THE MESSAGE OF PEACE
‘Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.’
The disciples’ sad and gloomy meeting was suddenly interrupted. A new and strange Presence is felt among them, and looking up they see Jesus standing in the midst.
I. Think first of Christ’s action.—He shows the disciples His hands and His side. What a proof of love was this! He shows the marks of His Passion. It was like calling up the Passion before them and reminding them of what He had done for them. But the great thing was that it showed Him to be the same as He had ever been. The Saviour loves to keep the marks of His Passion—those marks by which we may know Him. He keeps them still in heaven, for He Whom John saw in heaven—the Deliverer Who alone was strong enough to open the sealed book—was ‘a Lamb as it had been slain’; and it is to the Lamb that the worship of heaven is paid: ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.’ So He joins His Death and Resurrection together for our comfort.
II. And now listen to the Saviour’s words.—‘Peace be unto you.’ What wonderful—what blessed words to bring back from the grave—the very words they needed most! Their hearts were sad and heavy, dragged hither and thither with doubt and perplexity, and so He says, ‘Peace.’ ‘Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?’ ‘Peace be unto you.’ They were tormented with reproaches and regrets. They had served Him so badly—had acted so differently from what they had intended. Would He—even if it were true that He had risen—would He ever look upon them with favour again? Would He not be altogether estranged from them? And, lo! He comes, and, without a word of reproach or complaint, says, ‘Peace be unto you.’
III. That is His message to us.—That is the message of Easter—peace. Christ is here amongst us (though we cannot see Him) with words and thoughts of peace. ‘Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them,’ and wherever He is, He brings peace with Him, for ‘He is our peace, Who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us … so making peace.’ If you have been trying to kill your sins and bury them with Christ, then Easter Day brings the message of peace. It is not that the war is over—that there is nothing more to do. But we know that Christ has died for our sins and risen again—that He has conquered, and that we in Him may conquer too. The struggle is not over—never will be this side of the grave; but in the midst of the struggle—in doubt, and fear, and temptation—we shall still have peace and joy and hope.
—Rev. F. J. Middlemist.
Illustration
‘ “Peace be unto you.” In the Greek it is only two words, “Peace to you.” Peace was the legacy of love He left with His people. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.” And He closed His farewell discourses to His people with this word “peace.” “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace” (John 16:33). And what is peace? It is “joy reposing”; it is that true contentment, that quietness of mind, which flows from simple faith in Christ. It is the sweet calm in the soul of the forgiven sinner. And ever since the first Easter evening, from age to age, especially when His people have been persecuted, tempted, desolate, has Christ come to them and whispered, “Peace.” He has given them a peace which passeth all understanding of man by nature, a peace which the world cannot give, and a peace which passeth not away.’