Peace!

Peace!

Jesus repeated his greeting: “Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you.” John 20:20‭-‬21 MSG

Context and Charge:

Think about the events that surrounded the words of today's extract. Someone the disciples had called Teacher and Master, someone they had seen perform several miracles, had now been killed like a common criminal. He had mentioned all these things to them in the past, but they still did not remember. Now, they heard that he had risen from the dead. Fear had gripped them and they were all locked up in a room. Are there things that cause fear in my own heart today? Are there events that I do not fully understand, and which make my heart tremble? The One who spoke here is still speaking today, and His message is PEACE. 

The passage mentions the fact that He repeated his greeting of peace. We say repetition helps memory. What I hear over and over again holds my heart in place. I also note that the One who speaks here is qualified to dispense that which he pronounced. How can anyone promise you peace when s/he does not have it? You can't give what you don't have. You then have to ask: "Of all the things on the minds of the disciples, why was it peace that He mentioned first, and left with them?" I believe that if I have peace, I have the greatest treasure in the world. 

Conviction and Conclusion:

The people of this world will pay anything to secure peace, but it is not a commodity that can be purchased or secured by physical measures. When there is peace, storms can't bother me. When peace reigns in a man's heart, he might not be able to explain the calm, but he can't deny it either. Check out the world we live in now, and you will see clearly that there is no peace for anyone under the control and influence of this world's system. However, if you are able to secure God's kind of peace, you are set free from the world's expectations or limitations, and you can serve as best as you can, with the wisdom, strength and grace supplied by the One who gives peace.

Jesus pronounced peace before he gave out the commission or assignment. I dare not launch out to work without being sure of who is backing me up. Before I claim I am at work for the Lord who speaks here, have I settled the question of my content, composition and character? Have I received the place that God alone gives? I have to be sure; the world also has its own close alternatives. He is the perfect example of what works; if you don't have Him, you can't fake it. His life, words and actions aligned, provide the only template for how to obtain, keep and sustain God's approval. God is looking for people He can use; but they have to give room for his nature and nurture to take hold of their hearts. This are the times when God's heralds and messengers of peace are needed. Am I One? Has His peace done His work in and on me? God's time of favour is here.