I encourage you to read part 1 before continuing if you have not yet done so.
The second part of this blog series is titled “Horizontal Peace”…Peace between person to person.
Matt. 5:9-“Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God”
If you have read the earlier blog about peace between humanity and God, then this will make much more sense.
If humanity, when first created and fashioned by the hands of God, did not know conflict or war or hatred, then followers of God are called to show in their lives that same peace. Jesus Christ gives us not only by His death and resurrection, concrete peace and a restored relationship between us and God, but He has also provided an example with how to work for peace on both a microlevel (with our individual enemies) and on a larger scale (peace in the world in terms of justice). First, I will address the former then turn our attention to the later.
As with so much more in the Christian faith, the beginning point is love. Jesus said the two greatest commandments is to love God completely and to love neighbor as self.
Neighbor tookon a whole new meaning when Jesus proclaimed “neighbor” meant enemy too. To the white supremicists, neighbor means all non-whites, to the militant Israeli, neighbor means Palestinian (and lest anyone think that I am being one-sided, to the militant Palestinian, neighbor means Israeli).
One of the best examples that stresses my point is the parable of the unmerciful servant (Mt. 18:21-35). Let me recap. A servant owed his master an amount of money so great, it was impossible to pay. The King knew this, and rather than make the servant work his knuckles to the bone the rest of his life (which still would not have sufficed to repay the debt), the King mercifully cancells the debt.
If you have not known what it is like to have debt, this may be hard for you to appreciate, but if you have, then you you know the yearning of the relief and jubilance that this servant must have felt.
and here is the kicker…the king had EVERY right to claim what was owed him. Yet He gave up those rights because He is gracious, valuing His servant far greater than His wealth. He hoped his servant would reflect this merciful attitude to his felow servant who owed him only a tiny amount, yet the forgiven one nearly had an anuerism as he attempted to threaten the other!
This parable portrays a deep truth: If God who is so perfectly good and therefore had a right to extract payment yet forgave the transgression, then how can those who claim to follow him do any less? How can we expect God to be pleased when we hurt others to justify our own rage? Look at Christ on the cross. All the sufferings of humanity, ALL the evil was laid upon the shoulders of the evil-less Son of God and He suffered and endured AND prayed that his killers (and that includes me since it was my sin just as much as anyone’s that He died for) would be forgiven.
If God had just dropped a book from the sky that said, “forgive and love your enemies”, I would have pointed a finger to the sky and cried out “but God you just dont know what it is like to feel hurt, or pain, and I want justice!”
When I look at the cross, I have my answer: God does know what it is to suffer injustice, pain, hurt, betrayal, and death. Yet this same Savior calls me to show mercy to all people, to do my best to live in peace with all people, and as Bonhoeffer once wrote “bids me to come and die”. To take up my cross, renounce all revenge upon people, and forgive those who have hurt me.
and finally, to use that forgiveness and love as a foundation to work for peace with both neighbor and enemy alike. This is how I reflect my Father who is in heaven.