Can There Be Peace Without Reconciliation

The question settled into my mind before retiring last night. It is an important question. Especially here in these throes that are gripping and tearing at the social fabric of this country. I was too tired to dwell upon it, so I left it alone to simmer in my subconsciousness overnight.

I find it rather interesting that, before the Covid-19 pandemic began affecting us as it has and continues to affect us, as well as long before all the burning, looting, and death by violent anarchists and thugs taking advantage of the legitimate cause of concern raised by the horrific unjust death of Floyd George, I sensed that I was being led by the Holy Spirit to proverbially sit down at the feet of Jesus on Mount Eremos and listen to him as he taught those first followers of his in what we know and refer to as The Sermon On The Mount.

Sitting at the feet of Jesus on Mount Eremos, listening to him and accepting what he is teaching at face value without attempting to insert my own biases and preferential notions, is life-changing. It is not that I have never read The Sermon On The Mount. I think, like a lot of modernites, that I have often victimized myself by trying to bend Christ’s words to fit into some modern scheme of interpretation ... one of those "what he was trying to say" things instead of "Ok, Lord, I hear you. Help me amend my life."

It becomes us to return to the mountainside with Jesus. It becomes us to listen to him afresh and hear afresh with the ear of the heart as he teaches. What he is saying today is no different than what he said those two millennium ago when people took his words to heart and accepted at them at face value.

An enforced peace is important. I cannot help but to think of the Pax Romana – that 200-year period in Roman history that is characterized by increased and sustained peace between nationalities within the Roman Empire. Israel was one of those nationalities. Christ was born and the Church came to life under the umbrella of the Pax Romana.

Without enforced peace all we have is anarchy and lawlessness in the land. We need an enforced peace that protects our physical lives and personal property. It is interesting to note that a few weeks ago people were decrying the intervention of governments and agencies for encroaching on their “rights”. Largely, these same criers are now pleading for these same governments and agencies to intervene and restore the peace.

We, however, need much more than merely an enforced peace.

The Lord Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid.” [John 14:27]

The word here … peace … in the original language of the New Testament is Eirene. Simply translating it as peace in our English language does not really do it justice. This English word does not truly convey the meaning of the word in the original language. Eirene … peace … means unity and concord.

While the world may indeed offer some type of enforced exterior peace that protects physical life and personal property, the peace that Jesus brings into our lives is an interior life-generating force.

The world’s peace … the Pax Romana … may keep us from killing one another out of fear of the heavy weight of the Empire, but it will never provide the means to overcome the national and cultural differences that divide us. Only by the peace of Christ will we overcome these differences and be truly reconciled one to another in brotherly love.

Singing of the happiness of brotherly love and concord, David sang, “BEHOLD how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity: Like the precious ointment on the head, that ran down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron, Which ran down to the skirt of his garment: as the dew of Hermon, which descendeth upon mount Sion. For there the Lord hath commanded blessing, and life for evermore. Psalm 132[33]

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