Blessed are the Peacemakers
Blessed are the Peacemakers
Why do you think peacemaking receives so little attention today? (Perhaps it is considered ineffective. Perhaps because it can take such a lengthy investment of time and good will. Perhaps because its goal is not just the cessation of violence but the redemption of all parties.
Last Sunday, we looked at Jesus' teaching that Blessed are the Meek. Today, we're focusing on his teaching that Blessed are the Peacemakers.
Ask: What comes to your mind when you hear the phrase “make peace”? (mediation, intervention, helping people get along, fixing interpersonal or inter-national problems) What does it mean to be a child of God?” If answers remain generic (“We were created by God”) or are linked solely to salvation by grace through faith, suggest that this beatitude implies there is an aspect of it that is a God-given blessing for living and working as a peacemaker. Say: To be able to make sense of peacemaking, we need to know what peace is. Ask: What do you believe constitutes peace? After a couple of responses, ask: When we “pass the peace” in worship or say to someone, “Peace be with you,” what exactly is the peace we’re sharing?
Focal Passages: Matthew 5:9; John 18:1-11 Background Texts: Same
Purpose To explore Jesus’ words regarding peacemaking in light of his arrest.
Matthew 5:9 Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God's children.
John 18:1-11 1After he said these things, Jesus went out with his disciples and crossed over to the other side of the Kidron Valley. He and his disciples entered a garden there. 2Judas, his betrayer, also knew the place because Jesus often gathered there with his disciples. 3Judas brought a company of soldiers and some guards from the chief priests and Pharisees. They came there carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons. 4Jesus knew everything that was to happen to him, so he went out and asked, “Who are you looking for?” 5They answered, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He said to them, “I Am.” (Judas, his betrayer, was standing with them.) 6When he said, “I Am,” they shrank back and fell to the ground. 7He asked them again, “Who are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus the Nazarene.” 8Jesus answered, “I told you, ‘I Am.’ If you are looking for me, then let these people go.” 9This was so that the word he had spoken might be fulfilled: “I didn’t lose anyone of those whom you gave me.” April 6, 2025 55 56 Adult Bible Studies Teacher 10Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) 11Jesus told Peter, “Put your sword away! Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me?”
Key Verse: “Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children” (Matthew 5:9).
For a variety of reasons—some understandable, some not so much—clergy often find themselves in situations in which they are clearly in over their heads. A pastor in the late 1980s realized that he was was probably headed for one of those the day a beloved young couple in the church called him in tears, begging him to come help; their marriage was in trouble.
The pastor could have claimed no competence in such matters (which was certainly true) and referred them to a marriage counselor. But given that they had called him and effectively requested mediation, he felt that he needed to honor their trust.
Amid many tears, theirs and his, they talked about what had been right in their marriage, what had gone wrong, what their expectations now were, and what was stifling their attempts at reconciliation. They prayed. They wept. They read Scripture. They talked some more. They knew their pastor was no trained counselor. Had they wanted to start with clinical counseling, they would have done so, but they called their pastor.
As the depth of their conflict became clearer, the pastor asked if they were willing to call a temporary truce for one month, long enough to commit to a series of acts that they would do daily. Midway through the month, they would check in with one another, address any developing problems, pray, and recommit to the process. At the end of the month, with their pastor's help, they would assess where we were and plan accordingly. The couple agreed.
They seemed to understand fully that the acts to which they had committed themselves for one month would be difficult to do, even though they sounded simple. They were not to accuse or to speak harshly to their spouse. If they did, they were to apologize immediately. Each morning, they were to pray for grace for themselves and to offer a brief prayer of gratitude to God for their spouse.
At their daily lunchbreaks, they were to take five minutes to compile a short list of attributes or characteristics their spouse possessed that had attracted them to each other. Then they were to take two minutes to compile a list of things they’d said or done that had hurt their spouse, concluding with a short prayer in which they confessed to God their failures.
Each evening, before they went to sleep, they were to share with each other a couple of their spouse’s beloved attributes for which they were grateful and one or two of their personal failures, for which they were sorry. Each would then pray a brief prayer in which they asked God to bless their spouse.
