The Rule of Life: The Persecuted Peacemakers

The Persecuted Peacemakers

Chained5 Matthew 5:9-11

We’ve been moving through the Beatitudes as the preamble to the Sermon on the Mount, and today we come to the last three, which are kind of a summation of the kind of character that Jesus is outlining for his disciples. The ones who are “blessed” are blessed in order to be a blessing, and thus their character reveals a very different kind of blessedness to the rest of the world.

So, before we look at these last three, let’s remember where we’ve been: In the first three Beatitudes, we learned that the poor in spirit, or those who have renounced themselves, become those who mourn over the pain of the world, which leads them to become the terrible meek, or those who want nothing from the world except to work for its redemption.

In the second three beatitudes, we balance the self-emptying life of the terrible meek with the God-filled life of the pure in heart—those who combine a passion for justice and a heart of mercy.

Take those two together, the terrible meek and the pure in heart, and their character naturally begins to take on a vocation for the world—they become the peacemakers.

Jesus makes an interesting word choice here, given the setting of the Sermon on the Mount in the midst of Roman occupation. Roman emperors were famously called both “peacemakers” and “sons of god.” Their way of making peace, however, was by killing off all their enemies, and being a son of god was a product of declaring themselves divine. When Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be sons of God,” he is indirectly mocking the predominant worldview of Caesar and power.

For Jesus, peacemaking wasn’t the absence of conflict, as the next two Beatitudes will reveal. It also wasn’t about maintaining the status quo. There’s a difference between peacemaking and peacekeeping. Peacekeeping is about maintaining the boundaries between warring groups, like when the UN sends in troops to keep two factions apart. Peacemaking, on the other hand, is neither about eliminating the opposition or keeping it at bay. For Jesus, peacemaking involves the audacious and active pursuit of reconciliation and change.

Remember back to our series on systems in the spring, where we talked about emotional triangles? We said that any given system of relationships carries with it some inherent anxiety, and when the anxiety becomes chronic, the conflicted parties will always attempt to triangulate in a third party to help them relieve their stress. Simply put, if I’m in conflict with you, I deal with my anxiety about it by talking to someone else. We never directly confront the person with whom we’re in conflict, thus the system always maintains the status quo or “homeostasis.” People believe that they’re maintaining peace, but they’re really hampering progress.

If you’re the third party in an emotional triangle, then, the best way to achieve real reconciliation and change is to bring the two conflicted parties to the table together. The one who does this must be resolute and willing to deal with the pain and sabotage of  one or the other or both of the conflicted parties as they will continue to try and maintain the homeostasis.

I think this is what Jesus means when he says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” They are the ones who are resolute and active in their pursuit of reconciliation and justice between humans in conflict with each other, whether the conflict is between families, races, cultures, or countries. The peacemakers, in other words, are those who stand in the gap and are willing to engage conflict with peace, to work for justice, and stay in that gap for as long as is necessary despite the sabotage that will inevitably come from those who are unmotivated or unwilling to change.

That’s why Jesus balances peacemaking with the second Beatitude in this triad—blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness (justice)’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Persecution and sabotage are the inevitable result of standing in the gap between conflicted parties and attempting their reconciliation. The anxious parties in conflict will always transfer their anxiety to the one who tries to get them to deal their own anxiety and conflict. Remember, they want to maintain the status quo, and they will fight, sometimes violently, to maintain it. Peacemaking inevitably leads to persecution for the peacemaker. As E. Stanley Jones puts it, “Peacemakers must get used to the sight of their own blood.”

This was certainly true of Jesus himself. In his day there were a variety of groups who were always in conflict with each other: the Pharisees were the righteous law keepers, who hated the Sadduccees, the liberal elites. The temple officials were the puppets of the Roman government, while the zealots were fomenting violent revolt against Rome. These groups hated each other—and yet they all united in their hatred of Jesus and made sure he got nailed to a cross. The one who tried to change the status quo and reconcile them to a new way of peace, the way of the kingdom of heaven, endured the ultimate persecution. In this Beatitude, Jesus tells his disciples that they can expect the same treatment.

Real persecution is the result of peacemaking and working for justice. Those who have followed Jesus in this way have always seen their own blood. I had a conversation this week with a former Catholic priest, David Stang, who was telling me about his sister, Dorothy, who was a missionary in Brazil and who stood in the gap between the poor peasants of the Amazon and the loggers who were destroying their livelihood. Seeking a peaceful resolution, Dorothy was walking to a meeting about the issue on February 12, 2005 and was confronted on the path by two gunmen who were sent to keep her from speaking there. Here’s a video of her story…


 

Time and again we’ve seen them—the persecuted peacemakers—people like Dorothy Stang, and like thousands of others we’ve never heard of who have lived and died for peace and justice in hundreds of other places around the world.

