Blessed are the Peacemakers

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

"It is the devil who is a troublemaker; it is God who loves reconciliation and who now through his children, and formerly through his only begotten Son, is bent on making peace."

John Stott

A couple of years ago I remember attending our daughter’s fifth grade basketball game. It was against another elementary school in our district - meaning these kids would all, eventually, be teammates playing for the same junior high and high school. There were two high school students, probably volunteers, serving as the referees and they had missed a few calls throughout the game.

The game was close and in the fourth quarter a traveling call was missed and one parent hollered some unkind words to the referee. Another parent, sitting about five seats away, told the angry father to sit down and shut up. He didn’t take that counsel and instead came up into the stands and threw a punch at the other parent. This all transpired four rows in front of me.

It never dawned on me that fifth grade basketball could be so important. Obviously, fifth grade basketball is not that important. A parent throwing a punch over a missed travel call by a teenage ref in an inter-district elementary basketball game is the epitome of stupidity. (Especially at a level where each game some confused girl will accidentally try to shoot a basket at the wrong rim oblivious to her coach’s, teammate’s, and parent’s screams and the fact she is all of a sudden wide open). If you have been around youth sports, I’m guessing you have your own horror story of angry fans (or you’ve been one yourself).

This is what the writer of Ecclesiastes means when he says there is “madness in [our] hearts” (Ecc. 9:3).

I recently had an interview where I was asked the regular background questions - personal history, work experience, strengths and weaknesses, etc. The only practical question I was asked was about how I would handle a situation where two individuals were fighting over some issue in the life of the church. It was clear the question came from past experience.

As a pastor, I would guess the most common cause of suffering in the four churches I have served has been some form of family estrangement where parents and children, husbands and wives, or brothers and sisters haven’t spoken to each other in years.

I am working from the understanding that the beatitudes of Jesus are descriptions of the characteristics that God is forming in us as followers of Jesus. They are, in that sense, Jesus’ version of the fruit of the Spirit.

The beatitudes are not descriptions of natural tendencies that some of us possess and others do not. They are not descriptions of the things we must do before we earn God’s love and forgiveness. Nor are they suggestions that we can take and leave as we see fit.

If we belong to Jesus, Jesus is in the process of making these characteristics belong to us.

In addition to the word “blessed” you could insert the phrase, “Jesus is making you….”

Blessed are the poor in spirit and Jesus is making you poor in spirit.

Blessed are the meek and Jesus is making you meek.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and Jesus is making you someone who hungers and thirsts for righteousness.

Blessed are the peacemakers and Jesus is making you a peacemaker.

If this is true, why does it seem like peacemaking (or any of the other beatitudes) is so rare in the church? Why is conflict so rampant?

What is Peacemaking?

Peacemaking is the ability to confront conflict in a way that is constructive, in a way that leads to reconciliation, transformation, and therefore peace.

Peacemaking is not avoiding conflict. My natural disposition is to avoid conflict. A couple of weeks ago I was coaching at a volleyball tournament and my team had to ref a match. Part of the referee duties is sitting at the scoretable and keeping the scorebook and scoreboard for the game. The girls at the desk were looking at their phones during the game which was against our policy. I let it slide. Why? Because I knew they’d get upset and I didn’t want to create conflict. But, that was not peacemaking. That was a failure to hold people accountable and neglecting my responsibility because I don’t like teenagers rolling their eyes at me. Peacemaking certainly may include overlooking something that is not a big deal, love covers a lot of sins. But, overlooking an offense wasn’t my primary motivation.

Peacemaking is entering into a conflict (not running from it) with the goal of bringing forth an outcome that brings glory to God, upholds justice and extends mercy.

These conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from?

Peacemaking is so rare because it inevitably requires people to “look not to [their] own interests but to the interest of others” (Philippians 2:4). And there’s the rub. We want to extend our own kingdoms. The people we are in conflict want to extend theirs.

When we are in a conflict and we are asked what the problem is, we almost always respond by pointing at the other guy (or gal, or group, or party).

