Peace in the Spirit

“Not as the world gives do I give to you.” Of course, the peace that the world gave at the time of Jesus and while the Gospel of John was being collated and recorded was the Pax Augusta, or as we now know it, the Pax Romana (the Roman peace). It was a period of “relative peace and minimal expansion by military force” which lasted for about 200 years from about 25 BC to 180 AD. This peace was not simply the “absence of war”; it was the effective suppression of any real resistance to the Roman Empire. It was an imperial, colonialist act—one perpetrated upon many peoples and cultures (most of the then “known world”). And it was a propaganda coup. A society that has existed on continual armed conflict and ongoing political expansion found it difficult to live without constant military pushes and conquests. Roman citizens themselves needed to be persuaded that prosperity was possible without continual military expansion. And naturally, conquered societies must be convinced of the futility or lack of necessity for resistance. But somehow, it was basically achieved and peace was declared by the closure of the gates of the temple of Janus in Rome in at least 3 grand ceremonies to which ancient historians refer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Romana). This Pax Romana was the world’s peace: a political, colonial and imperial peace. It was not the peace that Jesus was invoking upon the disciples.

Jesus was calling down a peace that did not involve suppression, that was not simply the absence of conflict; a peace in which the disciples would be accompanied by an advocate and guide rather than an occupying force.

14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.

Jesus was talking about a different kind of peace and with it, a different kind of hope—a hope not for the absence of social and political upheaval; but the hope of being continually in God’s presence. Of course, this is the hope and peace that was promised from the beginning of creation—a life in God’s presence. And yet it was and is a hope and peace, that humanity has failed to understand, failed to appreciate, and failed to live for. It is a hope and peace for which a Pax Romana is a cheap and tawdry substitute; and, more than that, a horrible and fraudulent approximation. The peace that Jesus was talking about was the peace of being in utter and continuous relationship with God, of living in God’s economy of shalom, of dwelling in God’s city.

That vision of hope and peace is picked up in the book of Revelation with its vision of the city that needs no temple because God is so apparent that those that dwell within the city need no other tangible reminders to love, honour and serve God. This is a city where the gates are not closed proclaiming a peace of imperial suppression; but the gates are wide open welcoming the world and offering divine hospitality.

And yet even the vision of Revelation has its own imperialist overtones: “nothing unclean will enter it”. Bill Loader writes that “Ultimately a vision that is satisfied to permanently exclude the immoral carries a conflict within itself and threatens to unravel the good news or relegate it to something of temporary relevance” (http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/CEpEaster6.htm). The world’s peace is always close to us, tempting us with its illusory nature—telling us that it is possible to suppress and exclude all that we find “unclean”, not to our taste, not acceptable to us, so that we might be clean and perfect and pure on our own. But that is not God’s peace, that is an imperial, colonialist peace—albeit a tempting one.

So, what then does God’s peace involve? Jesus says, “Those who love me will keep my word.” And you better be sure that “keeping my word” isn’t just about keeping a secret or saying the right things in the right places, it’s about living out a lifestyle—a lifestyle of love for God and love for one another arising from being in utter relationship with God; coming out of being the very dwelling place of God.

14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.

Not a Pax Romana, but a Pax Christi, the peace of Christ that does not suppress but frees for relationship with God and with one another; a peace that is concerned with hospitality and justice; a peace that is about a full life, a life lived in God.