I wish I could report that all went well with this attempt to make peace and that now, decades later, the couple are still madly in love with each other. I cannot. The agreements broke down before reaching even the two-week check-in time. Both spouses reported that they did not wish to seek counseling but would be filing for divorce. With broken hearts, they prayed for forgiveness with their pastor, and committed each other to God. The pastor assured each of them that he loved them, was certain that God did as well, and told them he remained only a phone call away.
Both left the church. The divorce was procured quickly. Both eventually remarried. In the years since, this same pastor has seen each of these two people numerous times.
They smile when they meet, speak briefly, then go their separate ways. All these years later, the pastor's heart still aches when he sees or thinks about one of them.
Not every attempt to make peace will be successful. Indeed, it may be that few attempts ever are. But if we only engage in peacemaking efforts when the outcome is effectively a given, it probably wasn’t much of a conflict anyway.
In peacemaking, there simply are no guarantees; yet there must be courage, honesty, and the willingness to listen. Wisdom is nice. So is discernment. And a commitment not to engage in intrigue. Whether or not one is Christian (or even religious), it helps to realize that the process effectively seeks to create space in which communication can happen, blessing can be offered (and received), and good will can be established for all.
In Matthew 5:9, Jesus declares that people who advocate for peace and work to overcome animosity will be known as God’s beloved children.
The Gospel text for this lesson recounts the opening scene in what is often called the Passion narrative—the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus. After eating the Passover meal with his disciples and washing their feet, Jesus engaged in one last discourse directed to them. They then departed the room and returned to the site where they would spend the night. There they were confronted abruptly by an armed contingent of Roman soldiers and Jewish Temple police, who arrested Jesus.
The Gospel text may be divided into three parts. In Part 1 (John 18:1-3), as Jesus and his disciples return to the garden (an olive grove) in which they intend to bed down for the night, Judas Iscariot is explaining to armed soldiers and guards where they can find Jesus. He then leads the way to the campsite.
In Part 2 (verses 4-9), Jesus effectively takes over the confrontation. Instead of waiting for the soldiers to come to him, he goes to them. Instead of waiting for them to explain their intent, he demands that they state their intent. In one final act of pastoral oversight, he obtains and guarantees the safety of his disciples by offering freely his life in exchange for theirs.
In Part 3 (verses 10-11), Peter is spooked, pulls a dagger, and lunges at the nearest assailant. He is brusquely reprimanded by Jesus, who curtly informs him (and the rest of his disciples) that this is his time and his fight, not theirs.
Matthew 5:9. Twice in Paul’s letters, Jesus is called a maker of peace. Ephesians 2:11-18 describes how Jesus put an end to the longstanding conflict between Gentile and Jew. Not only did he make peace between them, but he also “reconciled . . . both . . . to God by the cross” (verse 16).
Let's look at that passage of Scripture together. Turn to Ephesians 2:11-18.
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Colossians 1:20 adds that God “reconciled all things to himself through [Jesus] . . . through the blood of his cross.”
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Peacemaking is, the final analysis, a world-righting, a world-redeeming act.
We can’t replicate the redemptive work unique to Jesus our Savior, but we can still recognize how indebted our attempts to mediate peace are to his successful peacemaking work.
Wherever God’s salvation takes firm root, we can expect peace to flourish, for peace is the outgrowth of the overcoming of hostility and the creation of persons of good will. Granted, some persons dismiss contemporary peacemaking and mediation as a “churchy” way of not taking conflict seriously; they claim it tries to return everyone to a prior status quo.
But effective peacemaking doesn’t try to establish serenity by ignoring antagonisms. It acknowledges that animosities exist but attempts to move persons beyond a present defined by the past toward one that is open to the future and benefits all. It advocates for what is right and just for all, a place where peace can take root and prosper.
In our day, when even Christians seem justified in haranguing others instead of committing themselves to reconciliation, peacemaking may be one of the most important attributes of the Christian faith that we need to recover.
Because “will be called” is a “divine passive,” the meaning is that God will declare peacemakers to be “God’s children.
The classic biblical statement on becoming “God’s children” is Hosea 1:10.
10 “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’
Although some want to insist that all persons are God’s children, this partial truth is an example of the false peacemaking denounced in Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11.
Jeremiah 6:14 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.
Jeremiah 8:11 is almost an exact repeat of Jeremiah 6:14.
Such statements gloss over the unhappy (yet real) truth of human sin, the result of which is that we must be remade or born anew to become God’s children.
John 18:1. 18 When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.
