“Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (5:9). Peace must be made. Have you considered that? Peace isn’t simply already there. What’s already there is sin. Oh, here we go again on the sin! Do we have to hear about sin all the time? Alienation from God, distance from God, absence of love for, belief in, or interest in God—sin. Peacemakers are children of God because they do work after the heart of their Father in heaven.

The Father sent the Son to be our peacemaker, to reconcile us to God through atonement. The damage our sin has caused must be paid for: that’s justice. Have you ever considered the damage your sins have caused? Could you truly tally the damage? Christ, taking our death on the cross, paid for the damages we have caused. His sacrifice atones: his blood for our blood, his life for ours. That’s love; that’s grace. When the Spirit makes faith in us and we believe that the death of Jesus atones for our sins, the righteousness of Christ becomes fully available to us: oh, the depths, the abundance, the beauty and glory of Christ’s righteousness!

When we do the work of peacemaking, we can know and help others to see that we who have faith in Christ are living by the righteousness of Christ. To be a peacemaker is to be doing God work: God wants there to be peace, among us and between Him and us. In these times of hostility, suspicion, and estrangement, peacemakers have their work cut out for them. All the calls and cries not to be haters, yet how often it seems those calling are themselves brimming over with hostility, loathing, and wrath. Oh, the loathing can have the veneer of humor, but the hostility remains palpable. Hate is infectious: worse than coronavirus. Hate isn’t the unique property of those deplorable Republicans. Hate seems to be the accent I hear among self-avowed or secretly-avowed Democrats more than I would like to hear—not that they’d ever admit to it. It’s righteousness, virtue, hating what decent human beings are supposed to hate, and with perfect hatred.

If we’re going to learn what peace really is, we’re first going to have to figure out that the world can’t teach us. If we’re going to learn what peace really is, we’re going to have to turn to God, to God’s Word, and to the power of God for salvation: Jesus Christ. We’re going to have make that turn in humility, confessing our ignorance, our weakness, and our need. Important as peace among ourselves is, the only durable, solid, true foundation for that peace is peace with God, being reconciled to God. That reconciliation opens the floodgates of grace. That peace is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who comes to us to change us not to leave us as we are or just a better version of who we are right now. God loves us just as we are—oh, yes! And He loves us too much to let us stay that way.

Peace comes with a changed mind, a changed heart—the church word for this is penitent—a soul being renewed in Christ. This is the peace Christ leaves with us, gives to us, peace that the world, events, others, can’t take away. Peace comes with repentance. We repent of our sins. It’s not a sin to be a Democrat—smug, angry, self-righteous people though they are. It’s not a sin to be a Republican—horrible, shameful, hateful people though they are. Penitence reminds us that we are smug, angry, self-righteous, horrible, shameful, hateful people, like everyone else. And until we believe this . . .

Peacemaking is an active ministry. We are called to be peacemakers every day. To be a peacemaker requires attention and intention, and, always, prayer. To be a peacemaker is to reject what is against the only peace, God’s peace: shalom, that sense of deep well-being—it is well with my soul. This depth of soul wellness is what God calls Christians to try to offer—offer repeatedly, diligently, patiently, lovingly—to those around us. Some won’t want it. Some may want it, but only on their own terms. And others will reach out for it as for life itself, the gift of life, finally arrived after all the waiting, the pain, the sorrow, and the hopelessness.

We won’t be able to offer this sacred peace, peace from God, if we’re doling out hate on the side. Every disciple needs a thick skin: the world wants to wound us. Every disciple needs to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus, who knows us fully in all our sins, loves us fully in righteousness, who makes the way open for us to know his love fully and to love him fully. We refuse that love when we refuse righteousness, or when we will take the righteousness of God only on our own terms, as though our way was the right way . . . well, right for us, anyway. My truth isn’t yours; your truth isn’t mine. Beloved, the only truth is the truth of God. Scripture tells us this truth. I am not truth, and I don’t have truth. You are not truth, nor do you have truth. God alone has truth, and, in Christ Jesus, God gives us truth. Through the power of the Spirit, we begin to live in, by, and for truth.

And what does that get us, here in this life, this world, these times? Rejection, revulsion. “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness” (5:10). Blessed are those actively striving to be peacemakers, actively striving to follow God’s way, rather than the ways of the world, social, cultural, economic, or political. And when we try, when, on occasion, we do live differently, do live according to God’s ways, what victory He gives us, what joy! And what a beating we receive, from this world of ours—though, in Christ, we are no longer of this world. How quickly we neglect this truth, too.

