Republished from Johanna Chen’s blog on www.migrationandfaith.com
Recently I’ve been waking up most mornings with a deep heartache over the brokenness in the world. I’ve spent the last year immersed in lectures and coursework for my master’s in international development and humanitarian emergencies–topics which don’t inherently lend themselves to particularly deep peace or settledness. If anything, my heartache grew and I spent much of my time walking around London praying and talking with the Lord about these things.
Anxiety has become more familiar to me in these past few years than it ever used to be and if I don’t guard my heart against it, the anxiety and feelings of being overwhelmed can make it incredibly difficult for peace and hope to rise in my heart.
In wrestling with these feelings, I’ve been struck by a sobering reality: Most people want peace. Few people, however, want to do the hard work of making peace. In pop cultural references today, it’s easy to picture Jesus as a hippie–someone who loved peace and went around spreading messages of goodness, love, and hope. But the reality is that Jesus does not call us simply to love peace or wish for it, rather He calls us to actively be peacemakers.
The Biblical Foundation for Peacemaking
In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, He declared: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). In Romans 12:18, Paul instructs the believers to “live at peace with everyone…as far as it depends on you.” This isn’t a passive calling.
It’s an invitation to join God in the work of reconciliation — healing relationships, breaking down walls of hostility, and planting seeds of righteousness.
Peace is more than just the absence of conflict but rather from a Biblical perspective involves the active participation of reconciliation. Biblical peacemaking invites us to be wise about how to engage and go about peacemaking–James 3:17-18 reminds us that
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.
Why Peacemaking is Central to Christian Witness
The Bible explains how when we were still far off from God, God brought us near through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ himself bridged the unbridgeable–the greatest gap between humanity and God.
For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us…Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death (Ephesians 2:13-14,16).
Jesus bridges the gap, bringing us near to Himself surpassing human division, hostility, and our own sin. Just as Jesus reconciles us to God (Colossians 1:20-22), we are also called to be ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) in our broken world.
As the Peace and Reconciliation Network and Tyndale Intercultural Ministry Team put it: “We are convinced the Church is the Body of Christ to represent God wherever a society suffers from conflicts, injustice, divisions, and brokenness.”
But what does this actually look like in our daily lives, our churches, and our communities? How do we move from understanding our calling to living it out? For more check out www.migrationandfaith.com, where Johanna explores practical ways we can embody Christ’s reconciling love in a world fractured by division and injustice.
