Peace on Earth - Really?

The calendar indicates that a week from today is Christmas Eve, the night in which our Savior was born - He whose name was Jesus, "Savior", and Emmanuel, "with us God."  The announcement by the angelic choir to those shepherds that evening trumpeted, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

Peace - that principle the world so longs for but is unable to find.  Throughout the years of recorded history, the world has known millenniums of war but only a few years of peace.  And yet today men are still striving for peace.  We read this fall of the new initiatives created in Geneva to resolve the problems with Iran's bent toward nuclear capability.  Time will tell if this six-month temporary agreement will bring any peace.  Then I read in yesterday's "Jerusalem Post" a report that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) were in discussions to form a unity government.  The article stated, "PA President Mahmoud Abbas is in talks with Hamas head Khaled Mashaal and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to unity government ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections, reported Palestinian new agency Ma'an Tuesday. ... This was not the first time that the two parties had announced an agreement to end their differences.  Over the past few years, Fatah and Hamas have reached a number of such agreements that were never implemented. ... The two rival parties have been distant since 2006, when Hamas won the Palestinian democratic elections.  Clashes erupted between Fatah and Hamas the following year, leaving Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip and Fatah in control of the West Bank."  And, into this mix, are the ongoing negotiations between Israel and the PA seeking to resolve the matter of a two-state solution.  Our Secretary of State John Kerry is certainly racking up frequent flier miles for his trips to and from the Middle East. 

Peace - will there be peace in 2014?  Peace - will there be peace any time soon?  Look at our world: tensions mount between China and Japan; uncertainty of what is happening in North Korea keeps the Korean peninsula on the brink; Central African Republic is ready to explode and with it the possibilities of spill over into neighboring countries; the government of the Ukraine is heading in one direction (toward Russia) while its people want to head in another (toward Europe).  And who can forget the ongoing warfare in both Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria where the bloodshed has become so commonplace that it often fails to make news headlines anymore.  These are just a few of the hot spots in these closing days of 2013.    Peace - not this year; and probably not next year as well.

Yet the angels calmed the terror and anxieties that the shepherds were experiencing by saying that peace would come to the world in the person of the infant who had just been born.  Jesus, the Prince of Peace, stepped into a world that knew no peace.  There was the unrest between the people and their Roman oppressors.  There was the unrest between the people and their religious leaders who oppressed them with merciless rules and regulations.  There was the unrest between geographical locations, often seen in the way the Judeans looked down upon the Galileans. 

But Jesus came to bring peace.  Jesus shared with His disciples, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid" (John 14:27).  And later that same day, Jesus reiterated a similar thought when He proclaimed to them, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).  Now some of you will recognize that these words of Jesus came the evening of His betrayal.  Certainly not a night of peace for the disciples, in fact, they fled in panic when the arrest of Jesus came.  Certainly not a night of peace for Jesus as the suffering lay before Him. 

The peace that Jesus came to bring was not a freedom from wars or unrest - yes, that will happen when He reigns here during those thousands years, but that is still future.  The peace that Jesus came to bring was not a freedom from personal clashes or sectarian differences.  The peace that Jesus came to bring and what He reminded His disciples of was that peace that could be established between them and God.  The Apostle Paul expressed it well with these words to the Romans, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).

I believe the "peace on earth" the angels announced to the shepherds was the peace of a right relationship with God.  This peace becomes ours when we surrender our self-will and selfish ambitions to Jesus Christ; when we accept His gift of salvation that He came and purchased for us there on Calvary's cross.  Friends, that is why Jesus came.  It was not to bring peace between the Jewish people and the Roman authorities.  It was not even to bring peace between the people and their religious leaders.  To be honest, the coming of Jesus made both scenarios more difficult.  But Jesus came so that man might be at peace with God.  This was what mankind most needed.  This was what mankind could not experience by his own efforts.  This peace with God could only be provided by God Himself.  And so the journey toward that peace began in a manger-bed in Bethlehem that first Christmas Eve so many years ago and continued toward a cross and then an empty tomb.  It was a journey that only God could take.  Oh we have so much to celebrate this Christmas Season.  Take time to thank God for that peace you have because of Jesus.  And if, friend, you have not experienced that peace, then I would urge you to hurry off to find Jesus, even as the shepherds did.  And accept for yourself the free-gift of salvation that Jesus came to provide for you.  Then you, too, will know that "peace with God." 

Marlys and I want to wish each of you and your families a most Blessed and Merry Christmas.