PEACE WITHOUT WAR
War is a Part of Our Culture
This last Tuesday was the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War. For over four years we fought against each other. More than 625,000 people died. And this country has never been the same since. Of course, that wasn’t the first major war we were involved with. The United States of America, as way we know it today, was founded on war: the American Revolution. And ever since then war has been an integral part of our culture. the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and a number of other wars and battles that have been intertwined in the short history of this country. There have been so many wars, in fact, that the last war is never too far behind us and another one is always on the horizon. There is hardly a generation that goes by that does not see their country at war. Because war is used to promote and preserve the privileges that we enjoy the most: like freedom and justice and peace.
The Israelites Longed for Peace
Peace is a big thing for us, isn’t it? We want to feel safe; we want to know that our borders are secure. We don’t want our lives to be disturbed and we certainly don’t want to have to worry about invasions or attacks. We want to lead peaceful lives for the most part and avoid bloody and lengthy confrontations with other world powers. Which is exactly what the Israelites wanted five centuries before the days of Christ. In fact, God’s Old Testament people during those days might have longed for peace even more than we do - because they didn’t have it.
It was about 520BC and a sizeable group of Israelites had recently arrived back in the Promised Land after their 70 year exile in Babylon. Jerusalem, their capital city, was in ruins. Its walls were crumbled, its temple had been burned to the ground, and there was nothing to protect it or its inhabitants from being attacked again. And on top of all that, there were not enough people or the organization to have an actual army, the nations around the land of Israel did not want them to be there, and they were still ruled by the Persian Empire who could do whatever they wanted to them whenever they wanted to do it. The Israelites were small and weak; they were outmatched and incapable of protecting themselves. They certainly wanted peace but they didn’t have the means to get it. They undoubtedly longed for and prayed for peace, but it was hardly something that seemed realistic considering the situation they were in.
Peace is the Mark of the King
And so when they heard the words of the prophet Zechariah that are recorded for us in the middle of chapter nine of his book, the Israelites must have been completely shocked! Because listen to what the Lord says to them understanding the difficulties they were in the middle of dealing with:
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
Their King was coming! And not just a normal, everyday king who would eventually prove to be inept and ungodly and unable to protect his people like so many of their kings had been in the past. No, this King would be righteous, this King would be free from the oppression of foreign nations, this King would proclaim peace. Peace! This King would actually proclaim peace to the nations! The chariots and the war-horses and the bows used in battle would be done away with! And this King’s kingdom would begin at the great River Euphrates, right in the heart of the Persian Empire, and spread out over the globe to the ends of the earth. God’s people would finally be able to live quietly and securely, without fear and without apprehension about what was to come. Because their King would rule the world and would impose nothing on his people but peace.
Of course, this “peace” that their King would bring wasn’t going to be an earthly kind of peace. It’s not as if all wars suddenly stopped when he arrived and all fighting was forever over. And we know that this is not the kind of peace the King was to bring because these very verses of Zechariah chapter nine are quoted twice in the New Testament - both on Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem “on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Jesus was that King predicted over 500 years before, of course. He was the righteous one. He was the conqueror that would proclaim peace to the nations. And it was a different kind of peace. It was a peace from death and a peace with God and a peace of mind from the guilt and the hurt and the final effects of sins that would be taken away. It was a spiritual peace and an eternal peace. A peace that the people of Israel hadn’t known before. A peace that only this King could produce. And that’s the peace we are celebrating today.
The Peace of Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is always a great celebration: Jesus riding through the city gates on the back of a borrowed pack animal, his disciples clearing the way, children singing, his followers throwing their coats and palm branches on the ground as a “red carpet” for their Lord, the joy, the gladness, the energy these people had shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” The King of Peace had arrived, after all! Zechariah’s Christ had come! Of course there was singing! Of course there was a celebration! And that’s why we celebrate and sing and gather together to worship on day like today: Because he’s our King of Peace too! He’s our Christ! He’s our Messiah! And we need that peace and long for that peace just like those Israelites did 2500 years ago!
