Peace we can pack
“Peace be with you,” he said.
Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”
— John 20:19c, 21
Peace is a tall order these days. We may have mastered inner peace, or, in reality, we may be mastering the process of inner peace. Global peace, however, now that’s a whole other story.
Yet peace is what Jesus calls for and bestows upon his overwhelmed, frightened, and torn-up crew who have been hiding behind a locked door the Sunday evening after His resurrection. Into the world that is regularly overwhelmed, sometimes frightened, and often torn-up, Jesus sends his disciples, and, in turn, all of us into the mess, the mud and the mire. We are ill-equipped. He isn’t. And this is where it gets exciting. This is the fertile place where faith is seen and hope is restored. This is where peace makes its stand. Anger and crime may wash over peace, but peace, which is typically quiet but can get loud on a bad day, always remains standing.
Having said it twice, Jesus is persistent with peace upon His return from His three-day trip that was, to say the least, NOT peaceful. Having been in hell, He knows we need peace. He also knows we jeopardize, taint, or ripple peace because we can be the ones with anger and small-time crime (which are infractions we inflict intentionally and unintentionally).
The relief here is that Jesus gets it. His Father sent Him. He is sending us. The joy here is that Jesus isn’t sending us ill-equipped; He is sending us with peace we can pack, pull out and share when needed.
PRAYER: We are (and are not!) ready to be sent out. You know this. Send us anyway. Amen.