The wisdom from above as seen in the life of Christ – Part 2 - Peaceable

"But the wisdom that is from above is first truly pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy."

 

The second attribute of the wisdom from above is that it is peaceable. Christ's life was a life lived out of peace and bringing peace. Even His birth was announced by angels singing peace on earth and goodwill to men. He came to restore peace between sinful men and sin-offended Deity. Not only that but the cost of the restoration was not to be born by the offender, but rather by the One who had a right to be offended. Yet, we read, "…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19). The cross showed God's willingness to overlook human sin and Christ's willingness to suffer on the cross was really only possible by a sort of provisional forgiveness, prior to His actually paying the price of sin. It would have been impossible for Him to actually suffer on behalf of sinners if there had not been some sort of shutting His eyes to their guilt against Him so He could actually pay the price. In light of the tremendous gulf that the cross thus bridged between man and God it is no wonder that it also brought down the wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:13-16). Since then the whole of Christ's coming was really a mission of peace from God between God and man, as well as, man and man, we see why peacemakers are in a special sense called the children of God, because they manifest something that was so dear to God's heart that He gave His Son to bring it about.

To further see just how peaceable Christ was I would like to highlight a few times where I see it especially manifested.

One instance of Christ's peaceableness was in His meek response to rejection by a Samaritan village. He merely went on to another village. His response is highlighted by the very different response of James and John who wanted to exact severe revenge on the place for its lack of hospitality (Luke 9:51-56). Jesus here, as well as in the case of Gadara (Matt. 8:28-9:1), showed the peace of leaving meekly when refused.

Another very revealing incident is found in Matthew 17:24-27. Here Christ works a miracle to pay the temple tax, after having showed Peter that as the Son of God the maintenance of the temple could not with propriety be expected of Him. His reason for paying the tax was simply not to offend the authorities. When we consider that these authorities were greedy men, who did not particularly need this extra source of income which they pressed out of the people, and more than that these very funds were going to go into the pockets of the ones who would soon crucify Him, we can perhaps see just how far it depends on us to live peaceably with all men (Rom. 12:18). Often we say we have done our part long before we really have.

The last episode I would like to look at in this all to brief view of Christ's peaceableness is the Last Supper. Here we see Him bringing peace into a situation where peace had been destroyed through ambition and self-seeking. Only a short time before James and John had produced displeasure in the other disciples by requesting special honours in Christ's Kingdom (Mark 10:35-45). Christ had told them then that the greatest in the kingdom was the one who was the servant, but He knew they needed another practical illustration of what He meant. So He took upon Himself the one task that had He requested it of any of His disciples they would have felt belittled. He directed the disciples away from their own position seeking when they saw the One who truly had preeminence take the place of the lowest servant. It must have shamed them all when they considered it in retrospect. It certainly made a deep impact on John, who begins his account of the footwashing by a realization that Christ knew full well His own divinity and all that was due to Him, and in full knowledge of this stopped to wash their feet (John 13:3-5). Christ here showed what it means to esteem others better than yourself in lowliness of mind (Phil. 2:3). In this act of humility Christ brought peace to His disciples, because contention comes only by pride. He also showed a way of peace which mankind has so little used in history, the wisdom of the locust (Prov. 30:27), which is able to work together without jostling for position and power. Even a cursory glance at history will show us just how much mankind has suffered because of striving for power and position to the detriment of any real progress. At best it results in a lot of effort that could be better used elsewhere, more often it results in actual destruction and infighting which not only hinders progress but actually brings destruction. By being willing to take the low place Christ showed Himself to be beyond any earthly king or ruler and indeed to be truly beyond human.

I hope that in this post we have seen just a little bit of the peaceable Christ. He first had peace and then He could say, "My peace I give to you." May we too know the peaceableness of wisdom. Amen.