Palm Sunday is the day on which Jesus came to Jerusalem to win that peace. And five days later he did. Five days later he died. Seven days later he rose. And that is exactly why this week after Palm Sunday is called “Holy Week.” It is the holiest week of the year. These are the last days of Christ’s suffering. These are the final few hours of his life on earth. Palm Sunday is really the beginning of the end of Jesus’ quest for the peace that we will enjoy for all eternity.
Peace is Allusive
But we have that peace right now. It’s not just a promised peace; it’s not just a future peace that we will receive one day in heaven; it’s a real peace that our King grants to us right now as we live our lives on this earth. So why do we sometimes act as if we don’t have it? Why do we sometimes act as if everything isn’t taken care of or as if something has been left undone? We concern ourselves with so many of the alleged “problems” of our lives that we have a habit of downing ourselves in the details. We worry and we fret and we drive ourselves crazy over the little things in this life that end up being meaningless when it’s all said and done and, on the other hand, they’re already planned for and taken care of by the Lord anyway. Our Palm Sunday King has given us peace! He rode into Jerusalem that day to make everything right! He entered into the heart of enemy territory to fix the problem. So what is the problem? What’s the fuss? Why can’t we simply trust that our King has made everything OK? “Oh, but my life is complicated and this has to be done and this has to be taken care of and this has to be fixed and this has to be rectified!” Really? It does? Jesus’ peace is not enough? Jesus’ peace isn’t sufficient to soothe those worries and calm those fears? Of course it is! The peace your King has given you covers every aspect of your life. He takes care of it. He holds it in his hands. He wraps your life up in a nice little package and makes sure that everything that happens to you in this world works out according to his will. Do we really need to doubt that the Lord will do what he says he will do? “Thanks for the peace, Lord, but it looks like I’m going to have to take care of this thing myself… I appreciate your promise of peace, Lord, but this little problem is bothering me and I’m going to have to do something about it… I realize that you have proclaimed peace to me, Lord, but I’m not so sure that it applies to this part of my life because things aren’t going so well…” No! There are no “buts” in peace. There are no “buts” in peace. The peace your King gives you is final and all-inclusive. When your King gives you peace that means that you receive rest from your troubles and relief from your pain and a release from your problems. Not that you won’t have troubles and pain and problems of course, but you don’t have to worry about them. You don’t have to lose any sleep over them. Because so what? So what if unpleasant things happen in this life? Your King has arrived and has given you eternal peace! So what if your plans do not go according to schedule! Your King has arrived and has given you eternal peace! So what if your life is not all that it’s cracked up to be? Your King has arrived and has given you eternal peace! There’s no reason to ever be unhappy. There’s no reason to ever be stressed out. Your Palm Sunday Messiah has made everything alright.
Peace without War
And he has made everything alright because his work didn’t stop on Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday was just the grand entrance into the arena. What happened inside that arena on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and Easter Sunday was what the King really came for. He wasn’t there in Jerusalem that day simply to be praised and worshiped and gushed over; he was there to eventually be tortured and to be hated and to be murdered. Our King was there to die.
And that’s the difference between the peace our King has won for us compared to the peace any other leader can give from any other country in any other era: peace in this world is always brought about by war. But not the peace of Christ. There was no war that week he entered Jerusalem on a donkey. There were no battles; there was no fighting. There were soldiers involved, but they just pinned Jesus to a plank of wood, they didn’t lead an attack. There were enemies all around, but Jesus did nothing to defend himself against them. One spear was drawn and used, but only to strike Jesus’ corpse in the side to see if he was already dead. Our King won peace without war. He secured our forgiveness without a fight. Victory rested in his death; and triumph in his resurrection. And now they’re ours. Victory and triumph belong to those of us who even doubt sometimes and worry on occasion and struggle to find the peace that our King gives; because victory and triumph don’t depend on how strongly we can cling to our King. Victory and triumph depend on what our Palm Sunday King did to become our Easter Sunday Savior. And what he did in between those two Sunday mornings we look forward to this week. This is the number one greatest week in the Christian church year. This is the week of our peace. And so come back this Thursday and see what your King did to win peace through his sufferings. And then come back again this Friday and see what your King did to win peace through his death. And then of course come back next Sunday so that you can see the peace he won for you with an empty tomb. Come and see this peace for yourselves. Come and enjoy this peace your King freely gives.
Amen.
