Where do you long for Christ’s Peace to enter your story this week?

Or have you given up hope for that?

Perhaps it would be good for you and me to remember Jesus' words about the kind of peace He gives.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." -John 14:27

If you join me in asking that question of yourself, then also consider this: 

Advent Peace doesn’t grow from ignoring our brokenness—it grows from remembering why Jesus came.
A world fractured by sin needs more than a great teacher; it needs a Savior with purpose.

If we are to trust Jesus' words about His peace, then we must remember who He is. Peace offered by a good teacher or human being never lasts.

Some might say that Jesus was just a great teacher who brought comfort and taught us how to love. That sounds honoring, but it isn't. It doesn't honor the fullness or reality of who Jesus is and why He came. If Jesus were just a great teacher, then His words about His peace fall quite flat. But Jesus was more than a teacher. Jesus has the power to bring peace.

Jesus was fully God and fully man. He accepted worship (Matthew 2:1, Matthew 2:11, Matthew 9:18, Matthew 14:33, John 9:38, Matthew 28:17), forgave sins (Matthew 12:32), and referred to Himself as the Son of Man (Mark 8:31, Matthew 16:13, Mark 10:45), a term for the coming Messiah who would come to save humanity. As C.S. Lewis points out, Jesus was either truly God or something else not worthy of the worship His followers have given Him for 2,000 years.

"Jesus [. . .] told people that their sins were forgiven. [. . .] This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. [. . .] I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.”

That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

- Mere Christianity

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” — Luke 19:10, ESV

From the moment sin entered the world, God promised a Redeemer. Advent is the celebration of that promise fulfilled in flesh and blood. Jesus did not come merely as a teacher to model a moral life or inspire good behavior. He came to save, to reconcile, to restore.

“I have a great need for Christ; I have a great Christ for my need.” -Charles Spurgeon

The Incarnation is far more than a touching moment; it is God’s way of drawing near to save. Christ took on flesh to enter our brokenness, take up our sin, and reconcile us to the Father. Every day of His earthly life moved Him toward the cross for us.

Peace becomes possible only because Christ took our place.
He steps into the chaos of the Fall and brings wholeness where we could only bring brokenness. He heals what we cannot heal and carries what we cannot carry.

“The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.”  -J.I. Packer

Do you wonder if God cares about our peace?

If we remember, the first Christmas was full of the kind of world that cries out for peace.

• Israel had been waiting in silence for 400 years.

• God’s people were under Roman oppression.

• Mary was a teenage girl with a scandalous pregnancy.

• Joseph was confused, afraid, and yet called to trust.

• Soon after Jesus was born, Herod ordered the slaughter of the baby boys in Bethlehem

The Bible frames the birth of Christ with the need for peace, but also God's glory in being the Bringer of Peace.

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests!'” – Luke 2:13-14

Christmas is not God saying, “Cheer up, it’s not that bad.”
Christmas is God saying, “It really is that bad—and I am coming into it. I am Emmanuel. God with you.”

This is why Advent Peace is so honest.
We can name our griefs, brokenness, sin, and anxieties because Jesus came with a purpose that holds steady even when our world feels anything but peaceful, even when we feel anything but peaceful.

• He came to reconcile, not to reject.
• He came to restore, not to leave us as we are.

The Prince of Peace brings Peace because He fulfilled His purpose—all the way to the cross.

So I ask you as I also ask myself:

Where do you long for Christ’s Peace to enter your story this week? Take heart, He is more than a teacher and more than a man. He was God made flesh for us, Living Water, The Light of the World, The Resurrection and the Life, The Bread of Life, and The Good Shepherd. 

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."  -John 1:14, ESV

 

"On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”-John 7:37-38, ESV

 

"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'” -John 8:12, ESV

 

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live...'" -John 11:25, ESV

 

"Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.'" -John 6:35, ESV

 

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." -John 10:11, ESV

Take time to ponder...

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Featured Image: Adoration of the Shepherds, Caravaggio, 1609

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