Full participation in Passover required that one “reside” within the city limits of Jerusalem. Although “the other side of the Kidron Valley” was formally outside the city limits, each year Jerusalem was declared slightly larger than it was to accommodate the large numbers of out-of- town guests in finding appropriate lodging at the time of Passover.
Depending on translation, the “Kidron Valley” is also referred to as a brook (KJV, TEV, The Message) or a ravine (NASB). It is all the above. A deep rift that separates the southeastern part of the lower city from the Mount of Olives, the dry creek bed has running water during the winter months. It is where Hezekiah’s tunnel originates.
John did not call the campsite “Gethsemane” but (alone among the Gospel writers) referred to it as a “garden,” just as he did the location of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial (19:41). John’s language has encouraged many Bible students to wonder if he was purposely contrasting the garden sites associated with Jesus’ arrest, death, and burial with the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8-10, 15; 3:1-3, 8, 23-24).
Having left the Last Supper prior to its conclusion, Judas yet knew where Jesus and his disciples would spend the evening because they “often gathered there.” Although this is the only Passover that the Gospel writers mention Jesus attending (except for those he attended as a child [Luke 2:41]), he was apparently well-acquainted with Gethsemane. He was, after all, in Jerusalem for at least one Festival of Tabernacles (John 7:2, 10) and another unspecified Festival (5:1); and, as a faithful Jew, was almost certainly there for other Passovers (even though those occasions are not referred to in Scripture).
Verse 3. Judas’s traitorous act, of which Jesus seemed fully aware (John 13:26-30), involved divulging to Jewish authorities within the Sanhedrin where they would be able to find Jesus that evening. Despite naming the location of the intended campsite, Judas was still invited (required?) by “the chief priests and Pharisees” to lead the appointed “company of soldiers” and select “guards” to Jesus.
The soldiers were Roman, part of the cohort brought to Jerusalem (and accompanying Pontius Pilate) every Passover to assist in the suppression of any anti-Roman revolts that might take place. The guards were Jewish Temple police.
Despite the evening being illumined by the full moon associated with Passover, the soldiers and guards were “carrying lanterns [and] torches.” Many reasons can be supplied for the artificial lights. Dense cloud cover, for instance, can hide the brightest moon. And given that their intent was to arrest Jesus, the soldiers and guards were therefore prepared in case he attempted to hide in the shadows of the trees of the garden.
They were also carrying “weapons” in case Jesus, his disciples, or a possible crowd of persons in the vicinity resisted and became mob-like.
Verse 4. What did Jesus and his disciples do after they arrived at Gethsemane? According to the other Gospel writers, most of the disciples simply bedded down for the night. Jesus, however, asked three disciples to accompany him as he spent additional time in prayer. Just as Jesus was concluding his prayers, Judas arrived with the soldiers and guards and immediately identified Jesus by greeting him with a kiss and calling him, “Rabbi” (Matthew 26:48-49; Mark 14:44-45).
John didn’t say that this didn’t happen; but by telling us that Jesus “knew everything that was to happen to him,” he reminds us of Jesus’ words in 10:14-18.
John 10:17-18 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
If, indeed, no one can take Jesus’ life from him—rather, he decides to lay down his life—then Jesus must be fully in charge of those moments. Accordingly, Judas and his kiss-identifying act are rendered moot.
Fully in charge of the moment (even if Judas and the soldiers thought that they were), Jesus didn’t wait on them to come to him. He “went out” to them and demanded that they tell him, “Who are you looking for?”
Verse 5. Their actions signaling that Jesus was, indeed, in charge of the encounter, they responded that they had come for “Jesus the Nazarene” (Jesus was a common Jewish name in the first century; the added geographical appellation served the same point as a surname today; it clarified which Jesus they had come for).
In a parenthetical “Oh, by the way. . . . moment,” John remarked casually that Judas “was standing with” the soldiers.
The Common English Bible (CEB) is an English translation of the Bible whose language is intended to be at a comfortable reading level for the majority of English readers. This translation was completed in 2011.
Whereas most English translations of the Bible have Jesus acknowledge, “I am he,” the CEB’s “I Am” transforms a simple answer into the kind of divine declaration God made multiple times in the Old Testament (See, for instance, Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 41:4.).
Deut. 32:39 "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god besides me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand."
