‘Peace be with you’ are familiar words from Jesus as we share God’s peace with each other. We seek it in our prayers for peace for the world and the church in these troubled, chaotic times. However, I wonder if you ever think about the quality and character of the peace you share.
Peace is not simply an absence of violence or conflict but is an active outworking of God’s Word in the world, speaking into the new creation emerging from the finality of the cross and the brutality of the state-sanctioned murder of Jesus. Peace is resurrection and the new creation in action in a world filled with hope.
Peace is not about forgetfulness, or a superficial acknowledgement of ‘everything is ok’. Nor is peace held in silent resentment or fury at broken relationships and hurts not yet forgiven. Nor is peace present in demands for absolute perfection. Shalom, the Hebrew word for ‘peace’ is considered in the Talmud as one of God’s sacred names, and we as Christians also teach this. Shalom reminds us, it is in God where we find absolute fulfilment, joy and delight, wholeness and flourishing. It is the way things should be and in which God delights. So, what does it mean when God says, ‘Peace be with you’? (John 20:19) Are you changed by this gift from God? Peace stands in complete contrast to fear and hatred, conflict and violence, so can you even imagine it and work for it?
The doors of the house and the room where the disciples are gathered are firmly closed on the day of the resurrection. (John 20:19) It is the first day of the new week, and the disciples are in hiding. The story implies the disciples have not believed Mary with her news of Jesus’ resurrection. They have not gone looking for Jesus. They have not remembered Jesus’ instructions, they are frightened.
It makes me wonder where fear has also taken us and how we respond in the face of political, social, cultural, oppressive powerful violence today, as peace is rejected. I am still outraged at how we continue to scapegoat and kill Jesus daily with everyone who doesn’t fit our expectations: our black deaths in custody, our rejection of the LGBTQI+ community, refugees, the poor and unemployed, women, people living with disability and other races – Palestinians and Jews, Ukranians and Sudanese, different tribes and nations.
We are reminded God made every person in God’s image. God did not make spare people for us to blame and kill in anger. God made us with love and for peace. When we scapegoat and kill with words, or physical, spiritual and emotional violence we diminish God’s creation and remove opportunities for someone to flourish and experience wholeness in God; and we are diminished by our actions.
Often, our response to injustice is violent. Like the disciples, it is a response filled with rejection, guilt, shame, violence and betrayal. We make decisions we regret as we hurt and blame and kill the ‘other’. We hold peace to ransom, if in our search for justice we turn back into the darkness demanding scapegoats and punishments. Our anger is righteous and our demands are clear but if we’re not filled with God’s peace, we remain part of the problem rather than the solution. I have also been reflecting on Thomas, the one disciple who I think saw Jesus and the implications of his ministry of peace most clearly among all the disciples towards the end. You may recall it was Thomas who recognised this when Jesus visited Mary and Martha after Lazarus died.
Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him. (John 11:16)
Just as it was with the first disciples, there is no easy way for us to escape the consequences of following Jesus. Thomas knew raising Lazarus from the dead would bring down the violent wrath of the authorities and put their lives in jeopardy. The disciples’ fears were realistic. The collusion between the religious authorities and the Roman Empire destroyed Jesus. The disciples knew they would be on the list of suspects if there was further trouble. We know if we actively pursue God’s message of justice, love and peace in the world, we too will be crucified with Christ. However, we now find ourselves in this liminal space after Jesus is raised, this in-between time, between resurrection and ascension where our old values and insights are changed and we see Jesus differently. Thomas was ahead of us. He knew the peace shared by Jesus is something else entirely new. (John 20:24-29)
For God’s peace to be actively present in the world means understanding we are invited into a new life, which will encompass the suffering, grief and fear present in this life, the courage and trust growing in God as a disciple. Thomas does not want to see a perfectly restored, unmarked Jesus in the flesh, as though the past had been wiped out and never occurred. He wants to see Jesus bearing the marks of torture and pain. He wants to know it was real. It did happen. It wasn’t a fairy story with a quick fix, which would be a travesty of peace and love. God’s peace offered by Jesus only makes sense if the wounds are still there, the marks of pain transformed by love, plain for all to see; and the quality of God’s peace means we can believe against all the evidence, God’s peace is real and forever.
Peace only makes sense if we let go of cruelty, violence, fear, betrayal and hatred and we experience this in our bodies in response to Jesus’ love for us, for all humanity. Our cries of ‘why’ and ‘how could this happen’ are brought into silence as we see Jesus quietly, lovingly keeping us company in our pain, our constant companion as he reveals God’s love in spite of the hatred in the world. There is nothing else we can do. We are brought undone, and so our own days of abusive, oppressive power and violence are ended. We value God’s peace if we can experience love and forgiveness by those sharing the peace. Our willingness to share Jesus’ peace even if rejected is the transformation into a new creation Jesus is teaching us.
Thomas, like Mary Magdalene are extraordinary witnesses to this new creation, embodied in Jesus’ death, resurrection and sharing of peace. Mary stood at the foot of the cross witnessing to the violence done to Jesus and his suffering. The women did not demand vengeance or give up, rather they actively followed Jesus to the end and were still there, present, at the birthing of the new beginning.
Thomas, with the women, recognised the difference in the shalom, the peace being shared by Jesus. With his hands in Jesus’ wounds Thomas falls to his knees, as he sees and knows Jesus is with us till the end: ‘My Lord and my God!’ (John 20:28). As with Thomas and Mary, Jesus invites us to let go of our hurt, our betrayals, our grief and pain and to share in God’s peace.
Peace be with you.
