Your Peace
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our Lord took up our flesh and became human like us. He
knew hunger and thirst and grief. At the very least, he buried St. Joseph, His step-father and caretaker. He
knew also betrayal from friends, prejudice, and irrational hatred. He knew all
the sorrows, pain, and losses of men. But the worst of all this was not when
they stretched out His arms and bent back His wrists to drive nails through His
flesh. It was not being hoisted up so that He had to lift Himself up and tear
at those nails for each breath. Even as His life ebbed away among the jeering
and the blasphemy, what hurt most was that He was rejected by those He loved.
They did not want His gifts.
They did not seek the things that make for peace: nails and
thorns, scourge and spear. The great irony is that the chief priests and
scribes sought to destroy Jesus. They could not stand His teaching. They knew
it was true. They knew He spoke with authority. There was nothing contrary to
Moses or the prophets. No one could argue with Him. He even slipped through
their traps of logic and ethics. Nor could they dispute or deny his miracles.
They could not find any moral failure in Him at all. Imagine a man in whom
there was no sin, in whom there was no error, who was going about helping
people, healing them. Why would you want to destroy Him? Because He was perfect
and they were not. Because His Word cut at their hearts, it endangered their
place in society. He called them to give up their lives, and they didn’t want
to. He held up the Law as a standard, and they knew they had failed. They were
guilty and ashamed. The accusations were too true and too many and they knew
the Law would destroy them. So they sought to destroy it. They sought to
destroy Jesus in order to be free of the Law, free of God’s demands, free of
accusations and the curse.
Here is the irony: it worked. They meant it for evil; He
meant it for good. They did it in hate; He suffered it in love. They did it so
that they could sin without judgment or punishment; He did it to forgive their
sins and create in them a new heart and life for God. The things that make for
peace—nails and thorns, scourge and spear, two cruel logs hoisting the Word of
God up from the earth—this satisfied the demands of Justice. He suffered being
forsaken by the Father to draw all men to Himself. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” There is
the peace that passes all understanding.
Now is the hour of visitation for you. No one knows what
the future holds. Repent. Amend your ways and your doings. God has good things
for you. Don’t trust in the lying words of your heart, words which tell you,
“Calm down. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re not half as bad as some
others.” Remember Jerusalem
and repent. Your sins are many and frequent. Call upon God. He will hear your
voice. Confess. Ask for forgiveness. Cast your burden upon Him. He will sustain
you. Swing open the doors of your lips and Christ will enter in, whip in hand,
to drive out everything with which you have defiled yourself. His Body and His
Blood will purge your soul and cleanse your heart. He is long-suffering,
patient, gracious, and merciful. He loves you. He will redeem your soul in
peace. He will save you and your children, gathering you to Himself and
covering you with the wings of His Holy Spirit. This great, suffering God has
always loved you. He never holds a grudge. It is not too late. He wants you
even now and is eager to be your God and dwell within you. Jesus, alive
forevermore and at the right hand of God, is your Advocate and Defender. He is
your peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The
peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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