And when Jesus drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:41,42)
If your first language is English, the word “peace” brings to mind an end of conflict. Other languages have more than one definition. For example in Japanese there is a word – Shinwa – which we translate as “peace” but in the context of Japanese history and culture it brings to mind a Buddhist definition of complete balance and harmony, both within one’s heart and mind and with the present surroundings. A late first century Roman historian named Tacitus quoted a Celtic leader named Calgacus who was defeated resisting the Roman conquests in Gaul (present day France): “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”
But what did Jesus mean by peace when he wept over Jerusalem? As a Jew steeped in the Old Testament, he meant shalom. Depending on the context, the Hebrew word shalom can mean physical and material wholeness, relational harmony, spiritual completeness, social justice and righteousness or God’s ultimate purpose. Jesus as Messiah is the Prince of Shalom so he meant all of those definitions. What did he mean by “if they had known on this day the things that make for peace”? He meant that if they had recognized and accepted him as their Messiah, as the God authorized Prince of Peace, they would know peace.
The leaders of the Jews had more fear than faith in Moses and the Prophets. They were afraid of losing their status in society and politics, afraid of losing their wealth and power, afraid of losing their identities as a distinct nation, afraid of Caesar in Rome and his Procurator Pilate in Jerusalem. So what is the antidote for fear? Love!
In 1 John chapter 4:7 – 19 the Beloved Disciple tells us that God is love and that He sent His son, Jesus, to be the savior of the world. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
So Advent is about expecting all that the Incarnation of God in the child we celebrate at Christmas represents and will accomplish in the World and in us. On the Day of Judgment there will be shalom. The Creation will be restored to everything God intended for it in Genesis – “In the beginning . . .” – when God described it all as “good, very good.” But that’s not just a future hope. If we have God’s Spirit living inside us, that shalom can be our present reality. If you look at Paul’s description of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:32 you see it begins with “love.” Well, as John said, “God is love!” That God, and that love, is alive and living in us, And that love leads to joy, and PEACE, and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. That’s what it means to be “in Christ.” Christ in us means us “in Christ.” Which is why Paul can say, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Let me leave this with Paul’s word in Romans chapter 8:38 – 39: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus the Lord.”
PEACE SHALOM