What Child Is This? Prince of Peace

The Christmas story proclaims that the Christ will bring peace on earth. Oh, really? Where is it, anyway? This sermon might help you think about the answer.

Of all the names that we give to the Messiah, surely the one that strikes a chord closest to our hearts is the Prince of Peace. Peace is what we yearn for most deeply; and peace always seems to be in the shortest supply. Violence, not peace, is what usually surrounds us. I subscribe to a periodical titled The Week. It is a summary of recent news events in the opinions of a wide variety of columnists. Reports of violence can be found on nearly every page. In a recent issue, the cover story highlighted the riots in Ferguson, Missouri following the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer. The issue also mentioned a Japanese woman who has allegedly poisoned four husbands; 28 bus passengers who were slaughtered in Kenya by an Islamic extremist group; and 43 student teachers in Mexico who disappeared and are presumed dead following their participation in a demonstration against drug cartels. And we delude ourselves if we think that this kind of violence will stay away from our own back yards. You may have heard about the military veteran who recently murdered his ex-wife and five members of her family in small towns just north of Philadelphia. My husband’s sister and brother-in-law live in a home just a block away from one of those murders.

Yes, we long for peace, but it eludes us. We read Isaiah’s description of the peaceful kingdom in which the lion and the lamb lie down together, and we shake our heads in dismay, because that’s not the world in which we live. Woody Allen once quipped, “The lion might lie down with the lamb, but the lamb won’t get much sleep!” We frequently don’t get much sleep, either. Like the lamb, we lie down with one ear listening for the tones of the smoke detector, the weather alert, or the security alarm. We don’t have much of that peace that the Messiah promises us. Where is it, anyway?

A part of the answer to that question is that the peaceful kingdom of the Messiah is on the way, but it hasn’t arrived in its fullness yet. Every now and then, if we pay attention, we might catch a glimpse of it peeping through the violence of our world. We see it when, for example, Palestinian Arab and Israeli Jew become friends, and work together for peace in their little corner of that troubled part of the world. But those glimpses of the kingdom are usually obscured by the violence and suffering around them. No, the peaceful kingdom of the Messiah that God has promised isn’t here yet, although we pray every day for its arrival.

But the delay of the peaceful kingdom isn’t the whole picture when we talk about God’s peace. The very definition of “peace” itself is a problem. We mostly define “peace” as political peace – the absence of war. If that’s the case, then Jesus’ lifetime during the height of the Roman Empire was one of the most peaceful eras in human history. That peace was called the Pax Romana, the “Roman peace.” It was enjoyed everywhere the Romans governed, throughout the whole civilized world. And it is true that few wars broke out during that time in history. But if we dig deeper, we find that the Romans maintained that peace through a system of violent punishments. Lawbreakers were subject to whipping, imprisonment in a dungeon, or even crucifixion. Oh, the Roman Empire may have been at peace, but that peace was a thin veneer over a system of legal violence. The Romans claimed that they had established “peace on earth,” but it certainly wasn’t peaceful for everyone! Surely this isn’t the kind of peace that the Messiah offers us!

So let’s suppose for a moment that political peace isn’t the only kind of peace around. What if the Messiah offers us a peace that is deeper and more profound than a peace that any government could supply? What if the peace that the Messiah promises us isn’t outside us, but inside us – inside our hearts and minds and souls? What if the peace that can carry us through all the difficulties of our daily living is an inner peace? What would that kind of peace look like? For that answer, we don’t need to look any farther than a newborn baby cradled in its mother’s arms. That newborn child is the very picture of God’s peace. His head rests comfortably on his mother’s shoulder, and his sleep is undisturbed. He isn’t worried about a thing! He rests safe and secure in the embrace of his loving mother. Now, that child won’t always be happy. Sometimes he will be cold, hungry, or in pain. But through all those things, his mother will be right there next to him, nourishing and protecting him when she can, and holding his hand when she can’t. That child can be absolutely certain that his mother will never leave him, not even for a second; and because of that certainty, he is filled with peace.

That peace can be ours, too, when we realize that because God was born to us in the person of Jesus Christ, God will never abandon us! God’s peace can be ours when we realize that all the names of the Messiah are true. He is the Dayspring, the One who floods us with the light of truth, and lights our path wherever it might lead us. He is the Key of David, the One who liberates us from all the chains that we wind around ourselves. He is Emmanuel, God with us, the One who has promised to be with us forever, both in this life and in the next. And when we are filled with the peace of the Prince of Peace, nothing in this world can threaten us! Trouble can’t disturb us. Neither can hardship or persecution or hunger or nakedness or danger or even war. That’s how Paul describes the peace that he found in Christ in his letter to the Romans (8:35). Nothing can take God’s peace away from us once it has filled our lives. Oh, we’ll still be frustrated and angry and upset now and then. We’ll still weep and mourn and suffer, because that’s part of life until God’s kingdom comes in fullness. But that foundation of peace assures us of God’s loving presence – a presence that we’ll never lose. In the end, God’s peace is what allows us to stand against all the evil that disturbs the peace of the world. The certainty that God is with us is what enables us to state “This is wrong!” when we witness injustice around us. The peace that the Prince of Peace offers us gives us the courage to resist violence of every kind. We can reject greed and prejudice and hatred when we are filled with peace. Peace leads to peace. You can rely on it.

Where is the peace that the Prince of Peace gives us? First it must be in us, and then it can be around us; and Christ offers it to every one of us, free of charge. In the gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.” This is the gift of Christmas – the peace that passes all understanding and the Savior who gives it to us. Thanks be to God!