Blessed Are The Peacemakers
Text: Matthew 5:1-9
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
January 7, 2024
With what is happening in Ukraine, and in Israel and Gaza, and Yemen, and Iran, and in our own national life, and maybe even in our own families, peacemaking is relevant right now. Add on the fact that this is an election year and sadly we can buckle up for a year of discord, rage, and conflict.
Just this past Wednesday a number of statehouses in our nation received bomb threats. Buildings were evacuated. Work was interrupted. All the threats were a hoax. The secretary of state’s office in Georgia said, "There will be chaos agents sowing discord for 2024. They want to increase tensions. Don't let them.”
It seems that a spirit of hostility is growing; tensions are increasing. It shows in the way people talk to one another, posts on social media, and the way our leaders speak. We are treating one another with less respect and more just plain meanness. Whether it is cancel culture or hyper-nationalism, our own nation is finding it hard to make peace.
While peacemaking can seem so distant in this dark and turbulent age, I want to bring it close so that we don’t lose our vision of it. I never want to lose sight of what Jesus calls us to do. Because peacemaking isn’t just a relevant topic. It is a call of Jesus.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” For the next several Sundays the sermons will be about peacemaking.
As I said, it is an election year. That has played into my planning of these sermons. One of the sermons will be about politics. Our harshness toward one another has grown because of politics. That particular sermon will not be about who to vote for or how to think on particular issues but how we should reflect peacemaking in our current political climate regardless of our political views.
I am not banking on the politicians, the entertainers, universities or talk show hosts to make a difference. I am banking on those who want to make peace, especially Christians. And as one who submits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ I want to be one of those who do that.
If you think you are going to hear a lot of words about pacifism you’re wrong. Or being against the military you are wrong.
For many, including myself, peacemaking can sound nice but in the real world it just isn’t practical. Peacemaking can be confused with being nice. Peacemakers are doormats in the world and get run over. Peacemaking sounds like having warm feelings as we circle together, hold hands, and sing Kum Ba Yah. None of this is peacemaking.
“Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons and daughters of God.” This is one of the beatitudes of Jesus. The beatitudes are found in The Sermon on the Mount, which is some of the most important and radical teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Read what Jesus’ teaches and it will challenge you to the core.
The beatitudes speak of the things at the heart of God. They tell us who is favored in God’s eyes. “Blessed” means “happy” or even “lucky are you.” It’s as if Jesus is saying “Congratulations.” But this blessedness has to do with being in right relationship with God.
Jesus calls blessed those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, those who are persecuted for the doing and wanting the right thing, and…peacemakers.
None of these qualities are prized in this world. But Jesus said his kingdom isn’t of this world.
And the peacemakers are his children. Sons and daughters of God. It isn’t the violent and cruel and divisive who belong to God. It is those who make peace.
Later in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says things like “if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” “Don’t hate your enemies but love them and pray for those who persecute you.” What was Jesus thinking? Isn’t he out of touch with reality? Jesus, don’t you know what kind of world this is? I’m sure things were a lot better in your day.
The world the Son of God came into was no picnic. We know that because of Jesus’ birth Herod was so paranoid that he carried out a slaughter of innocent babies. His paranoia continued in a reign of mass terror and surveillance of people that one person called “a foretaste of Stalinism.”[1] Herod killed his own son and thousands of others who threatened his rule. When he died there was hope things might be different under the new ruler, Archelaus. But the new ruler put down a rebellion by some of the Jews and killed three-thousand of them.
Jesus spoke “Blessed are the peacemakers” during a time known as the Pax Romana, which means The Peace of Rome. The Romans, through their military superiority, had ended all the little wars that had been going on against small states. They had rid the Mediterranean Sea of pirates and had greatly reduced criminal activity throughout the empire. There was an absence of war and so it came to be known as the Pax Romana. But there really wasn’t peace for all. The welfare of all people was not a reality. The rich got richer. The poor got poorer. Some were favored and others were oppressed. There was great unfairness in society. Just because there is no war doesn’t mean there is peace.[2]
And of course, Jesus himself, received hostility, most often from his own people. The religious teachers and leaders continually questioned and criticized him. And Jesus didn’t back down from confrontations showing peacemaking doesn’t mean avoiding confrontation. Jesus was not always polite. He was civil but not some pushover. Eventually he himself was crucified by the Romans.
Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the furnace of personal, social and international turmoil.
Jesus often had to argue. His ministry experienced conflict. It was hard. Didn’t always end with everyone happy. And “The way Jesus did peace shapes the way we do it.” He did turn over tables and make a ruckus in the Temple which is not a license for us to have a temper tantrum but it certainly gets our attention. The Lord said “woe” to some people. He could speak of hell and judgement. But his way was never about political or military power.
Jesus is Lord, even of conflict, We will not be afraid of conflict as long as we do it under the Lordship of Jesus. It must be Sermon-On-the-Mount centered not success, power or machismo centered. There is such a thing as false conflict and to do things based on power or selfishness is false conflict.[3]
The Hebrew word for “peace” is the word “shalom.” Maybe you have heard that word before. Shalom is more than just a greeting. Shalom in the Bible means more than just absence of conflict. It is wholeness in every way: wholeness for the mind, the body, in the soul and for everyone in the entire community. The Bible teacher Dale Bruner says shalom is the picture of a circle. It is a circle that surrounds everyone. There is well-being, wholeness and unity in every direction. People are in right relations with everything else. The biblical meaning of shalom isn’t just individual but has to do with community. It has to do with everyone else, not just ourselves.[4] It is outward as well as inward.
