John 14:27-31, Peace I Leave With You

27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. 

How are you doing in the peace department? We live in a broken world with suffering all around us. In the midst of this, can we still have peace? We can have the peace that Jesus gives. It is quite different than the peace of the world. 

The United States has attempted to bring peace in Iraq and Libya and Syria. Like the pax Romana, the imposed peace brought about by force is no peace. The peace Jesus offers is a peace born of his personal living presence in us. The Holy Spirit made this peace available to his disciples and to us today. It is a peace bought with a price by Jesus, by his “going away,” his dying. 

Jesus calls us to trust in him and in his work, only then can we begin to banish our anxiety. He also calls his disciples and us to quit thinking about ourselves so much and to think about him. He calls us to rejoice in his “unpeaceful” suffering on our behalf bought about by the ruler of this word, Satan. Yet Satan has no claim on Jesus. Satan will have an apparent victory, but it is only one that the Father permits for the word’s redemption in Jesus’ final act of sacrificial love. As Stott writes, “Even in the fire of hell he will be seen to be the Lord whose love for his own is matched only by his love for the Father.” The love of Jesus brings us true and everlasting peace. 

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen. (BCP)