Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons and daughters of God
- Jesus
These words of Jesus are very telling indeed! On one level, they address the evil and violence in our hearts. Jesus knows that we are bent on destruction. Each day, we cause harm to ourselves, to other people, and to God’s larger creation. But Jesus' words also call us to a new and better way of living. Jesus calls us to turn from our destructive ways and to become a peaceable people.
In this season of Lent God is calling us to humbly acknowledge our sin, to turn from it, and to become his agents of peace in the world!
The morning of Friday, February 15th was not unlike most mornings – I woke up, gave my two year-old son a bottle, got ready for work, drove to my office, and I eventually checked my email. That’s when my day took a turn. I opened an email that brought the tragic reality of the recent shooting at the University of Northern Illinois to my attention. The shooting happened on February 14th in a university lecture hall as students were attending an oceanography class. The gunman, who killed himself, was a graduate student in sociology. The shooting resulted in 7 fatalities, over a dozen serious injuries, and an untold amount of grief. Lord have mercy!
But what are our reactions to yet another violent act on the campus of a North American University? Does this act provoke a sense of hopelessness in us? Does it cause us to feel helpless in the face of evil? Or does this act simply work to confirm the entrenched numbness and apathy that so often defines our existence?
As we read the story of Jesus in the Gospels, we come to a startling realization: In a world where the human response to injustice is most often to either ignore it, hide from it, or carry out further acts of injustice, God sends his Son to die under the weight of sin and to rise in newness of life.
Christ’s death on the cross announces that God has dealt decisively, personally, and powerfully with the problem of evil. Paradoxically, God triumphs over the power of evil and reconciles creation to himself through the violence of the cross. Thus, we worship a God who enters the pain and absorbs the evil of the world. Through Jesus’ suffering and death, God took upon himself the weight of the world’s sin. And through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, God established peace in the world – a peace that must now be implemented by Jesus’ followers.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” says Jesus.
It is our responsibility to “make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy” (Hebrews 12.14). God is calling us to choose love over power, the cross over control, and peace over revolt.
And so, in the face of all tragedy and injustice, let us first take the posture of humility by acknowledging that we are part of the destruction against which we protest. Let us confess that our hearts are bent on destruction and let us receive God’s forgiveness, knowing that “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all injustice” (1 John 1.9). And as we do this, let us embrace the task of peacemaking, knowing that God’s Spirit is renewing our hearts and is working through us to bring God’s peaceable rule to bear in the world.
In this season of Lent, let us realize that there is hope for our world. This hope is seen most clearly in the face of the crucified and risen Messiah Jesus and in the faces of all who truly follow him!
A Lenten Prayer:
“Out of the depths of our being, we cry to God for peace. Out of that fearful place where we have to confess that we too are part of the destruction against which we are protesting. Out of that center where we discover that we too are so high up in the air that we have become numb and no longer see, feel, and hear the agony of thousands…Out of that empty spot of silence where we feel helpless, embarrassed, and powerless, where we suffer from our own impotence to stop the reign of death in our world…we cry to the Lord and say: ‘Lord have mercy.’”
Henri Nouwen, The Road to Peace
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