was confronted by influential hypocritical religious leaders He held nothing back in telling them the truth about who they were in their arrogance and disrespect for God.

Jesus taught, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” “Go in peace,” He said to a healed woman. “Peace,” He shouted at a threatening storm. To many others He said, “Peace be with you.”  Wherever He went, He took His fresh idea of human order with Him.

Where do peaceable people come from? For some, peacefulness is the product of hardship or suffering or failure. Something takes place which causes deep pain (physical, spiritual, relational) and a brokenness that softens the heart. Perspectives are reoriented. Views on certain issues are rearranged, and a new person, a peaceful person, emerges.

Aging with its accumulation of life-experience, can produce a peaceful person if he or she has pursued a close walk with Jesus.

Peaceable people are an expression of the work of the Holy Spirit. And how is that work done? A rhythmic devotional life, engaging with the right kind of friends, and storing up the wisdom (journaling comes to mind) that comes from looking for meaning in everyday activity.

These are all ways the Holy Spirit builds an inner tranquility that becomes more and more valuable as the years pass.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer spent the last year of his life in Nazi prisons. One night, along with other prisoners, he was herded into a shelter while Allied bombs fell in the area. One man, Fabian von Schlabrendorff, writes of that moment: “Tightly squeezed together we were standing in our air-raid shelter when a bomb hit with an enormous explosion. For a second it seemed the shelter were bursting and the ceiling crashing down on top of us. It rocked like a ship tossing in the storm, but it held. At that moment Dietrich Bonhoeffer showed his mettle. He remained quite calm, he did not move a muscle, but stood motionless and relaxed as if nothing had happened.”  Elizabeth Raum, a Bonhoeffer biographer, writes of this moment: “Dietrich's actions calmed those around him. He acted like a man totally confident that nothing, even death, could harm him.”  He calmed everyone around him because they saw Jesus in him.

Oswald Chambers once wrote: “The people who influence us most are not those who buttonhole us ... but those who live their lives like the stars in heaven and the lilies in the field: peacefully, simply, and unaffectedly. These are the lives that mold us.”

Peaceable people offer a fresh view of Jesus because He is embedded in their character and personality.