Beauty: Peaceful Bridge Builders in a War-Torn World (Part 1)

"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." (Mt.5:9)

"Blessed are the peaceful bridge builders in a war-torn world, 

for they are God's children working in the family business."

(Brian Zahnd paraphrase)

We are now on the seventh beatitude, and in his commentary on this one, Brian Zahnd says that in order to understand the significance of these words we need to get past our focus on personal peace as western Christians. Jesus' words mean much more than that (though they include that). "In a world drunk on hate and tearing itself apart in hostility, the reign of Christ brings peace in the fullest sense of the word." The prophets called the Messiah the Prince of Peace and He is that today as well as in the future when He will establish His earthly throne.

When Jesus was born, Caesar Augustus was reigning and had the title of "Prince of Peace" and "Bringer of World Peace." On one level Rome did bring some peace to the world but it was through violence and the squashing of any dissent; the death on a Roman cross was the means to keep rebels under control. While Rome brought peace through violence, Jesus brought it through forgiveness and as followers of His we are called to the radical alternative of forgiveness in the way we walk today.

"...he (Jesus) took the ultimate instrument of violence and turned it into the ultimate emblem of forgiveness...he is blessing those who make peace the way he makes peace...As long as we feel we can justify violence as a legitimate way to bring about peace, we will eventually resort to it...If the state feels that violence is unavoidable in achieving their ends, so be it, but the church must speak with a unified voice and tell the state they employ violence without the blessing of God."

On the cross Jesus shamed the idea that peace can be achieved by force when he renounced force in favor of forgiveness, which is the greatest expression of the love of God for all people.

Because the "family business" in God's kingdom is that of peace-making, we who name Jesus can and should demonstrate the family likeness through working to make peace in whatever way possible in our daily lives including that of working with "the other" (those who are different from us). This is another way that the beauty of the Prince of Peace saves the world.

In the second part of this I want to write out part of a statement that Brian Zahnd wrote on behalf of himself and two friends of his (Jewish and Muslim). It exemplifies what he is challenging the reader with in this particular interpretation of beatitude #7.