When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Matthew 5:1-11
Recently, I attended a couple sessions of a Sunday school class on the Beatitudes. We spent a lot of time on verse 9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” What does it mean to be a peacemaker?
One misunderstanding is that a peacemaker should be peaceful. That’s not quite right. I mean, a peacemaker shouldn’t be actively causing conflict, but at the same time, they need not be passive. They SHOULD be actively creating peace.
What is peace? Absence of war, sure, but so much more than that. The Jewish concept of shalom implies wholeness, justice, fulfillment. It’s a state of being for an individual, a group, a nation. It is the way things should be.
We close each Fired Up! service with, “May the peace of Christ be with you.” We similarly exchange the peace of Christ at the end of the worship service at FPC Cuba, and in the middle of the Sunday service at FPC Rolla. Theologically, its most appropriate place in worship is where we do it Sundays in Rolla: right after the assurance of pardon. We are forgiven in Christ, and therefore we are individually at peace. So being children of God, we should share that peace with all of God’s other children.
How do we square that with Jesus’s example? Matthew 10:34, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Matthew 21:12, “Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.” Clearly, Jesus as the Son of God should also fit the mold of a child of God given in the Beatitudes. What’s going on?
There is such a thing as righteous anger. Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of wholeness. Neville Chamberlain sought to avoid conflict; Winston Churchill led the struggle instead to achieve an enduring peace in Europe.
Jesus’s message was indeed one of shalom, of creating a world in which all people would be made whole. He was surrounded by the poor, downtrodden, outcast, and reviled people of his society. He describes the kingdom of God as a place where all are welcome, all are valued, everyone’s presence brings joy to God. But he also acknowledges that we don’t all live in that kingdom. We can experience a glimpse of it, in the loving presence of our friends, our family, our fellow children of God. But there are many people who are still on the outside looking in. People who have lost their loving connections. People who are barely surviving on the margins of modern society.
We should be angry that in modern America, people are still homeless, or hungry, or falsely imprisoned. As children of God, we should be seeking to make peace, to bring everyone into the shalom of God’s kingdom.