Terms of Peace

Gospel: Luke 24: 35-48

Imagine belonging to a group of people who, over the course of a week or so, have betrayed, denied, and abandoned your leader who was arrested and executed.  While he was suffering a horrid public execution with a crowd mocking him, you and your cohorts lock yourselves away in a room, concerned primarily with your own safety and security.  What is more, you have disbelieved and laughed at a group of women and two men who insist they have seen your leader risen from the dead.  

Now, today, your leader appears in your midst in the locked away room.  You are frightened, as you fully expect a severe rebuke and punishment for all your actions over the last week or so.  Yet, he stands before you and says, "Peace be with you." No rebuke.  No lecture or scolding.  He offers you peace.  This is a shocking and remarkable occurrence.  

It is at this point that you remember his words on the night before he died:  "As I have done, so also you must do."  If we, who have done such horrible deeds have been forgiven and offered peace by the one whom we offended, then we must do likewise to those who have offended us.  To be a Christian is to imitate the Lord, to do for others what he has done for us.  The tools of a Christian are a towel and wash basin, not a sword and spear.