Gospel Mandate for Peace

Jesus said,
"If two make peace between them
in the same house,
they will say to the mountain
'move,'
and it will move."
Gospel of Thomas, logion 48

The Day of Resurrection teaches that God's love shows no partiality (Acts 10:34). No one is dispensable or disposable. There is a toughness to God's impartial love. We see this in the resurrection. God's love is stronger than death.

Frederick Buechner writes in his book Wishful Thinking: "One of the titles by which Jesus is known is Prince of Peace. And he used the word himself in what seem at first glance to be two radically contradictory utterances. On one occasion he said to the disciples, 'Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword' (Matt. 10:34). And later on, the last time they ate together, he said to them, 'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you' (John 14:27). the contradiction is resolved when you realize that for Jesus peace seems to have meant not the absence of struggle but the presence of love."

Peace also means the breaking down of boundaries in the Letter to the Ephesians: "For (Christ Jesus) is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups (Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female) into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.... so he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:14, 17-18).

One thinks of peace and the breaking down of boundaries as the President of the United States meets with Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, May 20. The dividing wall in Israel seems to be one that is made of much more than concrete. Come Lord Jesus, bring peace.