We know that there is hostility towards Christianity and Christians. In North Korea, if it’s discovered or suspected that you are a Christian, off to prison camp you go. There is no official recognition of Christianity in Afghanistan, which means there is no legal status, which means there is no protection for a Christian under the laws of that country. In Pakistan, Christians are condemned to death for blasphemy. In Sudan, they’re demolishing churches. In India, Hindu nationalists make Christians one of their targets. And there are those who speak of the United States as though it has become a latter-day Nazi regime!

Beloved, the question has always been what we want more. The question has always been who we want most: even in the Garden of Eden, and ever since.  And the answer we gave, and the answer we still give all too often, is us, our way, our own sense of right and wrong, true and false, good and bad. We can write our own law. We can write our own story.

Those persecuted for righteousness are not being persecuted because they chose to write their own story. They are being persecuted because they confess that the Bible tells the story, the truth: the Bible, and not our fevered fleshly fantasies, is the map of reality.

What happens when you tell someone that he or she is wrong, seriously wrong, even dead wrong? Turn your eyes upon Jesus, and you’ll see.

I mentioned some especially sad corners of the world. Being Christian there is the fast track to persecution. What about closer to home? There is truth in what William Barclay says, that “[t]here are so many of us who have never in our lives made anything like a real sacrifice for Jesus Christ.”[1] I don’t say our society actively persecutes Christians. Still, there does seem to be an undercurrent, a tone of hostility to Christianity and to Christians—well, Christians of a certain sort, you know: the wrong kind of Christians.

You had better not be a practicing Christian, that is, a serious Christian, if you’re going into politics or a politically-appointed position. But who aspires to that? You and I know—and you yourself might even believe—that it would be a problem if an “evangelical” were nominated to some high office. And you and I know that it would be no problem if a Presbyterian were nominated—we’re safe: the right kind of Christian, fully on board! We don’t let faith get in the way of living with our preferred powers and thrones. You had better not be a practicing, that is, a serious Christian on a university campus, as a student and certainly not as faculty. It probably will not be an advantage to you—a worldly, material advantage, I mean—to be a serious Christian at work. About the only place you can safely be a serious Christian is home, and maybe not even there.

How many things people have gotten themselves deeply interested, invested in protecting that are contrary to the values of God, contrary to Scripture. They remake God’s Word to cover their interests, or they walk away from God. The peacemaking continues, a daily, active ministry.

In these times more than since I can’t recall when, Christians (well, the wrong sort of Christians, you know) are regarded by the powers and thrones of our society and culture as hateful haters, people who say ugly, hurtful things. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me” (5:11). Jesus hasn’t become a hater, yet, but his followers—well, the wrong sort of followers, you know—are now labeled that way. We certainly are not intentionally hateful or ugly about our beliefs, but when a power bloc redefines our beliefs as the definition of hatefulness and ugliness, we find ourselves in a difficult place! What do we do, then?

We can deny our beliefs. “Oh, that’s not what I believe! Real Christians don’t believe that! Not my Christianity. Not my Bible.” We can redefine our beliefs: good is now bad, and wrong is the new right. What’s that catchphrase for a change in favor of the world’s ways: our thinking is “evolving”? Or, we can affirm our beliefs in the most God-honoring and Scripture-honoring way we know how. That will lead to further persecution, because the goal of persecution is either to silence us, to cause us to adopt the beliefs of the power bloc (whatever name they may permit us to keep for ourselves), or to remove us from the scene, like in Sudan, bulldozing church buildings, or Afghanistan, making Christians into invisible people, or North Korea, filling prison camps by the month, or the circus in ancient Rome, where the lions had plenty of meat and the crowds roared.

“Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven” (5:12). What you sacrifice here for God is no loss! Do you seek the regard of the world? Do you seek the approval, the accolade and benediction of those the world regards as wise, powerful, popular, right? Jesus didn’t promise an easy way to acceptance by the world. He promised a blessed way to eternal life, reconciled and at peace with God. The world wants none of that and wants you to have none of that. What do you want more? Who do you want, most? “[I]n the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (5:12) Those prophets were called, claimed, and sent by God. They knew full well they were being sent to people indifferent at best, lethally hostile at worst. The prophets heeded God’s call, no matter the personal cost. How right Barclay was: “There are so many of us who have never in our lives made anything like a real sacrifice for Jesus Christ.” More’s the pity. And what would happen if the opportunity came, if we should be called upon to demonstrate our loyalty to Christ above all else?

And to Jesus Christ, who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests of his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

               [1] William Barclay. Gospel of Matthew. Vol. 1 Daily Study Bible. Philadelphia: Westminster P, 1975. 115.