Are You A Peacemaker Or Peacekeeper

God blesses those who work for peace,

for they will be called the children of God.

This verse appears at the beginning of what has been called ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ and I think that we need to, as we should always do, understand and acknowledge the context of this verse before we go any further.

This particular segment of chapter 5 is also called the Beatitudes. It begins with verse 3 and ends with verse 10. Each verse describes what Jesus indicates that God the Father acknowledges or blesses when it comes to certain character traits. Those traits are basically ones that indicate a pursuit for God and what is right and just as well as a desire to be humble, pure in heart, and merciful. They are what Jesus expects His followers to develop over the course of the rest of their lives.

Now just prior to verse 9 we read in verse 8 ‘God blesses those whose hearts are pure,

for they will see God.’ I like what John Stott says about this placement.

‘The sequence of thought from purity of heart to peacemaking is natural, because one of the most frequent causes of conflict is intrigue, while openness and sincerity are essential to all true reconciliation.’ In other words, if we become pure in our hearts where our motives and intentions reside, peace stands a greater chance of developing in our relationships with others as a mark of our Christian character.

Of course, as Stott goes on to remark and as verse 10 says, there is a price to be paid for such commitment to peace. A price that is costly.

Now for our purposes for today, we note that Matthew writes the word that is translated ‘peacemaker’ not ‘peacekeeper.’ What is the difference between the two?

A look at the ending of both words is helpful here. To make something is to create something. There is a measure of some control over the situation or creation.

To keep something requires the ability to hang on to control. There is a measure of some control here but what has been created is required either to be kept in check or taken care of in some fashion.

The University of Colorado’s Conflict Research Consortium defines peacemaking and peacekeeping as follows:

(Slide 8) Peacekeeping means keeping people from attacking each other by putting some kind of barrier between them

(Slide 9) Peacemaking is the process of forging a settlement between the disputing parties

Which is easier to do? (Ask for a show of hands.) Is it easier to be a peacekeeper or a peacemaker?

Granted both are hard. But keeping the peace is something that, I think, we spend a great deal of time doing. Jesus calls us to be peacemakers. The difference between the two is big.

Pastor Ed Sansett, in a sermon on peacemaking, offers some very insightful thoughts regarding what peace means in our day and age and what Jesus meant by peace. He notes, “English, Greek, and Hebrew have a slightly different slant on the idea of peace. In English the word peace means an absence of conflict or strife. It has about it the idea of serenity. If Israel and Hezbollah (and today Hamas) would stop bombing one another you would hear reporters say that peace has returned to the region. They’d only mean that there was an absence of conflict and strife.