12/15/10 - Midweek Advent - Isaiah 9:6

PEACE EVERLASTING

I have a little picture frame above the inside of my front door that a friend gave to me while I was at the seminary. He had picked it up at a warehouse belonging to his moving company because someone had left it behind and it was about to be thrown away. And ever since he gave it to me, for about eight years now, it has hung above the entrance to wherever I have lived. But it’s not a picture or a painting. In fact, it’s not something that would catch your eye at all if you weren’t looking for it because it’s really only one word stitched in brown lettering. And that one word inside this picture frame is “Shalom” (sha-lòme).
Are you familiar with that word? Shalom is not usually part of our everyday language, but it is something that a specific culture uses quite a bit around us. It’s a Hebrew word; and so those of Jewish origin and even Scripture itself makes use of this two-syllable noun on a regular basis. In fact, it is one of the most important words in the entire Old Testament and it can be used to mean a variety of different things.
The most common meaning of this word is simply “peace.” And the reason I have it above the inside of my front door is because Shalom is also used as a greeting: coming and going. And although it has been secularized in modern day Jewish culture, it was originally meant to be a shorthand way of saying “peace be with you.” Of course, Shalom can also take on the meaning of “safety” or “health” of the body. It can mean “rest” from war or the “absence” of danger or worries. It can even be used to depict a state of “quietness” or “tranquility” or “contentment.” But the most significant translation of this word and the way it is used in over 2/3 of the instances in Scripture is “peace” with God. It has to do with the resulting harmony we have with our Creator because of what the Lord has done for us.
Tonight we focus our attention on the last of the four titles given to the coming Christ by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 9:6 - “Prince of Peace.” According to Isaiah, Christ was the one who was to achieve that peace and make it ours. He was the one who was going to mend our relationship with God so that there would be no more anger on his part and no more fear on ours. He was the one to reunite us with the Almighty Lord from whom we had alienated ourselves because of our sins. And that’s exactly what he did, didn’t he? Paul says in the book of Colossians that Jesus made “peace through his blood shed on the cross” (Col. 1:20). And so now we are all right with God. We are on his good side again because Jesus’ blood on the cross made everything OK. That’s a basic tenant of Christianity, isn’t it? Peace with God is something on which our salvation relies.
But that peace is hard to come by at times, isn’t it? Sometimes we just don’t feel at ease. Sometimes we aren’t all that comfortable or relaxed or calm. Sometimes that spiritual serenity, that peace of mind, just isn’t there. And why is that? Why is it that you feel unsettled on some days or stressed out or clenched up or emotionally frayed? It’s certainly not because the Prince of Peace has taken that peace away, is it? And it’s not because he has abandoned you or is mad at you for some reason. It’s not the Lord’s fault at all. The reason you sometimes don’t have that peace isn’t because it’s not there; it’s because you are not there.
Jesus’ peace never leaves. Sometimes we just leave it. Jesus’ peace never moves. Sometimes we just move away ourselves. We get distracted with other things. We slowly shift our focus away from that peace our Prince of Peace earned and onto what will make us happy right now; away from that peace and onto what will get us excited for a moment; away from that peace and onto what will give us a sense of instant satisfaction. And so when you have a lapse in your daily Bible reading for a while, or when your study of Scripture is not where it should be, or when you start missing more worship services than is healthy, why should it surprise you that you don’t have that sense of peace during those times? Of course you’re going to feel a little bit empty! Of course you’re going to feel a little bit lost! Of course you’re going to feel as if you’re missing something! Because you are! You’re missing that peace, that reassurance and guarantee that Jesus has fixed everything and you are in good standing with your God!
And here’s the best part about this peace: You don’t have to do anything to get it back. This peace is not a result of our efforts to find it; it’s a result of Christ’s efforts to find us. He searches us out; he crawls through the mud; he fights his way through the enemies and the nastiness of our own sinful lives and grabs us with his Word. And he works us over with the law. And he soothes us with the gospel. And he fills our hearts once again with is peace. And he does that by reminding us about everything he did with that blood of his. How he poured it out; how he used it as a ransom price; how he washed us in it so that we would be clean. We can have peace in this life and in the life to come because the Prince of Peace did not.
Isn’t that ironic? The Prince of Peace didn’t have a peaceful life. He didn’t have a peaceful death. He didn’t even have a peaceful birth! I can’t imagine the stress and anxiety Mary was going through as she delivered her first baby miles away from home and days away from family in the middle of a barn! And her first son was the Son of God no less! But of course this Prince of Peace did not come into this world to gain peace for himself. No, he came to fight a war so that we wouldn’t have to. He came for a battle so that we would be safe. He came to give us Shalom.
I pray that your Advent and especially your Christmas is usually filled with this Shalom. And it will be. But not because it’s a quiet or gentle or soothing time of year - it’ll be filled with Shalom because it is the time of year when you know that your enemies are defeated, your worries are alleviated, and your entire life is set forever. There is no reason why we shouldn’t have peace at all times and in every way. Because the Prince of Peace has come. The Prince of Peace is coming again. And in the meantime, everything in between is already taken care of.