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Matthew 5:9: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."
Many years ago, a pastor tells of walking through the crowded streets of Edinburgh, and he came upon
two small boys who were fighting.
Their fists were tiny, but were doing some severe damage.
There were onlookers who were curious but passive.
The pastor stepped between the boys, and asked , "Why are you fighting?"
A stream of bad words came from from both mouths simultaneously.
The pastor asked the boys: "If I gave each of you a penny, would you stop?"
They nodded eagerly for a penny which was a lot of money for them.
The pastor gave them the coins and then said, "Now shake hands with one another."
Instead, they hugged each other, and went walking down the street, leaving the pastor to consider
the ethics of his action.
Peacemaking is a divine activity according to Jesus.
But does peacemaking consist in breaking up fights with bribes or compromises or with threats of force?
Is there some other meaning to our Beatitude that does not appear upon the surface?
This pastor wondered if our Lord was saying "Well done" to my little intervention in Edinburgh,
or is there a more profound theological significance to the peacemaking that needs to be brought to light?"
At the time, he thought to himself that something was missing.
'He thought: "I had gone the first mile and had stopped the 'battle', but I had not really made peace,
I had only brought an armistice."
The fruit of righteousness, according to James, is first sown by the peacemakers (3:18).
To live the Christian life is to be peacemakers, so we had better find out what the Beatitude means.
Does it mean we are to seek disarmament in the world?
Are we to give our energies toward peace pacts in the Middle East, and in other wars.
Certainly it means this.
But before a man can make peace with anyone, he must first establish peace with God and with himself.
Let us remember that the Beatitudes are not simply platitudes and axioms of virtuous behavior.
They are really descriptions of Jesus Christ.
They are really what He taught.
He lived and was a peacemaker.
Christ is painting a portrait of Himself, and then depicting the "blessed" in whom His Spirit dwells.
He is not only the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
He is our Peace. (Ephesians 2:14)
Jesus Christ brings peace through the Cross.
He reconciles man to Himself, and He reconciles men with each other and he reconciles all to God.
He restores the divine fellowship that was broken by our stubbornness,
What kind of peacemaker is Jesus Christ.
We know His words: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you;
not as the world giveth, give I unto you." (John 14:27)
It is obvious that He is not speaking of world peace, but what other kind of peace is there?
How do we get it?
And what good is it?
Let us take another look at the Beatitude:
"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God," or to speak more exactly,
"the sons of God."
No other Beatitude has the same ending; our Lord must have had a special reason for choosing it.
Like father, like son.
Peacemakers are called sons of God because they resemble their Father, "The Peacemaker".
So, what Jesus is suggesting is,
"Blessed be God the Father, who makes peace, and blessed are all who follow His divine pattern."
The fruit of righteousness, according to James, is first sown by the peacemakers (3:18).
To live the Christian life is to be a peacemaker, so we must find out what this Beatitude means.
With these things in mind, let us study this beatitude by looking at certain matters of meaning in it.
First, there is the word, "peace".
In the Greek, the word is "eirene" , and in the Hebrew it is "shalom".
In the Hebrew, "peace" is never just a negative state.
It never means only the absence of trouble.
In Hebrew "peace" always means everything which makes for a man's highest good.
In the east when one man says to another, "Salaam," which is the same word; he does not mean
that he wishes for the other man only the absence of evil things.
He wishes for him the presence of all good things.
In the Bible, "peace," means not only freedom from all trouble; it also means enjoyment of all good.
Second, we must carefully take note of what the beatitude is saying.
The blessing is on the peacemakers, not necessarily on the peace-lovers.
It very often happens that if a man loves peace in the wrong way, he succeeds in making trouble and not peace.
For instance, we may allow a threatening and dangerous situation to develop, and our defense is
that for the sake of peace, we do not want to take any action.
There is many who think that he is loving peace, when in fact he is piling up trouble for the future
because he refuses to face the situation and to take the action which the situation demands.
The "peace" which the Bible calls "blessed" does not come from the evasion of issues.
It comes from facing them, dealing with them, and conquering them.
What this beatitude demands is not the passive acceptance of things because we are afraid of the trouble
of doing anything about them, but it is the active facing of things,
and the making of peace, even when the way to peace is through struggle.
The King James Version says that the peacemakers shall be called the children of God.
The Greek more literally is that the peacemakers will be called the sons (huioi) of God.
This is a typical Hebrew way of expression.
The Hebrew is not rich in adjectives, and often when the Hebrew wishes to describe something,
it uses, not an adjective, but the phrase son of... plus an abstract noun.
So a man may be called a son of peace instead of a peaceful man.
Barnabas is called a son of consolation instead of a consoling and comforting man.
This beatitude says: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God."
It means: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be doing a God-like work."
The man who makes peace is engaged on the very work which the God of peace is doing.
(Romans 15:33; 2 Corinthians 13:11; 1 Thessalonians.5:23; Hebrews 13:20).
The meaning of this beatitude has been suggested along three main lines.
First, it has been suggested that, since "shalom" means everything which makes for a man's highest good,
this beatitude means: "Blessed are those who make this world a better place for all men to live in."
Abraham Lincoln once said: "Die when I may, I would like it to be said of me, that I always pulled up a weed
and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."
This then would be the beatitude of those who have lifted the world a little further on.
Second, most of the early scholars of the Church took this beatitude in a purely spiritual sense,
and held that it meant: Blessed is the man who makes peace in his own heart and in his own soul."
In every one of us there is an inner conflict between good and evil.
We are always pulled in two directions at once.
Every man is to some extent a walking civil war.
Happy indeed is the man who has won through to inner peace, in which the inner warfare is over,
and his whole heart is given to God.
Third, there is another meaning for this word "peace".
It is a meaning on which the Jewish Rabbis loved to dwell, and it is almost certainly the meaning which
Jesus had in His mind.
The Jewish Rabbis held that the highest task which a man can perform is to establish right relationships
between man and man.
That is what Jesus means.
Jesus Christ brings peace through the Cross.
He reconciles man to Himself, and He reconciles men with each other and he reconciles all to God.
He restores the divine fellowship that was broken by our stubbornness,
John 14:27 tells us the kind of peacemaker Jesus Christ is.
Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you."
It is obvious that He is not speaking of world peace, but what other kind of peace is there?
How is it made?
And what good is it?
“Peace does not mean the end of all our striving,
Joy does not mean the drying of our tears;
Peace is the power that comes to souls arriving
Up to the light where God Himself appears.
— Studdert Kennedy
There are people who are storm-centers of trouble and bitterness and strife.
Wherever they are, they are either involved in quarrels themselves or the cause of quarrels between others.
They are trouble-makers.
There are people like that in almost every society and every Church, and such people are doing the devil's own work.
On the other hand, thank God, there are people in whose presence bitterness cannot live,
people who bridge the gulfs, and heal the breaches, and sweeten the bitternesses.
Such people are doing a godlike work, for it is the great purpose of God to bring peace between men and himself,
and between man and man.
The man who divides men is doing the devil's work; the man who unites men is doing God's work.
So, then, this beatitude might read:
"O the bliss of those who produce right relationships between man and man, for they are doing a godlike work!"
This concludes the seventh Beatitude.
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