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<\/a>Matthew 5:9 reads, \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God\u201d (ESV). This verse is one of the most quoted lines of the Beatitudes, but that does not mean it is the best understood. In fact, it has been misprinted, as in the second edition of the Geneva Bible. There it reads, \u201cBlessed are the placemakers.\u201d Monty Python took the liberty of people in the crowd mishearing Jesus\u2019 words for a few good laughs in Life of Brian<\/em>\u2014\u201c\u2026Blessed are the cheesemakers\u201d (Refer here<\/a> to the scene).<\/p>\n The problem goes beyond misprinting or mishearing the statement. Perhaps the Romans listening in or reading Jesus\u2019 words thought he had Rome\u2019s peace\u2014the Pax Romana<\/em>\u2014in mind. After all, as Douglas R. A. Hare notes, Jesus uttered these words during the Pax Romana<\/em>, when Rome had established peace and brought to an end small wars between various peoples, ended pirating, and diminished greatly highway banditry. However, its forces could not establish the Shalom that the Jewish Scriptures envision: \u201charmonious cooperation aimed at the welfare of all.\u201d[1] Going further, Augustus\u2019 reforms, known as the Roman peace, lasted a few hundred years and achieved a great deal for the Roman Empire politically, economically, and socially. Augustus sought to establish Rome as a capital for the entire world and instructed the Romans to view their destiny as that of all humanity. As one online source put it, \u201cThey were the chosen people who would bring peace and stability to a violent and changing world.\u201d[2]<\/p>\n I always get a bit fearful when someone or some group takes it upon themselves to establish peace, especially by violent and oppressive force, like the Romans did. Rome created incredible turmoil to bring about its envisioned Messianic peace. Jesus did not have in mind the Pax Romana<\/em> (peace of Rome) but the Pax Christi<\/em>, which is the eschatological fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures\u2019 emphasis on Shalom. As J\u00fcrgen Moltmann claims, Jesus confronts the Roman rule of retribution by way of redemption, grace, and the cross.[3]<\/p>\n Perhaps the Zealots understood Jesus\u2019 words to entail the removal of the Pax Romana<\/em>\u2014by violent force (See this Jewish Encyclopedia<\/em> account<\/a> of the Zealots). After all, Jesus claimed to be the Son of Man, the long-awaited Messiah or Christ. And yet, why would he establish his rule by way of the cross, and why would he take a tax collector like Matthew\u2014the author of this gospel\u2014into his inner circle along with Simon the Zealot? Tax collectors were traitors among the Jewish people who did the bidding of Rome in collecting taxes and making a great profit in the process at the expense of their countrymen. While Matthew left his tax collector booth behind (Luke 5:27-28), he did not become a Zealot, but Jesus\u2019 disciple which involves an alternative or counter-kingdom order to what Romans and Zealots envisioned respectively. Jesus\u2019 view of peace does not resonate well with Roman or Zealot peace (See Jesus\u2019 words later in this very chapter\u2014Matthew 5:38-49; note also that when given the opportunity to resist by force, Jesus rebukes Peter for cutting off his would-be captor\u2019s ear with a sword, heals the ear, and goes willingly with his would-be captors, ever in full control of all the proceedings (Luke 22:47-53; John 18:1-11). Jesus\u2019 peace does not resonate with tax collector peace either; for Jesus tells his followers not simply to love those who love them\u2014which even the tax collectors do\u2014but also to love their enemies (See Matthew 5:46).<\/p>\n It is not just the Romans, Zealots or tax collectors that can miss what Jesus is trying to say. All of us can miss it. All too often, we function like the characters in the Monty Python movie noted earlier. We may not mishear Jesus to say, \u201cBlessed are the cheesemakers.\u201d Rather, we might be like some of the others in the crowd who for whatever reason fail to apply what Jesus says; instead, we start fighting rather than make peace with one another, or depart for a stoning, like the woman (Brian\u2019s mother) who finds a stoning more entertaining or meaningful than listening to Jesus. Some of us might operate like the religious leader in the crowd who says we should not take cheese making literally (\u201ccheese making\u201d can refer to any dairy manufacturer); those of us who follow this religious leader\u2019s example do the same thing with peacemaking\u2014we think Jesus wants for us to take \u201cpeacemaking\u201d figuratively.<\/p>\n But Jesus does want us to take his words literally. We are to be peacemakers. While we do not initiate peace with God\u2014since God must be (and is) the one who initiates and reconciles us to himself, we are to respond affirmatively and be reconciled to God.