“He always sits in front of that stupid t.v. watching the Cubs lose every night while I’m helping the kids with their homework and getting them ready for bed.”

“She works all the time. And when she is not at work, she’s at home working on work. We never do anything fun anymore.”

“He hit me first.”

I have never had someone in a conflict come to me and begin by saying, “You know what, I have been really self-centered here and have demanded my way in this situation. That was really insensitive to my wife’s point of view and I should probably consider her interests in this situation.”

If someone has arrived at that conclusion: (1) they are more mature than me and don’t need my counsel and (2) they probably are no longer in a conflict.

When we look to Scripture, what does it say about why conflicts arise?

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2 You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

James 4:1-3

James says that the conflicts and disputes come not from outside but from inside. They come from the cravings that are at war within us. We want things. We want co-workers that do their jobs. We want the 2021 model and not the 2015 version that is $15,000 cheaper. We want a vacation on a lake and not in the mountains. We want an evening of peace and quiet. We want a different president or a different governor or a different school board or a different salary. We want a better referee, or our daughter’s team to win or the coach to give her more playing time.

Now, wanting things is not inherently wrong. The things we want is part of what makes us who we are. We have different tastes and abilities and interests and that makes the world such a wonderful place. The problem is, our tastes, interests, and abilities become the most important thing. And with 7.6 billion people on the planet that is a lot of potential for conflicting desires.

The reason why it is so difficult to imagine how the current political divisions in our country, for example, can come to some form of constructive peace is because the assumption on every side is that the other group is the problem. I mean what would it even look like for one political party to say to the other, “You know what, we’ve really been myopically focused on our own agenda, why don’t we spend this next year trying to figure out how to move your’s forward?”

It’s laughable. This is not how the kingdoms of the world work.

But, guess what? Jesus came introducing a new kind of kingdom. If what we are called to as followers of Jesus looked exactly like the ways of the world then it wouldn’t really be a different kingdom, would it?

Just to be clear, looking to the interests of others does not mean indulging immorality. If someone else’s interest is immoral, illegal or destructive, peacemaking does not mean letting them have their way. Racism is racism. Abuse is abuse. Adultery is adultery. Money scams on the vulnerable are money scams on the vulnerable. Peacemaking doesn’t mean looking to the interests of the money scammer. In many cases, peacemaking means working towards justice or protecting victims from further harm. A pastor certainly can work towards reconciliation and peace in a domestic abuse case but it should happen after the offender is turned into the authorities and the victim is safe.

Where do we begin?

As I have mentioned in other posts in this series, I believe the beatitudes are characteristics that God is cultivating within us because ultimately they are characteristics that find their fulfillment in Jesus. He is the Prince of peacemaking.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.

Ephesians 2:13-14

This one passage in Ephesians points to the two ways Jesus brings peace. First, he has reconciled us to God at the cost of his own blood no less. And secondly, he has broken down the dividing wall between others (here, in context, between Jews and Gentiles).

Peacemaking is costly. It means considering the interests of others at least as important as our own. This goes against every fiber of our being. But, it is at the heart of the gospel. Jesus emptied himself, Paul says, and “humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). And he did it to make peace. He did it because he looked to your interests and not his own.

True peacemaking is never easy. It means, at least one, but most likely all parties involved have to deny themselves in one way or another. The temptation is always to say, “But what about the other guy...?” And, it is true, if the other party is a follower of Jesus they too should look toward your interests and not just their own. But, if you're going to sit around and wait for them to do that before you make the first move, then I’d venture to guess peace will remain allusive. I think we begin by taking the first step. We have no control over what others will do, which is scary. But we can trust that when Jesus spoke these beatitudes he was well aware of the costs involved and how it sounds like foolishness in the world in which we live and he will be with us as we learn to walk out in faith.

Jesus had 7.6 billion current reasons (and billions more before us) to say, “But what about…?” The great good news is that he didn’t. And when we trust that the way of Jesus is both best and possible (because of his grace and Spirit at work within us) then we too can begin to be makers of peace in a world of conflict.

Blessed are the peacemakers.