He is Our Peace

Peace 5

 

          Paul loved peace. He loved when the Lord brought it to him and when the Lord used him to bring it to others. He knew its blessings inside and out, and he desired such blessings for all of God’s people. In his peerless epistle to the Ephesian church he opens with it and closes with it. Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1.2, 6.23). He also dwells on it extensively in between.

          In his day, there was tremendous discord between the Jews and the Gentiles. This was caused by the anti-Semitism of the Gentiles and the racial/religious superiority of the Jews. This racial tension is repeatedly illustrated in the Gospels, and nearly destroyed the Early Church. When Paul would go into a city to start a church he would go first to the synagogue. If he could convert men to Christ there he could be way ahead in the church planting game. Such men knew the Bible, were loyal to it, and generally lived lives of charactered accomplishment. The problem, in this context, is that all those men were Jewish. And Paul was not about to limit his church plant to Jewish converts. Ergo, as he reached Gentiles and brought them into the new church too fireworks would ensue.

          So how does Paul address it?

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh (Ephesians 2:14–17).

          What is the solution to a racially motivated church split? Get both sides to Christ as fast as possible for He is their peace.

          If I have a piano that is in tune with a pitch pipe, and an organ in tune with the same pitch pipe, then the piano and organ will be in tune with each other. The same thing is true of a marriage, of a friendship, of the parent/child relationship, of the pastor/people relationship, of every relationship. If both sides would get in tune with Christ they would be in tune with each other. They would be at peace.

          The problem that inevitably comes in at this point is this: it is impossible for me to ensure that the other party in a fuss will come to Christ. I can come, but I cannot make them come. They can come, but they cannot make me come. Relationships are peaceful ones when both sides are rightly related to Christ. He is our peace. But what do you do when one side of the relationship is not rightly related to Him?

          I propose to you the answer is still the same – He is our peace.

          Allow me to illustrate.

          Music, especially classical music, is peaceful to me. I listen to a lot of it. Violins play a large part in most classical music, and the most expensive violins come from the little town of Cremona, Italy. There, in the early 1600s, a man named Nicolo Amati, who came from a long line of distinguished violin makers, took on two apprentices. Those apprentices, Andrea Guarneri and Antonio Stradivari, would eventually establish the best violin making shops in the world.

          In 1791, a German nobleman, Count Trauttmansdorf, who had heard music played upon one of these famous Cremona violins, sought to buy one but was rebuffed. Although he offered fabulous sums, he could not find one for sale anywhere. Some weeks later, an unknown man carrying a rather worn and shabby violin case appeared at the count’s castle, seeking admittance. When the servants refused him he said, “Tell your master that heaven’s music is waiting at his door.” The count agreed to receive him.

Upon entering the count’s presence, the old man took from his case a gracefully aged violin. It had been made in the early 1600s by Jacob Stainer, also a student of Nicolo Amati, and a peer of Guarneri and Stradivari. Picking up the bow, the old man played so beautifully Count Trauttmansdorf offered to purchase the Stainer violin on the spot. The old man countered with a curious offer. He agreed to sell the violin but only if the count agreed to let him play it once a day for the rest of his life.

Over the next two weeks, they hammered out a deal. The count agreed to pay the nominal sum of $150 at once, shelter for life, free light and wood, one new suit of clothes and two barrels of beer a year, a half-bushel of wheat and three dollars every month, a measure of wine daily, and all the rabbits the old man could eat. In exchange, the old man played that Italian Stainer violin every day for the count and continued to do so for twenty years until his death in 1811.

When Christ comes in, He brings with Him Heaven’s music. No, I may not now or ever be at peace with someone on the other side of a relationship. But with Christ in me, the hope of glory, I contain peace for He is my peace.

If you have Him you have peace. Around you? Not necessarily. Between you and someone else? Hopefully, if you both walk in tune with Him. In you? Absolutely.

Regardless of what is going on around you, bid Him speak peace to your soul. Most assuredly, He will.