John 14:27-31
God's Peace

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

"You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.

"Rise, let us be on our way."

New Revised Standard Version

I could not write this devotional thought without thinking back to September 11, 2001, and the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania. The months since then have provided us only the barest of perspectives on what happened. So much still makes no sense, but bits and pieces have become clearer. We Americans have always thought of ourselves as removed from the turmoil in the rest of the world, but the world is much too small for that. We Americans have had an illusion of peace through faith in our governments and authorities, but those human institutions were destined to let us down. We value concepts of "liberty" and "peace," but those have been shaken by these attacks. We want to promise "liberty," but we also want to deprive liberty to those who may be planning to hurt us again, and we struggle with that dilemma. We look for the right balance of military powers and capabilities to ensure peace, but we find that enforcing the degree of security we want can be prohibitively expensive in economic, social, and personal terms.

Unlike Americans, Jesus' followers, who were working folks in a country under military occupation, had no pretense that "peace" was achievable in their lifetime. They suffered under the Pax Romana, the peace imposed by the "worldwide," unshakable authority and control of the Roman Empire, and they longed for the uprising to shatter that "peace" and make Israel free again, for only then could there be peace for their nation.

Jesus knew better. He knew that peace was not possible "outside," only inside a person's soul. In his final instructions to them, he reminded his followers that they had peace at their fingertips -- his Peace -- a free gift from God the Father, lived out through Jesus the Son, and permeating our lives through the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. He knew their external peace was about to be shattered, as he knew he would be arrested and executed. He also knew they wouldn't understand, and they would be scattered like the wind. Still, he knew they'd remember, and one day they would begin to understand the wonderful Peace given by the Prince of Peace.

The end of this scripture passage is jarring, in light of September 11. On that fourth hijacked airliner, there were calls home from passengers who, by that time, knew what was happening. The last words heard on the ground from those passengers were "Let's roll", as they banded together to fight back and defeat the terrorists who were aiming that jet at some other target. They all died, plunging that jet into the ground in rural Pennsylvania, and in their victory, they saved hundreds more lives that would otherwise have died in twisted metal and flaming jet fuel.

Their Master said the same thing, there in the upper room where he shared his last Passover with the disciples. It was time to leave, time to act, time to die. In dying, our Savior won the victory over sin and death, bought eternal life for countless millions of us, and gave us true Peace.