5 Prince of Peace
5
Prince of Peace
His name is “Prince of Peace,” and believing this can take care of the disturbances of life. Jesus still says to his followers, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you” (John 14:27).
Like most important words, “peace” has become all things to all men. A loving mother looks upon the face of her sleeping infant and thinks of peace. A poet looks across the headstones in an old graveyard and thinks of peace. Yet who would exchange the potential of a growing infant for the frozen, silent solemnity of a cemetery?
The Old Testament Jew knew the meaning of the word “peace” even if he didn’t always actually experience it. To him the word “peace” (shalom) meant far more than silence or the absence of war. Peace was something living and vibrant that made for the well-being of mankind. Peace meant (as Dr. George Morrison expresses it) “the possession of adequate resources.” It has nothing to do with the situation on the outside; it has everything to do with the condition on the inside.
I’ve watched people sitting in the quiet beauty of nature, growing restless with inactivity, smoking one cigarette after another, drinking one cocktail after another, and complaining of boredom. I’ve also watched people in the midst of the noisy city smiling and laughing, surrounded by the abrasive sounds and people that only the city can manufacture. I’ve heard them whistle and sing, and I’ve recognized that they were at peace in the midst of confusion.
The difference? Jesus Christ, the “Prince of Peace.”
Christ Our Peace
When you think of Jesus Christ as “Prince of Peace,” you immediately think of his character. Jesus was a man of peace. You see this as you watch him in the different circumstances of life. He was able to fall asleep in the ship in the midst of a storm so threatening that even his fishermen disciples were terrified. He looked at over five thousand hungry people and assured his worried disciples that he knew what he would do. The professional mourners at the home of Jairus laughed in his face when he told them the little girl was only sleeping, but he calmly entered her room and raised her from the dead. Even the two demoniacs in the graveyard of Gadara didn’t frighten him. He is “Prince of Peace,” so he was able to bring peace to their divided and distressed hearts. In the Garden, Peter pulled out a sword and declared war, but Jesus calmly faced the mob and peacefully surrendered to the arresting officers, even though he knew that Golgotha lay at the end of the road.
Our Lord’s “trial” was a travesty of justice. Yet Jesus calmly moved from judge to judge, and “as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth” (Isa. 53:7). Pilate marveled at his silence. Most prisoners curse their executors, but Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). The women of Jerusalem offered him a narcotic, but he refused it so that he might with a clear mind and controlled will accomplish God’s eternal purposes on the cross. Our Lord’s peace didn’t come from the absence of trouble or the presence of narcotics. It came from the depths of his soul where he fellowshiped with the Father.
Peace and character go together. What we do depends a great deal on what we are. The secret of our Lord’s peace was his relationship to his Father. As he led his disciples from the upper room to the Garden, he said, “But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do” (John 14:31). He loved the Father, and therefore he trusted the Father. This gave him peace.
Jesus Christ was God manifested in human flesh. But when he was here on earth, he laid aside the independent use of his divine attributes and lived by faith in the Father. Satan tempted him to use his divine powers for himself, but he chose to trust the Father. Jesus lived and served as you and I must live and serve: trusting the Word, praying, depending on the Holy Spirit, and loving and trusting the Father.
Righteousness and peace go together. “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever” (Isa. 32:17). Our Lord’s first concern wasn’t peace; it was righteousness. “Peace at any price!” was a statement never found on his lips. Peace without righteousness would be victory for the forces of the evil one. Jeremiah wept over this kind of false peace: “They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14). During our Lord’s trial, the two enemies, Herod and Pilate, were made friends together, but it was a false peace because it wasn’t based on righteousness. “‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘to the wicked’” (Isa. 57:21).
If peace is the possession of adequate resources, then the building of character must be paramount in our lives, for character is our greatest resource. Whatever else people may have, if they don’t have character, they have nothing. Building character is the work of the Holy Spirit of God: “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. . . .” (Gal. 5:22). The Spirit wants to transform us to make us more like Jesus Christ. As we become more like him, the fruit of the Spirit is produced in our lives.
