“Peace on earth, good will toward men”[1] are words we regularly associate with Christmas: they are the blessing bewildered and frightened shepherds heard, only to share with others. But as often as I have heard these words – and as I look upon our world, or the Pax Romana of Caesar Augustus – I sense a Scrooge-like proclamation welling within me: “Bah Humbug. Where is this ‘peace’?” That is, I have felt this response until recently, for I have begun to wonder.
For some time I have viewed “peace” as not only a cessation of hostilities between belligerents; or likewise, as not only an emotional or psychological state of equilibrium and tranquility, but as a Person. In Ephesians 2:13-14 we read that Christ is our “peace,” the One who has created in Himself a new humanity: the old but ever-present divisions of gender, race, and socio-economic standing have been abrogated in Him. Thus, from this passage I understand “peace” to be a Person, even though others might argue that, like the Old Testament sacrificial lamb, He has effected “peace” or the shalom of right-relatedness.
To this understanding, I have more recently added Jesus’ words of John 14:26-27. There we read:
“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 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.”
In context, I do believe that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit is in truth the “peace” Jesus bestowed upon His disciples – either at that moment in the upper room, or later after His Resurrection in presumably that same room, when He said:
“‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:21-22).
Although I know that I am upon less-than-solid, exegetical ground, in Luke 24:36 as in John 20, so too the Resurrected Jesus greeted His disciples with, “Peace with you.” As a consequence, I wonder: Was the angels’ greeting to the shepherds more the promise of a Person than a state of cessation or emotional calm?
I wonder,
Stan
[1] Cf. Luke 2:14: “men,” as was true for the Greek “ἄνθρωπος ,” is an all-inclusive, generic term.