Jesus presented himself to a group of his disciples who were in hiding. Completely ignoring the locked door, He proclaimed, “Peace be with you,” but that didn’t do it. He had to first address the elephant in the room. Jesus had to provide some answers and explanations. He just died on the cross of Golgatha! Once he showed them his wounds, once he acknowledged his own death, then the disciples could entertain his resurrection. If Jesus glossed over his death and just said, “Peace be with you, let’s get back to work.” No peace would be had.
Peace is, therefore, contextual! It is how the unknown reality applies to our lives. Jesus had defeated death, but his disciples didn’t know that. Once they knew, peace took root. The scriptures are so powerful because they spell out truths that aren’t obvious. We seek to learn all the things God has set in motion for us. One of the most remarkable things about peace is it never changes the situation! It changes the greater context of the situation or our perspective of the situation. It reveals a glimpse of God’s greater plan for us and how he’ll accomplish it with us, and how worth it it’ll be.
The word talks about peace beyond understanding, I think this is an example of peace through understanding. For us, it often takes deliberate work to obtain knowledge, but then the Spirit teaches us what it means. Then we share in the revelation of Jesus’s mortal wounds on his perfect body and receive the same peace those disciples did.
Jonathon Duncan
EFCC Member