We’re prone to want God to change our circumstances, but he wants to change our character. We think that peace comes from the outside in, when in reality it comes from the inside out. Our hearts carry in them their own war or peace, depending on who is in control, Christ or self. Jesus Christ brings peace because he is peace. The more we become like him, the more we experience his peace and can share it with others.
Peace with God and Man
Being “Prince of Peace” involves not only his character, but also his cross: “having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20). Because of the cross, we can have peace with God (Rom. 5:1) and can also have peace with one another. Jesus has reconciled “all things to Himself. . .whether things on earth or things in heaven” (Col. 1:20).
This present evil world is falling apart like an old abandoned barn and certainly doesn’t need a definition of the word “reconcile.” What it needs is a demonstration of reconciliation in the lives of God’s people. Reconciliation represents the deepest longings of the human heart: “Bring us together again!”
Human history began with everything in harmony, and then sin entered and separated man from God. Before long man was separated from man as Cain killed Abel. Sin, the great divider and destroyer, moved through the human race until the earth was “filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11). God judged the world and wiped it clean, starting afresh with Noah and his family. But the poison was too deep in man’s system, for “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). It wasn’t enough to purge the tree of the bad fruit; something had to be done about the rotten roots.
It took God’s Son coming to earth to strike the final deathblow that conquered sin. At Bethlehem he was made flesh and entered the human race. At Calvary he was made sin and bore the iniquity of the human race in his own body. The cross is the great meeting place of sinners and a merciful God: “Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed” (Ps. 85:10). It took the blood of his cross to make peace between sinners and God, and one result of this peace with God is peace with one another. Once you’ve settled the war on the inside, you can start to settle the wars on the outside. “For He Himself is our peace,” writes Paul (Eph. 2:14). In Jesus Christ, sinners are reconciled to God and people are reconciled to one another.
You can trace this ministry of reconciliation in the Book of Acts. In chapter 8, the Ethiopian treasurer is converted, a son of Ham. In chapter 9, it is Saul of Tarsus who meets Jesus, and he was a son of Shem. In chapter 10, it is Cornelius and his household, Gentile children of Japheth, who believe on Jesus and receive the gift of the Spirit. All of these people became members of the family of God and the walls were broken down. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). It isn’t by accident that the cross is a plus sign, for it is God’s place of reconciliation, God’s place of peace.
Peace in His Companionship
Another factor in Christ’s ministry as “Prince of Peace” is his companionship. To those who love and trust him, his presence brings peace.
As you read the Gospel records, you can’t help but notice that the twelve apostles were often disturbed by one thing or another. You hear them asking, “Who is the greatest?” and “What shall we get?” Unlike their Master, they had unrest and war in their hearts. One day they met a man outside their group who was casting out a demon, and they tried to stop him! When a village refused hospitality to Jesus, the disciples wanted to send fire from heaven! Instead of being peacemakers, so often they were troublemakers. But before we judge them too severely, we’d better look at ourselves. How many times has our presence declared war?
The peace of his companionship is seen especially during those hours just before his arrest and crucifixion. To put it mildly, the disciples were torn apart by grief, confusion, and fear. Jesus had told them that he was leaving them to return to the Father. Then he informed them that one of their number was a traitor. When Peter tried to salvage the situation by affirming his loyalty and courage, a statement that must have heartened the other men, Jesus calmly informed Peter that he, too, would fail by denying the Lord three times! Everything the disciples had trusted was suddenly taken from them. No wonder Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled!” (John 14:1).
It was the companionship of the Master that helped to give peace. “Peace I leave with you,” he told them, “My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). You can go to a drugstore and buy tranquilizers, and perhaps go to a vacation spot and buy rest, but you can’t buy peace.
Peace is a gift; peace is a person who is a gift. His companionship brings peace. After those chaotic hours that followed his death, the disciples again met their Lord. He said to them, “Peace be with you!” (John 20:19). Then he showed them his hands and his side, because the gift of peace was purchased at the awful price of his own life. For the Christian, peace is not a shallow emotion based on feelings or circumstances. Peace for the believer is a deep confidence and joy based on the victorious work of Christ on the cross. It took his wounds to bring peace to a wounded world.
