A Year-Long Journey Through the Sermon on the Mount: Week 11

Chapter 11 – Peacemaking

 

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matt 5:9)

 

I’ve always thought myself to be a peacekeeper. I dislike arguments, or when people are fighting. Conflict makes me uncomfortable. I has once considered joining the military, but I couldn’t imagine firing a gun at anyone or being shot at, for that matter. Besides all of that, God’s commandments to us are based on love – love God and love your neighbour. Well how can you love your neighbour while also fighting with them?

 

According to John Dear, when Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, he means that “we cannot support war, participate in war, pay for war, promote war, or wage war. A peacemaker works to end war and create peace.” (63) While I don’t disagree with this notion of a peacemaker, and that overall nothing good comes from war, there are reasons to fight back – against oppression, against racism, against, homophobia and transphobia, against anything that puts a person as less than another person.

 

The second half of this beatitude states that peacemakers will be children of God. We are all children of God, and we all deserve space in this world. But does rolling over and taking what’s handed to us bring us closer to being children of God? By declaring oneself to be a pacifist and not willing to fight back, doesn’t that take away from loving the neighbour?

 

Again, I say, nothing good comes from war. But a peacemaker shouldn’t be seen as someone who stand idly by while God’s creation is destroyed. A peacemaker is someone willing to stand up for their fellow human being, to fight for their right to exist, and to come to their defense when being attacked. Does this resistance need to be violent? No, but too often a peacemaker is viewed as someone unwilling to go into battle for their neighbour.

 

I think it’s time we reenvisioned what it means to be a peacemaker.