Peace

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”  Matthew 5:9

I’m not sure I am allowed to quote Bill Cosby anymore, but he once said, “Fathers are not interested in justice, they just want quiet.”

As humans, we have a tendency to want to skip steps, especially with regard to making peace.  But without Justice, someone is always going to be unhappy, bringing strife instead of peace.  As previously discussed, we should not have Justice without Mercy.  Yet I hear prayers for peace every week in church and in Bible Study.  Rarely, if ever, have I prayed for Justice.  

This is why I believe Jesus’ Sermon is cumulative in nature.  While we long to see it work on a societal level, Justice, Mercy, Forgiveness and Love all must be shared on a personal level if there is to be any meaning to it.  And we don’t start with Peace OR Justice.  We start with our own personal admission that we need forgiveness.  We mourn for our sin and work to change.  We ask God’s Holy Spirit to come into our hearts, recognizing that there are some things we cannot overcome on our own strength.  See Matthew 7 and Jesus’ exhortation to remove the log in our own eye before trying to help with the speck in our neighbor’s.  Then, and only then, can we turn to Justice, which must be followed by Mercy.  

I wondered for a long time why “Pure in heart” comes after Mercy.  I think it may be because our focus each day should be on God, not on looking for a problem to solve.  Yes, we love God by loving our neighbors.  But people being as awful as we are, we have to keep our eyes on Jesus in order to love our neighbors.  

Most people would like to help make the world a better place.  This is why atheists spend a surprising amount of time helping strangers.  But anyone stepping in between two warring factions, whether two nations or two neighbors, can expect to take some hits.  People will cast aspersions on your motives, accuse you of hypocrisy, even dig up dirt from your past.  And this is why the next three verses all deal with persecution.