Isaiah 41:4 Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord—with the first of them and with the last—I am he.”
Which is correct? Based on grammar, both are correct. The difference is one of theological interpretation. Do I, the reader of John’s Gospel, think Jesus responded to the soldiers with a declaration of self-identity with God (which may have been understood as such by some of the Temple guards, but would almost certainly not have been by the Roman soldiers)? If so, the CEB is more accurate. If not, the other English translations are more accurate.
Verses 6-7. In what is almost an enacted version of Psalm 27:2, John noted that the soldiers and guards “shrank back and fell to the ground.”
6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.
Were they awestruck by a divine declaration they (mostly) had not understood as such? Were they taken aback by Jesus’ confident demeanor, unprepared to hear his calm words, expecting instead to surprise a skittish rebel at an awkward and inconvenient moment? Displaying again his complete control over the situation, Jesus again demanded that the soldiers and guards declare to him “who you are looking for.” Again, they responded, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
Verse 8. Having forced the soldiers and guards to declare twice that they had come for him and thus were not interested in his disciples, Jesus told them to “let these people [his disciples] go.”
By guaranteeing that his disciples could leave unhindered, Jesus effectively laid down his life for theirs. Reflecting on his sacrifice in light of the beatitude on peacemaking, one thing that mediators who involve themselves in the conflicts of others often discover is that even if their intervention ends up being successful, they themselves may still pay a heavy price for their peacemaking mediation.
Beyond the sacrifice that Jesus made for his disciples, it was clear to him, if not to his disciples (then or now), that the divinely appointed life and death struggle in which he was now caught up was his fight alone to endure—not theirs, not ours. Verse 9.
Reflecting on Jesus’ words to the soldiers and guards, John now inserted a narrative aside to his readers to explain why Jesus sought and obtained from them the safety of his disciples: His actions “fulfilled” “the word he had [previously] spoken.” On two separate occasions (the first time shortly after feeding 5,000 persons with five loaves and two fish [John 6:39]; the second time just prior to the episode in Gethsemane [17:12])—Jesus declared that he would not “lose” any of those [his disciples] whom his Father had given him.
After 2,000 years of credal belief in the divine status of Jesus as God’s Son, John’s aside may not register much surprise in Christian readers. But in the first century, “fulfilling” a “word spoken” was something a faithful Jew said only about God in Scripture, not about the comments of a living person.
Verse 10. With the tense situation seemingly under control, one of Jesus’ disciples suddenly went off script. Unable any longer to control himself, Simon Peter pulled from the folds of his robe a short “sword” (more akin to what we would call a dagger or long knife) and lunged at one of the persons near him, who just happened to be a servant of the high priest. He swung his dagger wildly and ended up “cutting off [the servant’s] right ear.”
As almost anyone who has mediated an important settlement, only to watch it fall apart due to the unscripted antics or careless comments of an aide, can testify, Peter’s unhelpful actions were hardly surprising. Still, we can perhaps sympathize with him, for we do not always recognize the will or way of God as it unfolds before us in real time, either.
Let me repeat that: we do not always recognize the will or way of God as it unfolds before us in real time.
Verse 11. Engaging in immediate (and successful) damage control, Jesus commanded Peter to “put your sword away.” He then reprimanded him for attempting to interfere with the divine significance of what was taking place: “Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me?” (See Matthew 20:22; 26:39, 42 for insight into the meaning of “the cup.”)
Matt. 20:22 22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered.
John understood fully Jesus’ perspective on what was happening. Jesus was not a victim of the Roman bureaucracy or the Jewish Sanhedrin. At its core, his arrest was not just a military strike coordinated by a Roman cohort and a few Jewish officials. It was the opening salvo of an extended divine action that intended to right a world gone wrong. It was what was required in real time because “God so loved the world”—“he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).
Blessed are those who don’t shy away from bringing the redeeming love of Jesus to places of conflict in our world, for God will treat them as beloved brothers and sisters of Jesus.
Let's close in prayer: God, peacemaking is hard work. It takes time and a degree of love that we’re not sure we want to invest when the results seem so iffy. Yet you sacrificed your Son and made peace with us, even though there were no guarantees that we would even care about what you did, much less respond with gratitude. Help us think carefully about what you did for your disciples—and for us—when you mediated their safety, committed to completing your peacemaking work. Amen.