“The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Phil. 4:7
War is a Part of Our Culture
This last Tuesday was the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War. For over four years we fought against each other. More than 625,000 people died. And this country has never been the same since. Of course, that wasn’t the first major war we were involved with. The United States of America, as way we know it today, was founded on war: the American Revolution. And ever since then war has been an integral part of our culture. the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and a number of other wars and battles that have been intertwined in the short history of this country. There have been so many wars, in fact, that the last war is never too far behind us and another one is always on the horizon. There is hardly a generation that goes by that does not see their country at war. Because war is used to promote and preserve the privileges that we enjoy the most: like freedom and justice and peace.
The Israelites Longed for Peace
Peace is a big thing for us, isn’t it? We want to feel safe; we want to know that our borders are secure. We don’t want our lives to be disturbed and we certainly don’t want to have to worry about invasions or attacks. We want to lead peaceful lives for the most part and avoid bloody and lengthy confrontations with other world powers. Which is exactly what the Israelites wanted five centuries before the days of Christ. In fact, God’s Old Testament people during those days might have longed for peace even more than we do - because they didn’t have it.
It was about 520BC and a sizeable group of Israelites had recently arrived back in the Promised Land after their 70 year exile in Babylon. Jerusalem, their capital city, was in ruins. Its walls were crumbled, its temple had been burned to the ground, and there was nothing to protect it or its inhabitants from being attacked again. And on top of all that, there were not enough people or the organization to have an actual army, the nations around the land of Israel did not want them to be there, and they were still ruled by the Persian Empire who could do whatever they wanted to them whenever they wanted to do it. The Israelites were small and weak; they were outmatched and incapable of protecting themselves. They certainly wanted peace but they didn’t have the means to get it. They undoubtedly longed for and prayed for peace, but it was hardly something that seemed realistic considering the situation they were in.
Peace is the Mark of the King
And so when they heard the words of the prophet Zechariah that are recorded for us in the middle of chapter nine of his book, the Israelites must have been completely shocked! Because listen to what the Lord says to them understanding the difficulties they were in the middle of dealing with:
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
Their King was coming! And not just a normal, everyday king who would eventually prove to be inept and ungodly and unable to protect his people like so many of their kings had been in the past. No, this King would be righteous, this King would be free from the oppression of foreign nations, this King would proclaim peace. Peace! This King would actually proclaim peace to the nations! The chariots and the war-horses and the bows used in battle would be done away with! And this King’s kingdom would begin at the great River Euphrates, right in the heart of the Persian Empire, and spread out over the globe to the ends of the earth. God’s people would finally be able to live quietly and securely, without fear and without apprehension about what was to come. Because their King would rule the world and would impose nothing on his people but peace.
Of course, this “peace” that their King would bring wasn’t going to be an earthly kind of peace. It’s not as if all wars suddenly stopped when he arrived and all fighting was forever over. And we know that this is not the kind of peace the King was to bring because these very verses of Zechariah chapter nine are quoted twice in the New Testament - both on Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem “on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Jesus was that King predicted over 500 years before, of course. He was the righteous one. He was the conqueror that would proclaim peace to the nations. And it was a different kind of peace. It was a peace from death and a peace with God and a peace of mind from the guilt and the hurt and the final effects of sins that would be taken away. It was a spiritual peace and an eternal peace. A peace that the people of Israel hadn’t known before. A peace that only this King could produce. And that’s the peace we are celebrating today.
The Peace of Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is always a great celebration: Jesus riding through the city gates on the back of a borrowed pack animal, his disciples clearing the way, children singing, his followers throwing their coats and palm branches on the ground as a “red carpet” for their Lord, the joy, the gladness, the energy these people had shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” The King of Peace had arrived, after all! Zechariah’s Christ had come! Of course there was singing! Of course there was a celebration! And that’s why we celebrate and sing and gather together to worship on day like today: Because he’s our King of Peace too! He’s our Christ! He’s our Messiah! And we need that peace and long for that peace just like those Israelites did 2500 years ago!