Blessed are the peacemakers (thesis) and blessed are the persecuted (antithesis). That leads to the synthesis—“Blessed are you when people revile and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Rejoice and be glad? How is that even possible? Well, only the persecuted peacemaker can really know. They rejoice because they are persecuted for doing something worth persecuting! They rejoice because they are walking directly in the footsteps of Jesus and the prophets. They rejoice because their peacemaking, even if it costs them their own blood, is making change possible.

If we take Jesus seriously here, then we begin to realize that one of the major hindrances to real discipleship is the Christian obsession with being liked and recognized. What passes for persecution among most American Christians is really just a desire to be popular again, like it was in the “good old days.” We think we’re being persecuted, for example, when we don’t have public prayer in public schools, or if someone leaves out “under God” in the pledge of allegiance, or if Tim Tebow, a devout Christian quarterback, doesn’t get to start for the Broncos. American Christians have a lot of anxiety, and they see the culture as the enemy, so they try to triangle in the government or the media or even their churches to their side, complaining about how the culture is persecuting them. As I said last week, many Christians are anything but glad most of the time.

It’s hard to believe that Jesus cares about these things, however. Jesus got persecuted for doing things like speaking the truth to political and religious power, not courting it. He got persecuted for handing out free healthcare to the poor and the outcasts, especially when he operated the clinic on the wrong holiday. He got persecuted for sitting down at the table with disreputable people. He got persecuted for challenging those who wanted recognition for their public prayers. He got persecuted for speaking a message of peace that included love for enemies and not their destruction. He got persecuted for saying that people could be reconciled to God and have their sins forgiven.

Jesus told his disciples that they, too, would be persecuted on account of him—in other words, for doing what Jesus was doing. It’s only if we’re not doing what Jesus did that we have to manufacture artificial persecutions. Not having a prayer over the loudspeaker at school isn’t persecution. Receiving ridicule for eating lunch with the kid who everyone else has rejected, however, might qualify. Leaving out “under God” from the pledge isn’t persecution. Doing something about the fact that millions of people have been left out of a chance for adequate health care, however, might get you there.

 The truth is that if you’re always seeking recognition, respect and legitimacy, then you’re probably not engaged in peacemaking. If everybody loves you, then you’re probably not carrying a cross. In Luke, Jesus approaches this beatitude from the opposite side: “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). Friedman says essentially the same thing when talking about systems: “What is always absent from chronically anxious, regressed families [and societies] is a member who can get himself or herself outside of its reactive, herding, blaming, quick-fix processes sufficiently to take stands. It has to be someone who is not…in need of approval…” (89). Peacemakers are only concerned about God’s approval. They take principled, well-defined stands that reflect the character, compassion, and concern of Christ.

To be a peacemaker is to be one who stands in the gap, one who moves toward conflict, one who seeks reconciliation and change, and one who is willing to endure the pain, persecution, and sabotage that may even cost you your life, figuratively or literally. When the persecution comes, the peacemaker rejoices because it’s a sign that he or she is probably doing the right thing. It’s the peacemakers who change the world, which is why the coming kingdom is theirs—they’re already working it!

We have much to learn from our Christian brothers and sisters in other countries, who daily engage in peacemaking, standing in the gap between humans in conflict and between humans and God. Their faith is anything but popular, and yet they are instruments of peace.

On this World Communion Sunday, we want to remember them as they gather in churches, in homes, in basements, in barrios, in hidden rooms—sharing their own communion and praying, like we do, for the kingdom to come. My prayer is that we would follow their example and once again take up Jesus’ call to be peacemakers in our homes, our workplaces, our schools, in our communities. The church must no longer be primarily concerned about its popularity but rather in its ability to effect lasting reconciliation, justice, and change between people and between people and God.

When I was a kid we used to be asked a question in youth group that has stuck with me all these years. The question goes something like this: If you were put on trial for being a disciple of Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Put another way, we might ask, “Are you willing to do something worth persecuting—something that reflects the peace and justice of Jesus?”

In our membership vows there is this question that we ask of every candidate: Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?

Well, where is evil, injustice, and oppression present in your every day world? Where is there an opportunity for you to stand in the gap? What price are you willing to pay to be a disciple of Jesus, and suffer for others, for Jesus’ sake?

 

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