The fact that Jesus Christ arose from the dead and returned to the Father makes it possible for us to enjoy his companionship today. In heaven today, Jesus is our High Priest, our Melchizedek, our “king of righteousness. . .king of peace” (Heb. 7:1–3). At the cross, righteousness and peace kissed each other; on the throne, righteousness and peace reign through Jesus Christ. When he is your companion in life, you experience his peace. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me” (Ps. 23:4). “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God” (Isa. 41:10).
As we walk with Christ on the daily path, he gives us his peace through his Word. “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The companionship of Christ is not something that we try to manufacture; it’s something that we joyfully accept through the Word of God. He still speaks to his own through his Word, and as he speaks we find his peace filling our hearts. “I will hear what God the LORD will speak, for He will speak peace to His people and to His saints” (Ps. 85:8).
We must remember that God doesn’t give us his peace so that we may sit back and enjoy it in “spiritual luxury.” He gives us his peace so that we might be able to plunge ourselves into the tangled problems of a needy world and share Christ’s peace with those who are at war with themselves and with each other. This is what Paul termed “the ministry of reconciliation” (see 2 Cor. 5:14–21). When the “Prince of Peace” reigns in our lives, then the peace of God rules in our hearts (Col. 3:15). This makes us peacemakers in the ministry of reconciliation. Because Jesus is with us, we need not be afraid.
When Paul was experiencing difficulties in Corinth, the Lord came to him and said, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you. . . .” (Acts 18:9–10). When he was arrested in Jerusalem and it looked like his ministry was over, the Lord came to him and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome” (Acts 23:11). At the end of Paul’s ministry, as a prisoner in Rome facing death, he wrote to young Timothy, “At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. . . . But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. . . .” (2 Tim. 4:16–17). Paul found peace in the companionship of Christ, and so may we.
But companionship must be cultivated. Our Lord doesn’t want to be a divine lifeguard who is summoned only in emergencies. He wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives. He walked with Enoch and Abraham, and he wants to walk with us. He talked with Moses and David, and he wants to talk with us. He went into the fiery furnace with the three Hebrew children, and he wants to share our trials with us. “I will dwell in them, and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (2 Cor. 6:16).
What God desires from us is single-hearted devotion to him. It means that all we are and have belongs to him to use as he sees fit. “For to me, to live is Christ” is the way Paul described it (Phil. 1:21), and Peter said, “But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. . . .” (1 Peter 3:15 NASB).
Peace on Earth
Our Lord will climax his ministry as “Prince of Peace” at his second coming when he defeats his enemies and establishes his kingdom on earth. He could have brought “peace on earth” as was announced at his birth, but his people said, “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14). The announcement of “peace on earth” was a valid one. God didn’t fail; people did.
When the people rejected him, Jesus said, “Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division” (Luke 12:51). He wept over Jerusalem because they were ignorant of the things that made for their peace (Luke 19:41–42). There was no peace on earth, nor could there be, without him who is “Prince of Peace.” No wonder the Palm Sunday crowd shouted, “‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38). There was no peace on earth, but thanks to the cross there would be peace in heaven.
The only place you will find peace on earth today is wherever there is a little bit of heaven. There’s peace today in heaven, peace purchased by the blood of his cross. There’s peace in the hearts of his people who have come to that cross and experienced his salvation. But there will be no peace on earth until he returns and establishes his kingdom. “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isa. 9:7).
It is when the “Prince of Peace” is on his throne that the great promises of peace found in the Prophets will be fulfilled. The lion will lie down with the lamb. The nations will beat their swords into plowshares. Men will study war no more.
Meanwhile, we wait for his coming. And as we wait, we enjoy his peace and we share his peace with a troubled world around us. We love him; we labor for him; we look for him. We long for that day when he shall reign, and when the breathtaking promises of Psalm 72 will be fulfilled: “The mountains will bring peace to the people. . . . He shall come down like rain upon the grass before mowing, like showers that water the earth. In His days the righteous shall flourish, and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more” (vv. 3, 6–7).
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!