Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Second Sunday of Easter: Peace I Leave You, My Own Peace I Give You


Acts 5.27-32
Revelation 1.4-8
John 20.19-31
 
We can perhaps think of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus as his preparing his followers for a new way of living and being in the world.  Christ will, after all, not remain forever among his friends in his resurrected body; and so he is preparing them for life without him in the way in which they have become accustomed to experiencing him.  He is preparing them for what life will look and be like for them as they continue a different phase of their journey together after his ascension.  In this context, one is truck by how often and at what times Jesus uses the words, “Peace be with you.”  For example, it is a phrase which in the gospels Jesus uses only in post-resurrection accounts.  He uses it once in Luke — Luke 24.36 — and no less than three times in John, all within the space of eight verses.  This seems hardly coincidental.

The term “peace be with you” itself is a problematic grammatical construction, since in Greek — the language of the New Testament — we cannot easily distinguish between “peace be with you” and “peace is with you.”  The same is true in Latin.  In the Latin rite of the mass, Dominos vobiscum, can be either “the Lord be with you” or “the Lord is with you.”  So Jesus stands with his disciples and says, eirene umin  — “peace to you”, “peace with you.”  Now in rabbinic Hebrew, salom alekem (peace to you) was a common everyday greeting.  But in Biblical Hebrew the form is used more than simply within the context of everyday greeting.  In fact, some scholars of biblical Hebrew call instances of salom alekem in the Hebrew Scriptures a “formula for revelation”; that is its use precedes some important manifestation of the nature of God or of reality.  When we hear salom alekem we should pay close attention; something is important is going to be revealed.  And it is in this tradition that we can understand “peace be with you” in the post-ressurection accounts.  Jesus says three times in the gospel of John eirene umin—“peace to you”, “peace with you.”  Firstly, before he shows the gathered disciples his hands and side (John 20.20); secondly, before breathing on them and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20.22); and thirdly, before he says to Thomas,  “Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.  Do not doubt but believe.” (John 20.27)  Each of these events are in their own ways revelations; and each are heralded by this “formula of revelation”: eirene umin — “peace to you”, “peace with you.”  Here in the gospel of John, in each of these instances we are dealing with a solemn moment.  Jesus’ words are not an ordinary greeting.  At this moment his words are not a wish that peace be restored or granted, but a statement of fact.  To his disciples, and to us, Jesus is not just making a statement desiring our well-being, but rather confirming the reality that peace is with us — with his disciples, with you and me.  And in each case “peace be with you” is accompanied by a profound revelation.  Eirene umin: look at my hands and sides, the signs of suffering have been glorified, and peace achieved by the redemption of suffering.  Eirene umin: receive the Holy Spirit and know within yourselves that you carry the power to make peace through reconciliation: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20.23) Eirene umin: reach out boldly and with confidence to touch the glorified wounds, reach out bravely and engage with reality and find your peace in the acceptance of and creative interaction with what is. 

This is then the legacy which Jesus leaves his friends, and the legacy he leaves to us, — the legacy that peace is ours.  We are free from the necessity of fight or flight.  We do not need to fear our pain and disasters.  God has the power, and will to redeem even these, if we are faithful to the journey and walk it with integrity.  Here peace is with us.  We are free from our regrets and resentments.  We do not need to be trapped by them, holding tight to our injuries and hurts, allowing them to eat away at us, destroying and embittering us.  We have the power to forgive and to let go, we have the knowledge that in forgiving others comes our own salvation and freedom.  Here peace is with us.  We are free from having to hide from reality.  We do not have to be frightened into inaction by the conditions in which we live or the world as it is.  Our power lies in facing and touching the reality of our lives and of the lives of others.  When we do that we connect with what is; then, we can revel in it or work to change it.  Here peace is with us. Eirene umin.

Still, the peace Christ speaks about is not peace as the world understands it.  But, it is peace indeed, real peace, lasting peace.  In the gospel of John, Jesus on the night before he dies says to his friends: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” (John 14.27)  It is not peace as the world understands it, because the peace Jesus talks about does not utterly abolish struggle or uncertainty, pain or disappointment.  As I have mentioned in the past, the world’s idea of peace is usually merely a cessation of conflict and struggle at any cost.  That is the meaning the of the Latin word pax — conflict is understood as the norm, peace is merely the interval between conflicts.  But for people of integrity, peace must be so much more than that.  The peace which Jesus claims is ours is more like the Hebrew salom, whose meaning can probably be best described as “right relationship and harmony.”  Our peace lies in the knowledge that our disappointments and seeming defeats can be our glorification even in the midst of struggle.  Our peace lies in the ability to forgive, not because it makes us holy, so much as because it makes us whole.  Our peace lies in delving deeply into our world as it is, its wounds and its glories, and through them discovering how God may be working out the divine purposes.  It is in the context of those realities that we negotiate right relationship and harmony; we allow the events of our life to mould us and we learn to trust that by those very events God is working our God’s purposes for us.  That certainly is peace with us.  Being in right relationship of honesty, justice and integrity does not free us from conflict.  In fact, it is often worked out in the context of struggle, discussion and debate.  It is worked out in our willingness to forgive and even die to self.  It is worked out in our genuine engagement with reality.

With his words of peace Jesus is in fact heralding a new way to be and a new way of relating.  He says that peace is not the avoiding or ceasing of struggle, but the redemption of struggle and suffering.  Peace is not just patching over hurts and differences in ways that save face, but the power of genuine forgiveness which demands that we become agents of reconciliation and right relationship.  Peace is not creating a stressless and carefree haven from the world,  but it is the joy and difficulties which come from engaging with reality as it is.  The peace which Jesus proclaims is not simply a temporary rest from struggle, it is the attitude and commitment to life — our life, others’ lives, the life of the world.  It is the attitude and commitment to life that transforms situations and peoples, and thus is closely linked go the authentic Christian belief in resurrection  The peace which Jesus proclaims to already be with us is the peace which allows us to enter into and foster genuine right relationship and live our lives in genuine harmony, with integrity.  And doing that, not in spite of the difficulties and challenges which life affords, but with and through them.  It is the kind of peace which moves us to live a resurrected life — new life — right here and now.