It is still the Christmas season and contrary to current
culture the season begins on Christmas Day and goes on for twelve days. Thus,
the twelve days of Christmas take us through Epiphany, which is January 6th,
not the pre-Christmas sale season. Since we are still in the season it is okay
to talk about the meaning of “the season.” There has been much talk lately, due
the secularization of this holiday, to remember that Jesus is the reason for
the season. This causes much consternation with the secularists because
anything to do with Jesus is verboten. But, having come from a denomination
that claimed to be Christian yet held Jesus Christ to be optional, one has to
ask: “Which Jesus?” There are many neutered versions of Jesus that have nothing
to do with the Son of God whose birth we celebrate on December 25th.
This is especially true when he is labeled the “Prince of Peace.”
Having heard it read at Christmas each year, many of us can
recite Isaiah’s prophecy about the coming of the Christ-child. Isaiah 9:6 says:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be
on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace.” Now, he is called more than Prince of Peace but
that is the title that has come under much distortion. The notion of “peace”
has been so skewed that we cannot envision what it truly means. Since we live in
a fallen and tainted world we have never experienced true peace. There are many
definitions of peace that we may have experienced personally. Some from
Merriam-Webster are: a state of tranquility or quiet; harmony in personal
relations; a state or period of mutual concord between governments; a pact or
agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state
of enmity. But none of these go far enough to describe the peace that Jesus
brings. The Prince of Peace brings a peace that “transcends all
understanding.”(Philippians 4:7) It goes beyond our wildest imagination.
I cannot count the number of “peace treaties” that have been
entered into by warring factions during my lifetime, and I'm not really that
old (contrary to what my kids think!). Sometimes those treaties last a long
time and sometimes the ink doesn’t even dry before they start attacking each
other again. Either way, a cessation of hostilities, while one definition of
peace is not the peace we will experience when Jesus comes and ushers in his
kingdom. For many of us we just remember the Arab-Israeli conflicts and their
attempts at “peace.” Their hatred for each other – or at least the Arabs innate
hatred of Israel – makes true peace impossible. The animosity continues even
when the bombs and bullets aren’t flying. While they are not physically
attacking each other, the hatred remains. While there may be mutual concord
they are devising new ways to get retribution. The conflict is not occurring
externally but inwardly the battle rages on. What really happens is that people
try to pretend that everything is copasetic - the Rodney King gospel of “why
can’t we all just get along?” – but they are just waiting, hoping for an
opportunity to try to overwhelm and overpower the enemy. The opposition remains
because deep down they continue to be enemies. When one reads Jesus’ Sermon on
the Mount (Matthew 5-7) we find the rules for kingdom living, living in peace
with one another. It can be summed up as turning enemies into friends. That is when true peace is possible.
The prophet Isaiah gave us a vision of how this peace that
Jesus brings will finally be lived out on earth. In two different chapters he
gives us this picture of peace. Isaiah 11:6-7 tells us: “The wolf will live
with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion
and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed
with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like
the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child
put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all
my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as
the waters cover the sea.” And later in chapter 65, he says: “The wolf
and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but
dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my
holy mountain,” says the Lord.” (v. 25) Think back on any National
Geographic special about Africa or the wilds anywhere for that matter. How many
times have you had tears in your eyes because a young animal has become food
for another animal that is too ugly to appreciate? The picture Isaiah draws for
us is something that is humanly impossible. No human endeavor at peace could
ever achieve this kind of harmony in nature or civilization. But the animal
kingdom will one day live at peace and harmony together. I maintain that part
of the fall was having carnivores. And Isaiah 65 seems to add evidence to this
conclusion. It is hard to conceive of Isaiah’s perfect world when we look at the
world around us. A friend in seminary told us his dad, an overly educated man,
finally agreed that he saw no hope of man ever perfecting himself. It took the
collapse of the World Trade Center to bring him to that pronouncement.
Like much in this life, people are looking for peace in all
the wrong places. They want to have “the
peace that passes understanding,” without having the one person who is
capable of giving it, Jesus Christ. This is impossible and we have a whole
decade to prove it. The 1960’s were called the decade of peace. Many people
adhered to the mantra of making peace not war. (Some advanced the notion of
making love not war because that was easier to do than to make peace.) They
took John Lennon’s song “Imagine” as a sort of proto-Isaiah portrait of the
peace they so desired and wanted to work towards. “Imagine” is a sentimental version of peace. The song itself is certainly a godless version of
peace and fairly impractical. It is a partial truth because it does not take into consideration the underlying cause of the problems of the world: fallen
humanity. It is a partial truth because it does not consider the ultimate
solution: Jesus Christ. He is the peace that Isaiah foretold would come. While
the song contains some laudable objectives, many of which will one day happen,
they cannot be come into being apart from the person and work of Jesus Christ.
He will be the one who will bring about those achievements. St. Paul summed it
up perfectly. In his letter to the church at Ephesus he wrote, “For he
(Jesus) is our peace.” (2:14) He does not impart peace, teach peace or
inspire peace. He doesn’t preach about it, write about it or pontificate upon
it. He is it. He IS peace, he IS the Prince of Peace. It not just part of his
character, it is who he is. Looking for peace anywhere else or in anyone else
is futile. You can imagine all you want but it ain’t going to happen. The peace
we seek, we desire, is available in one and only one place, one person, Jesus
Christ. All other forms of peace are counterfeit and will not satisfy our
desire for peace. This Christmas you can find the “peace that passes
understanding.” But you can only find it in the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
This year, don’t imagine it, experience it!
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