Jer 28: 5 Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah before the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord. 6 He said, “Amen! May the Lord do so! May the Lord fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the Lord’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon. 7 Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: 8 From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. 9 But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true.”
Peace, Peace. We hear much talk in these days of peace. There is always much talk and wish of peace. Often at no cost. Often, as the false prophet Hananiah did modern voices cry out with their competing promises of peace. Promising an end to war, to famine, to pestilence, to poverty. Promising an end without a means to it. And often, today, we hear a promise of peace that sounds like the gospel of the Pharisees. An end to suffering, if only we “do” something. If only we fight one more fight with the Babylonians, if only we bargain or persuade correctly then the king to let us go and we can have peace. But the peace that we often wish for, the end to tyranny, to sickness, to poverty or pain, creates a peaceless peace. Yes, we may receive a cure for whatever plague is ravaging us at a given time, but you will never escape death. We may lessen the blow of financial inequality for a time, but eventually, greed will take hold once again. The peace we often desire, the one without a cost, the one that we create, gives us no peace at all.
So, you say to me, Connor, we desire true peace, tell us of the peace that is everlasting. Yes, dear Christian, I know of such a peace. But I warn you it may look nothing like peace at first. It may look indeed, like a sword. It may look like families torn apart, like martyrdom, like persecution, indeed brethren it may look like a 33-year-old Jewish man beaten, flogged, stripped naked, and hung on a cross to die. It is a dangerous peace. This peace will leave you in broken pieces upon the floor, I promise you that. Because this peace is not a worldly peace but a spiritual one. It is peace from the torment of the law. St. Paul teaches us in the letter to the Romans that we were once bound to the law, living under its accusation and condemnation for the things we did, the things we didn’t do, for who and what we are, namely, not enough. Not holy, not righteous, not God. Condemned. But in the 7th chapter of this letter, he also teaches that a woman is bound to her husband only as long as they both live. Once her husband dies there no longer remains a binding law of faithfulness to her spouse. And as he proclaims in the 7th chapter to you, so it is with your soul. You were once bound to the law. It once proclaimed to you day and night do this, don’t do this, and it was never done. Its standard was never met. Day after day you were met with a fresh accusation; you didn’t give that beggar a coin, you yelled at your kids, you got angry when the driver in the lane next to you was moving too slow. But Paul says to you, Christ says to you, stop. Stop trying to be good enough. Stop trying to save your life, your soul, your reputation, just stop it. “I will bring a sword,” He says. Or rather, a spear. And when this spear is thrust into my side and I am pronounced dead, so to will be your sins. You died to the law through the body of Christ. The peace that surpasses all understanding is now handed to you in the sacrament of the altar in the form of Christ’s body, broken into pieces for you for the forgiveness of your sins. That brethren is true peace. Jeremiah spoke of a prophet that was “truly sent by God.” And he said that this prophet would be recognized when His prediction came true. The greatest prophecy that was ever given was spoken by the lips of Christ when He said “the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day”, “that he who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” That my friends are the greatest prophecy that has ever been spoken. And that prophecy was fulfilled by Christ, our prophet, our priest, and our king. This is true peace; in and through Christ you have died to the law, your sin, guilt, and shame, is no more. You have been clothed in the righteousness and purity of the Son of God, and are adopted by the Father as His own. I will leave you with these words of Christ from John 16:33 regarding peace; “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world,” Amen.