Palm Sunday is the day on which Jesus came to Jerusalem to win that peace. And five days later he did. Five days later he died. Seven days later he rose. And that is exactly why this week after Palm Sunday is called “Holy Week.” It is the holiest week of the year. These are the last days of Christ’s suffering. These are the final few hours of his life on earth. Palm Sunday is really the beginning of the end of Jesus’ quest for the peace that we will enjoy for all eternity.
Peace is Allusive
But we have that peace right now. It’s not just a promised peace; it’s not just a future peace that we will receive one day in heaven; it’s a real peace that our King grants to us right now as we live our lives on this earth. So why do we sometimes act as if we don’t have it? Why do we sometimes act as if everything isn’t taken care of or as if something has been left undone? We concern ourselves with so many of the alleged “problems” of our lives that we have a habit of downing ourselves in the details. We worry and we fret and we drive ourselves crazy over the little things in this life that end up being meaningless when it’s all said and done and, on the other hand, they’re already planned for and taken care of by the Lord anyway. Our Palm Sunday King has given us peace! He rode into Jerusalem that day to make everything right! He entered into the heart of enemy territory to fix the problem. So what is the problem? What’s the fuss? Why can’t we simply trust that our King has made everything OK? “Oh, but my life is complicated and this has to be done and this has to be taken care of and this has to be fixed and this has to be rectified!” Really? It does? Jesus’ peace is not enough? Jesus’ peace isn’t sufficient to soothe those worries and calm those fears? Of course it is! The peace your King has given you covers every aspect of your life. He takes care of it. He holds it in his hands. He wraps your life up in a nice little package and makes sure that everything that happens to you in this world works out according to his will. Do we really need to doubt that the Lord will do what he says he will do? “Thanks for the peace, Lord, but it looks like I’m going to have to take care of this thing myself… I appreciate your promise of peace, Lord, but this little problem is bothering me and I’m going to have to do something about it… I realize that you have proclaimed peace to me, Lord, but I’m not so sure that it applies to this part of my life because things aren’t going so well…” No! There are no “buts” in peace. There are no “buts” in peace. The peace your King gives you is final and all-inclusive. When your King gives you peace that means that you receive rest from your troubles and relief from your pain and a release from your problems. Not that you won’t have troubles and pain and problems of course, but you don’t have to worry about them. You don’t have to lose any sleep over them. Because so what? So what if unpleasant things happen in this life? Your King has arrived and has given you eternal peace! So what if your plans do not go according to schedule! Your King has arrived and has given you eternal peace! So what if your life is not all that it’s cracked up to be? Your King has arrived and has given you eternal peace! There’s no reason to ever be unhappy. There’s no reason to ever be stressed out. Your Palm Sunday Messiah has made everything alright.
Peace without War
And he has made everything alright because his work didn’t stop on Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday was just the grand entrance into the arena. What happened inside that arena on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and Easter Sunday was what the King really came for. He wasn’t there in Jerusalem that day simply to be praised and worshiped and gushed over; he was there to eventually be tortured and to be hated and to be murdered. Our King was there to die.
And that’s the difference between the peace our King has won for us compared to the peace any other leader can give from any other country in any other era: peace in this world is always brought about by war. But not the peace of Christ. There was no war that week he entered Jerusalem on a donkey. There were no battles; there was no fighting. There were soldiers involved, but they just pinned Jesus to a plank of wood, they didn’t lead an attack. There were enemies all around, but Jesus did nothing to defend himself against them. One spear was drawn and used, but only to strike Jesus’ corpse in the side to see if he was already dead. Our King won peace without war. He secured our forgiveness without a fight. Victory rested in his death; and triumph in his resurrection. And now they’re ours. Victory and triumph belong to those of us who even doubt sometimes and worry on occasion and struggle to find the peace that our King gives; because victory and triumph don’t depend on how strongly we can cling to our King. Victory and triumph depend on what our Palm Sunday King did to become our Easter Sunday Savior. And what he did in between those two Sunday mornings we look forward to this week. This is the number one greatest week in the Christian church year. This is the week of our peace. And so come back this Thursday and see what your King did to win peace through his sufferings. And then come back again this Friday and see what your King did to win peace through his death. And then of course come back next Sunday so that you can see the peace he won for you with an empty tomb. Come and see this peace for yourselves. Come and enjoy this peace your King freely gives.
Amen.
“The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Phil. 4:7
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