Advent 2020 – Peace – December 1st
“For he himself is our peace”
-Ephesians 2:14
When I was in my rebellious teenage years, my mother would say every Mother’s Day that all she wanted as a gift was “peace of mind”. Unfortunately, that was a gift I never gave her while I was still living at home (I’ve since apologized for the stress I caused her in those days, I promise), but it certainly is something we can all relate to as a common desire of our hearts, is it not? How many aspects of our lives can we count that we aspire to find peace in? Our parenting, our relationships, our finances, our community, our families, our marriage, our health, our past, our politics, our work life, and the list goes on. Peace is that elusive goal nations have had from the dawn of time. And yet as much as this desire for peace is a commonality that one would think would draw us together, historically the world has only been at peace for 268 out of the past 3,400 years, that’s only 8% of the time[1]! Not only do we lack peace globally, we lack it internally as well. Anxiety disorders affect over 40 million American adults, over 18% of our population. We as humans have proven that we are not capable of creating lasting, genuine peace for ourselves or for others in our own might.
If you ask five different people to tell you what would give them peace in their lives, you would get five different answers. While we would all tend to define peace as a state of tranquility, quiet, the lack of conflict or war, scripture gives us a unique insight into the true meaning of peace. The Greek word used for “peace” throughout the New Testament is “Eirene” which comes from the verb “eiro” which means “to join or bind together that which has been separated”[2]. If we are seeking to find peace in our lives, we first need to determine what exactly is it that has been separated and needs to be joined together.
We as Christians believe that in the beginning, the Lord created everything we know on this earth, and lastly he created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. At this point “it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). Very good. Complete peace, total accord, no fighting, no discontentment, no need for anything, it was all good. That was Chapter 1, literally Chapter 1 of the entire Bible. Do you want to know how long it lasted? Not long at all. After the detailed creation of Adam of Eve is described for us in Chapter 2, the next thing recorded is the fall. Satan enters the scene and it doesn’t take much for him to convince Eve that rather than being at peace with God’s mandates for her, she should take matters into her own hands and become Lord of her own life. Yet rather than feelings of liberation as Satan promised, she and Adam are immediately made aware of their nakedness and hide in shame. “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife his themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8). Two chapters, the peace lasted two chapters out of 1,189. People who are at peace do not hide. What happened that demolished the peace between the first man and woman and God? Temptation came, along with coveting, discontentment, lack of faith, misunderstanding, pride, and rebellion. You see Adam and Eve had a perfect world going in Eden. God had given them everything they needed, a world complete and beautiful in which the Lord himself walked with them. Adam and Eve heard God’s word from his very mouth as he loved them and walked with them each day. Yet when Eve reached up and grabbed that fruit and took a bite, and then shared it with her husband who sat idly by, the peace they had with God was immediately severed as sin entered into their hearts and into the world.
So when we consider the word “eiro” and that the peace promised us in the Bible is a joining together of something that has been separated, we don’t have to look very far to see that it is our separation from God through our sin that needs to be repaired in order to attain peace. And how on earth will we ever be able to bind ourselves back with the Lord when our sin has caused such a great separation? Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin with their own might, but that obviously didn’t work. Their first born son was murdered by their second born, so not much comfort to be found in the next generation. Is there any hope for peace for us?
There is! Listen to the words of Zechariah as he was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesying the birth of his son, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness to guide our feet in the way of peace” (Luke 1:76-79). Jesus is coming! Zechariah is about to have a son that is going to prepare the way for Jesus to come and grant forgiveness to all who will believe. In this prophesy the Lord wastes no time in letting us know that Jesus is coming to lead us in the way of peace through his forgiveness of our sins. Ever since Adam and Eve took that first bite, we have all had this sin nature running through our veins. Try as we might to cover it and hide it, our efforts are in vain. We need help, we need a savior. And that savior is Jesus.
Do you remember what the angels sang out once Jesus was born in the manger? “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14). The birth of Jesus was an announcement to the world that peace has come. And it was coming through a humble, faithful, kind, loving, honest, truthful, perfect, holy God who was willing to take on our sinful flesh and die a very violent, painful, horrific death so that you could be joined together to Him once again after years of separation and finally know true, everlasting peace.
In these turbulent times in which we find ourselves this year, when so much is unknown and so few are at peace, I am looking forward to spending the next 24 days with you exploring and resting in the many ways we can find peace in Jesus no matter what our circumstances may be.
“’Peace, peace to those far off and to the near,’ says the Lord”. -Isaiah 57:19
[1][1] https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/books/chapters/what-every-person-should-know-about-war.html#:~:text=Has%20the%20world%20ever%20been,wars%20in%20the%20twentieth%20century.
[2] https://www.preceptaustin.org/peace_eirene
