As Jesus drew near Jerusalem,
he saw the city and wept over it, saying,
“If this day you only knew what makes for peace–
but now it is hidden from your eyes.
What truly makes for peace? People in the time of Jesus probably thought that expedient political arrangements, bargaining, and negotiation were strategies that could help to ensure peace. In our own day we tend to think on similar terms. From children fighting amongst themselves to nations at war, our approach tends to treat the symptoms of the problem since getting at the heart of it is much harder and more elusive. We can't readily make children grow in maturity or nations's leaders in virtue. All we seem to be able to accomplish is to balance once disordered desire against another in the hopes of accomplishing a stalemate. By contrast, Jesus knew what made for true peace and had the power to accomplish it.
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ...
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father (see Ephesians 2:14, 17-18).
The dividing wall of hostility that we could not overcome was broken by Jesus himself. It was broken on the cross along with his body, his life, and the entire old order of the cosmos. What we could not endure or accomplish for ourselves Jesus endured and accomplished for us on our behalf. And he made that peace, at last, available to the world, just as the angels sang at his birth.
For the days are coming upon you
when your enemies will raise a palisade against you;
they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides.
They will smash you to the ground and your children within you,
and they will not leave one stone upon another within you
because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.
It was and continues to be the case that the peace to be found in Christ is not recognized and is even maligned. It remains hidden from the proud and the strong. Since these tend to be the ones in power we might worry that the peace brought by Jesus was an insubstantial ideal, something more imaginary than concrete in the world. But the peace of Jesus is part of the weakness of God which is stronger than the strength of men. Even in the midst of trials and during periods of persecution this peace remains available. For those who possess it it can be a greater and more compelling reality than the external forces allied against them.
If we are zealous for the Kingdom of God as we read that Mattathias was zealous for the law, if we are willing to leave behind ties and compromises with the world around us, we may hope to discover, together with those others "who sought to live according to righteousness and religious custom" a peace that the world cannot give (see John 14:27) or take away, because the one who gives it has already conquered the world (see John 16:33).
We must make our choice. Will we insist on a flimsy and fragile worldly peace to satisfy us? Or will we find our peace and Christ, and allow that peace to spread through us, mysteriously, to the changing world around us?
Then call upon me in time of distress;
I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me.
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