Peacemaking is not just keeping to yourself and not hurting anyone. It is active. It is done in relationships with others. It is “making”. Peace making.
Peacemaking is not peacekeeping. Peacekeeping is good and a part of peacemaking, but peacemaking is more. Peacemaking is more than just being nice, nor does it mean even always being nice. Peacemaking is hard work. “It’s the hard work of bringing two unlikely parties together. Sometimes that requires difficult or uncomfortable conversations. If we’re honest, we know it usually requires confession and repentance. And in many instances, it even requires sacrifice.”[5] It can mean sacrificing our ego or our pride or our need to be right.
Peace and appeasement are not the same thing. The peace of God is not a peace at any price. It is not a “cheap peace.” It comes at a price.[6] Peacemaking is not agreement.
Most of our thinking about peace has to do with personal peace. Certainly, a peacemaker needs to have peace with God and within herself. But peacemaking is for those who “devote themselves to the hard work of reconciling hostile individuals, families, groups, and nations.”[7] Shalom involves everyone.
It takes strength. It takes endurance. It takes self-control, wisdom, patience and hope. It takes maturity. I would say one of the reasons for the divisions in our society is a crisis in maturity. To be the peacemakers that Jesus desires we have to go deeper, be a little wiser, more under the influence of the Holy Spirit as opposed to the spirit of this world.
I am bent toward always being right, wanting to put the other person in his place, getting revenge, making sure I maintain power, showing my strength and authority. And then Nancy comes home. I have to let the Spirit put to death the things in me that do not make for peace. I can get all stirred up by some social or world commentary but I have to stop and ask, “is this of Jesus?”
It is true that Jesus said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”[8] Jesus didn’t mean to seek or be responsible for conflict. He meant that conflict would be inevitable as a result of his coming. It can even cause conflict in the closest of relationships and even family. Maybe you have found tension with those dearest to you because of your commitment to follow Jesus.[9]
Hebrews 12:14 says, “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” In Romans Paul writes, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”[10]
And the sword Jesus spoke of was not a call to arms. He was speaking of the sword that would strike him and his followers.
To be peacemakers those other beatitudes that Jesus spoke of have to play into it. Peacemakers know their own need, often mourn the violence they see everywhere, and are gentle. Peacemakers hunger for what is right in the heart of God. They are merciful, pure in heart, and might even be persecuted for making peace.
Peacemaking is God’s work and we join him in it. It might mean brokering peace between warring nations, tribes or peoples. It might mean apologizing to someone we have hurt. It might mean going to someone who has hurt us. Peacemaking can be reconciling two people or groups who are estranged. It might be uniting churches or factions within a church. Peacemaking can be helping someone come to Christ. It might involve bringing injustice in a particular place to light.[11]
There are people all over our world who are doing the good and hard work of peacemaking without notice or acclaim. There are people in the Middle East, in Ukraine and Russia, and in our own nation who are standing against the warring and killing and violence and power-trips, and talking to one another and reconciling factions even as they disagree on any number of things.
There are people in all places who are trying to bring health to relationships and bring reconciliation. They do it in one-to-one relationships. They work for social well-being. They might do it by fighting poverty. They might do it by promoting rights for all people. They might to it be bringing healing in a family. There are peacemakers bridging the divide between religions, political groups, or ethnic groups. And those who do so and do it in the name of Jesus are members of God’s family.[12]
At this table we give thanks for the reconciliation we have with God. And we are reminded of the reconciliation we are to have with one another. We can’t take part of Jesus body and blood and not concern ourselves with reconciliation. The table is the place to repent. It is the place to lay down anger, judgement or meanness toward others. To do otherwise is to dishonor the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The incredible story of the Bible is one of belonging and division. What sin divides, God brings back together again. God is committed to reconciliation and sent his Son to bring peace, even at the price of the cross. If God himself is so committed to peacemaking, Christians cannot be indifferent to it. Peacemaking is not peripheral to the Christian’s mission in the world. Shalom sits at the center of it. The story of Scripture is one of belonging. This is why Jesus says that peacemakers will be called children of God. Peacemaking is what the Son has been doing all along![13] And those who follow him do the same
[1] A most violent year: Understanding the political work into which Jesus was born, Philip Jenkins, Dec. 13, 2023, ABS Religion an Ethics.
[2] Matthew Hare, Interpretation Commentary on Matthew, p.42
[3] Dale Bruner, The Christbook, Commentary on Matthew 1-13.
[4] Bruner, 149
[5] M5:9, Beatitude Devotional
[6] John Stott, The Sermon on The Mount, p.50
[7][7] Hare
[8] Matthew 10:34-36
[9] Stott, p.50
[10] Romans 12:18
[11] Stott
[12] Bruner
[13] The Theology of Belonging Booklet, Matthew 5:9 Fellowship