Eastertide #4

Peace be with you

(John 20:26)

That’s what our resurrected Lord said when he appeared: “Peace be with you” to the ten assembled in the upper room. Or again, eight days later, when doubting Thomas finally gathered with the gathered: “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19&26).

That’s how the Gospel Story begins: “Peace on earth…” (Lk 2:14). At the Last Supper, Jesus spoke of this peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives” (Jn 14:27).

This peace that Jesus gives has to do with Calvary: “Jesus is our peace; breaking down hostility between us through the cross” (Eph 2:14-18). Strange juxtaposition… The Roman Cross, the instrument of PAX ROMANA, “Roman Peace”; and, Calvary’s Cross where violence spent itself leaving a different, not of this world, kind of peace. Calvary’s peace is “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Phil 4:7). That’s why the gospel we preach is called “the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:15).

Much Eastertide lingering could go on here. Is there ever a time a Christian should take to violence? The Apostle says there remains a place, in this fallen world, for Caesar’s Sword (Ro 13). If we do take up the sword, it’s always Caesar’s sword, not Christ’s. No one enters the kingdom of God by the sword. We enter through “the gospel of peace.”