We have all heard of the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2024, and the military responses and counter-responses. That deplorable conflict, far from over, is now further complicated by evidence of mass starvation, allegations of genocide in Gaza, and Israeli “pogroms” against Palestinians living in Israel.
And this is merely one military conflict among many. As one of our own poets has said:
Conquistador of Mexico
The Zulu and the Navaho
The Belgians in the Congo, short memory.Plantation in Virginia
The Raj in British India
The deadline in South Africa, short memory.The story of El Salvador
The silence of Hiroshima
Destruction of Cambodia, short memory.Short memory, must have a short memory.
Short memory, must have a short memory.
And military conflict between nations is just one type of conflict among many. Family violence, fear and greed, misunderstandings, personality differences, and broken friendships all contribute to the absence of tranquillity and wellbeing in our lives and communities.
Into our broken and hurting world comes the clear, calm voice of Jesus in Matthew 5:9, the Seventh Beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
This is the only time the New Testament writers use the word, “peacemakers.” It probably relates to all kinds of conflict, from interpersonal quarrels to world wars. Beatitudes 5-8 are what I call the active Beatitudes, calling us to concrete action in following the Way of Jesus. They are general calls to which we may attach specific practices: to act with mercy, to cultivate purity of heart, to engage in peacemaking, and to live righteously and embody justice in the face of active persecution.
Salvation, and the privilege of participation in God’s kingdom, is never earned, but it requires effort. If you think even briefly on any conflict situation you are aware of, you will almost certainly recognise that it is complex, and its solution likewise may be difficult or multi-layered. We may be tempted to give up, and assume that peace is at best an aspiration, and ending a serious quarrel is often beyond us, and that world peace is most certainly an unattainable utopia.
But peace is what Jesus calls us to make. He does not ask us to be peaceable, although that would be a good start. Nor does Jesus call us to be peace-keepers, brokers of a fragile truce between warring parties, although such work is admirable. Jesus calls us to make the peace: to bring into being a social good that does not yet exist in this or that context.
The Sermon on the Mount does not merely, if at all, set out to show poor sinners how incapable they are to attain their own salvation, drive them to their knees, and compel them to plead for mercy. One of the aims of the entire Sermon (Matthew chapters 5-7), and especially the Beatitudes, “is to set us on our feet again and to give us the strength to go out and be a help.”[1]
The enemies of peacemaking are self-assertiveness, lack of empathy, and a divisive spirit. We could add apathy to that list. Of all people, Christians should be marked by self-denial, an abundance of empathy, and a spirit of unity and fellowship. God delights in helping us reach our full potential in all these areas, if we just ask for help. Service, or selfless ministry to others, is central to the life of discipleship. If we are not pursuing the practices entailed in the Beatitudes, we are not walking in the Way of Jesus.
Similarly, if a church is not marked by a commitment to pursuing these practices of mercy, purity, peacemaking and justice, that church is failing to fulfil one of the five purposes to which the writings of the New Testament call every church: diaconal service in the world.
The good news is that “God helps those who cannot help themselves (the Need Beatitudes), and God also helps those who try to help others (the Help Beatitudes), but he does not in any Beatitude help those who think they can help themselves.”[2]
You may think there is very little you can do to contribute to peacemaking. But if all you can do is pray for peace, or encourage the next generation to consider the merits of an ethic of nonviolent struggle against oppression, you are doing well.
As George MacLeod, the Scottish Presbyterian minister and founder of the Iona Community, put it:
Where people are praying for peace the cause of peace is being strengthened by their very act of prayer, for they are themselves becoming immersed in the spirit of peace.[3]
Apart from prayers for peace, how can we move forward to embrace the beautiful ideal of this Beatitude? For those who choose the Way of Jesus, there is no place for retaliation for injustice, and retribution for wrongs. With the possible exception of police and military service, there is no place for seeking justice through violence.
Peacemaking is not about being a doormat to opponents or power brokers in the hope that they too will grow servant hearts. Nor is peacemaking about being “nice,” or “tolerant,” in the hope that good manners will win the day. Peacemaking is “an active entrance into the middle of warring parties for the purpose of creating reconciliation and peace.”[4] Peacemaking is achieved “not by pretending there are no differences or by suppressing differences, but by creating love of the other that transcends differences or that permits the people to join hands in spite of differences.”[5]
It is important to be clear about the nature and goal of Christian peacemaking. When we engage in this practice, whether it’s a quarrel or a business disagreement or a war, we are becoming co-creators with God of the divine ideal of shalom – perfect peace, tranquillity, wellbeing.
Jesus embodied this Beatitude from the beginning of his public ministry and throughout his life. Jesus was the peacemaker par excellence. Peacemaking was integral to his ministry. He went around doing good, meeting human needs, creating shalom in hearts and communities where it was absent. For those with eyes to see, Jesus fulfilled Jewish expectations of a messianic kingdom focused on a king who would bring peace (see Isa 9:5f; Zec 9:9f). And those who follow Jesus do likewise.
Biblical scholar Frederick Bruner suggests that
biblical shalom conveys the picture of a circle; it means communal wellbeing in every direction and in every relation … All those who give their lives there to rounding the circle, to creating just communities, and to bringing reconciliation to warring parties are dignified by Jesus with membership in the very family of God.[6]
The promise associated with peacemaking is the gift of being known as “sons of God.” Peacemakers are on the side of God; they identify with the God of peace (Rom 16:20).
In Matthew 5:44f, Jesus calls his followers to love their enemies, “so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” It’s not about achieving salvation through good works, but accepting family identity and responsibility. Commenting on this Beatitude, theologian Leon Morris says that those who work for peace “are fulfilling what membership in the family really means, and this is something to which all members of the family must aspire.”[7]
The challenge and goal are clear, and so is the reward. Following the Way of Jesus in peacemaking! Bringing the sweet shalom of God to human hearts and communities! Identifying as sons and daughters of God through the practice of making peace! What an opportunity; what a blessing.
Let us not have “short memories.” Let us not leave the work of peacemaking to others. Let us find ourselves among those who defuse conflict, and make peace, and fill our world with God’s love.
I conclude with a quotation from a new book on peacemaking by biblical scholar Jesse Nickel:
The church is a community that is formed and shaped around a crucified savior. The Christian therefore does not pursue as of first importance self-preservation, or the greater good, or human rights; rather, the Christian pursues the way of Jesus, and faithfulness to the way of life defined by the kingdom of shalom. In this way, the community of followers of Jesus shines the light, hope, and character of God into the world.[8]
Sermon 815 copyright © 2025 Rod Benson. Preached at North Rocks Community Church, Sydney, Australia, on Sunday 29 June 2025. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).
References
[1] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary. Volume 1: The Christbook: Matthew 1-12 (revised and expanded edition; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 179.
[2] Ibid., 180.
[3] Source unknown.
[4] Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013), 47.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Bruner, Matthew, 177.
[7] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 101.
[8] Jesse P. Nickel, A Revolutionary Jesus: Violence and Peacemaking in the Kingdom of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2024), 196.
Image source: Israeli soldiers fire tear gas at Palestinian protesters. Financial Times, 15 Mar 2021.
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