[4] Following from being reconciled to God, we are to initiate and seek peace with one another. Indeed, peace with God that is established by God\u2019s rule in our lives through the Pax Christi<\/em> (peace of Christ) entails the effort to be at peace with our fellow humans. We must never separate reconciliation with God from reconciliation with neighbor. Matthew\u2019s Gospel emphasizes both aspects, as does Luke\u2019s Gospel. In the latter gospel, the chief tax collector Zaccheus makes peace with others by making amends for his wrongs against them, showing that salvation has come to his house and that he is a \u201cson of Abraham\u201d (Luke 19:1-10).[5] Peacemaking entails more than simply avoiding war with others or being \u201cpeaceful;\u201d it involves making<\/em> peace with people.[6]<\/p>\n There is nothing passive about making peace. It is hard, active work. It is God\u2019s ongoing activity, as he reconciles the world to himself through his Son. God truly views those who make peace as his sons and children, as we make peace (Matthew 5:9 and 5:44-45 make a connection between \u201ceschatological sonship and peace-making.\u201d[7] Children copy what their parents do.<\/p>\n Think of Isaiah, who was truly a son of Abraham. As such, he was a bearer of God\u2019s tidings of peace. In the\u00a0previous blog post in this series\u2014\u201c\u2018Blessed are the pure in heart\u2019\u2014not the double-minded and those with cloudy vision,\u201d<\/a> I referred to Isaiah as one who became a bearer of God\u2019s good news of peace and joy, when God cleansed him (See Isaiah 6). He exhorted the people in his day to be reconciled to God. The book of Isaiah declares, \u201cHow beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, \u2018Your God reigns\u2019\u201d (Isaiah 52:7; cf. Romans 10:15). The tragic irony is that the rulers and people ultimately rejected Isaiah\u2019s message and him; tradition tells us that he was sawn in two (Hebrews 11:37) by the order of Manasseh king of Judah.[8] Like father, like son\u2014Isaiah is a peacemaker like God. Or to put it in other terms, like God\u2019s Messiah, like his prophets. It is no coincidence that in the very next beatitude Jesus declares that those who are persecuted for righteousness\u2019 sake will be blessed\u2014the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Like Isaiah and other prophets of old, Jesus\u2019 peacemaking followers bear witness to Jesus, the prince of peace; they are persecuted for it (Matthew 5:10-12).<\/p>\n Not everything that passes for peace functions as a form of God\u2019s peace. God\u2019s peace involves God\u2019s reign, as Isaiah 52:7 referenced above makes clear. Not everyone wants God\u2019s reign. God\u2019s peace revealed in Jesus\u00a0disturbs unjust tranquility. The prophets of old who foreshadowed Jesus also disturbed unjust tranquility. Further to what was said above,\u00a0God\u2019s righteous\u00a0prophets of old told the rulers of Israel and Judah that calamity would befall them for their unjust dealings. There would be no peace no matter how much the rulers of the people\u00a0wished or declared it because they did not obey God by following his Law, which involved justice for the people and the land. The rulers did not like hearing the message of the prophets that called them to repent and enter into God\u2019s kingdom Shalom. As a result, those in power persecuted the godly prophets like\u00a0Isaiah and Jeremiah. Like them, we will be persecuted for calling for God\u2019s peace to replace an unjust peace.<\/p>\n In closing, it is important to note that opposition and persecution are not always overt. Opposition can take the form of moderation\u2014moderates often prefer order to justice.[9] Just think of Martin Luther King, Jr\u2019s situation. King was jailed for confronting unjust laws of segregation with justice; he was imprisoned for disturbing the peace\u2014an unjust peace; the preachers of Birmingham confronted him for it. We will close with a portion of his prophetic rejoinder in his \u201cLetter from a Birmingham Jail\u201d<\/a> written in 1963:<\/p>\n I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro\u2019s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen\u2019s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to \u201corder\u201d than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: \u201cI agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action\u201d; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man\u2019s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a \u201cmore convenient season.\u201d Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Many of us may promote injustice by preferring a negative peace, which is the absence of tension. But King knew that justice often requires tension: \u201c\u2026 I am not afraid of the word \u2018tension.\u2019 I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.\u201d Perhaps this is the means through which we can harmonize Jesus\u2019 blessing the peacemakers and his bringing a sword of some kind (See Matthew 10:34)? Regardless, we must not harmonize injustice with peace.<\/p>\n Do we avoid tension for the sake of order even if it puts justice on hold? There\u2019s something very cheesy about such peace. Those who avoid tension for the sake of order apart from justice are not agents of peace. Peace with God involves the just ordering of our relationships, whereby we love God even as we love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). Jesus would have us take his words about peace quite literally.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n