Peace is one of those words that is used often in our Christian vocabulary. “Peace be with you” the greeting that Jesus gave his disciples on that first Easter Sunday evening. Again He uses an identical greeting when He comes to them eight days later. And during Holy Week we heard Jesus say to his disciples “let not your hearts be troubled; Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you”. But Jesus added “not as the world gives do I give to you.” (John 14:27)In our weekly services we never cease to pray for this peace: Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth; The peace of the Lord be with you always; Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace; and Go in peace. And then our prayer for the departed is simply; May they rest in peace.
Just like many words and phrases we are most familiar with because of our constant use; it is possible that we can go on speaking this word “peace”, day in and day out without ever stopping to think about what it actually means. Although we pray for peace for so many things I’m not sure I always think about what it really means. The dictionary, of course, has a simple definition: quiet; tranquility; mental calm; serenity; freedom from disturbance ... – but I wondered how does this apply to our faith in the risen Christ?
I think when Jesus initially told his friends that he was leaving them with peace and when he promised them His peace, he was wishing to comfort them as he was about to leave and undergo his passion and death. He left them with the assurance that, after his resurrection, he would return and draw them even closer to himself with him and the Father and the Holy Spirit.
This new life in the disciples and in us is Love, an active love which blossoms in the keeping of Christ's commandments. 'If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love...'(John. 15:10) So the peace of Christ is not just peace as the world gives or understands it. It is something greater than all that. The peace of Christ to me is something alive and active, something very freeing and very powerful. It is life and love and joy and a gift which can at the same time calm me but also challenge me to face all of the painful realities life brings but at the same time I can rejoice in the knowledge of the Risen Christ himself.
The peace Christ gives does not fall subject to the terms and conditions of this world. This peace is not something that can be taken away from us by loss of a job, or the onset of serious illness, or even death itself. Nowhere in the world as I know it can an offer of such essential, enduring, unending peace be honestly offered. This peace -- the Easter peace -- cannot be given, nor can it be taken away by the world.
“When Jesus appeared to his disciples, they were hiding upstairs in a locked room—the friends who knew him best, who had betrayed him, who had pretended they didn’t know him, who had run away when he was dying, who hid when he was arrested, who were frightened and ashamed. He appeared among them and greeted them. He didn’t say, ‘What happened?’ ‘Where were you?’ ‘You screwed up.’ He greeted them saying, ‘Peace.’
“No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done or think you’ve done, whoever you have betrayed or let down, no matter how far you have gone from God, from Jesus, Jesus doesn’t say to you, ‘Where were you? You screwed up.’ Jesus greets you saying, ‘Peace.’ You are not accused, you are invited.” (ref 1)
Jesus invites us all to share in His resurrection and in His life of glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But He also shows us His wounded hands and His pierced side that remind us that His victory and peace was accomplished through His passion and death. Then He calls us to join Him in freely offering up to the Father whatever pain or whatever suffering we may experience in our lives, so that dying with Him we may also rise with Him and share in that peace which the world cannot give