Jesus: "...my peace I give to you!"

In John’s Gospel account Jesus leaves his disciples with the gift of Peace. He says: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

Because Jesus says: “I do not give (peace) to you as the world gives”, there is implied a difference between his peace and that promised by the world’s leaders. Therefore, I wondered just how the world gives peace. I was helped in finding a working definition of “peace”, in the eyes of the world today, by a paper prepared by Colonel James H. Herrera USMC, and his paper titled: “On Peace: Peace as a means of Statecraft” (2009).

In an attempt to define Peace, the author starts by saying that: “war, non-war, and peace are conditions that exist in world politics, according to the Dictionary of International Relations. The first indicates a condition of hostilities, the second condition of competition without actual belligerency, and the third either a cessation or an absence of hostilities” The author is aware that the most popular definition of world peace is a world without war, in his words “regulates peace to a subordinate position.”

Colonel Herrera quotes out of many great thinkers, from Immanuel Kant, to Hegel, to Nathan Funk, and more to show how peace can often be seen as a negative thing. Hegel is quoted as writing: “just as the movement of the oceans prevents the corruption which would be the result of perpetual calm, so by war people escape the corruption which would be occasioned by continuous or eternal peace.” By many great minds of this world, “peace is viewed as a static condition that interferes with a process of improving states internal efficiency.”

There is nothing wrong with times that trouble hearts or move them to fear; because during these times there are scientific and industrial advancements made. But—Jesus says: “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

The peace that Jesus gives is not simply a “breathing time” as expressed by the Philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who “believes that the natural condition of man is one of continuous competition and potential for violence, where peace is a temporary respite from hostility.”

Jesus calls the natural condition what it actually is; sin! And Jesus labels continuous competition and the potential for violence what they are; evil! This season

During the celebration of the resurrection we celebrate the victory over sin and death. For anyone following the way of Jesus, there is no need to worry about getting beat in competition over the resources of creation, or the Father’s love. There is no need to be afraid of being erased from history. When Jesus said: “Peace I leave you” -and then added- “my peace I give to you”, he wanted to make a distinction from a mere absence of hostilities. In the ministry of reconciliation we are given the spirit of unity to establish a bond of peace. As God was (in Jesus)

“Reconciling the world to himself” —so Jesus’ disciples are sent out with the mission of making friends from enemies.

God’s spirit is a different spirit than that naturally found in the ways of the world. It is that divine spirit which is breathed into each disciple at his or her baptism. The same spirit that leads us to trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus leads us out into the world with the mission of being peacemakers. In order to establish a peace, where enemies are not “simply existing” in contempt and hate; but, where reconciliation is real, and where enemies become friends.