Blessed are...

Peace, Peace

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

Ezekiel, the prophet, warned Israel not to listen to false prophets who proclaimed peace where none was to be found. To do so, he said, was like covering a flimsy wall with whitewash. When the rain came down in torrents, when the hail came hurtling, when violent winds burst forth, what good would the whitewash be then?[1] Papering over the cracks has never been a very good idea; neither has proclaiming a false peace. Jeremiah’s complaint is much like Ezekiel’s. “’Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”[2] He adds that misleading the people in this way is just like dressing wounds and pretending that they are not serious, when they clearly are.

False peace has two main problems: first, it fails to take problems seriously; second, it gives a false sense of security. False peace not only papers over the cracks, pretending that they are not there and that the structure is fundamentally sound, it also encourages us to rely upon the unreliable. Whitewash cannot hold up a flimsy wall; all it does is fool us into thinking that the wall is strong. So it is with a false peace in our relationship with God. If we pretend that there are no problems then we are delusional. Our sin has damaged our relationship with our Maker. No amount of religiosity or whitewash can repair it. And if we pretend that either religious ritual or good works can keep that relationship in good repair, then we are mistaken. There is no peace to be had without the intervening grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no substitute for His sacrifice. If we pretend that there is, we are simply vendors of false peace.


Lord God,
For those times when I have proclaimed a lesser peace
than the one won for me on Calvary, forgive me.
From the consequences of my actions –
the failure to take sin seriously and from false security, deliver me.
Help me to put all of my trust in You.
Grant me the peace that only You can give,
and that this world can never take away.
Through Christ my Lord.
Amen.



[1] Ezekiel 13:10-12
[2] Jeremiah 6:14