What Brings Peace?

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"When He approached [Jerusalem], He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.'" (Luke 19:41-42)

What brings peace?

We're all looking for a little peace in our lives -- from the mighty to the meek. We put up fences to make peace with the neighbors. We trim our lawns for peace with our HOA. We obey our bosses in order to have peace at work. And we look for the path of least resistance at home so we have pace within our own marriages and our own walls.

But is peace guaranteed?

When Jesus approached Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey, he saw the city walls, the temple, and the crowds gathered to welcome him as messiah and king. But his disposition was not one of joy and pride. It was sorrow. After all, he was a "man of sorrows" (Isa. 53). What troubled him was that the people who lived in the city didn't know what brought true peace to their lives. And in five days they would reject the peace that Jesus brought into Jerusalem's walls. They were too busy looking for peace elsewhere. Perhaps many saw peace at the end of a sword. Maybe others saw peace as obedience to the scribes and Pharisees.

But the only lasting peace is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Our Lord told his disciples in the upper room, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful (John 14:27)." Why? As he would explain over the next few chapters, peace comes in the knowledge that Jesus has overcome this world and its systems of war. He has overcome temptation and in a few days he would overcome death. And through our relationship with him, we, too, can overcome this world and have peace. Not in a militant way, mind you, but a spiritual way. We need not fear this world.

But the inhabitants of Jerusalem weren't looking to Jesus for peace. So he wept for them. And I weep for my neighbors who strive and struggle for peace in their hearts but fail to find it because they have not turned to the Prince of Peace. It truly is sad.

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