In 1872, Colt’s Patent Firearms Company designed a revolutionary new product that had a profound impact on American culture. This invention was the Colt .45 revolving pistol, or as it is more commonly known, The Peacemaker. If an image doesn’t immediately pop into your head, think for a moment of any old western movie ever made. The guns slung by just about every cowboy on the silver screen were Peacemakers. Many young boys of my generation owned toy versions of this famous weapon and utilized them to keep the peace in their neighborhoods.
There is a great deal of irony in naming a gun The Peacemaker. It is actually an oxymoron, meaning the term clearly contradicts itself. Having had the pleasure of firing an antique Colt .45, I can assure you it was anything but peaceful. The sound the gun made was not only audible through the earplugs I had in at the time, I felt it. Further, guns are not, by design tools of peace; they are, in fact, tools of war. The Peacemaker only made peace in that it had the power to silence one’s enemies, permanently.
This may be the American way, but it stands in stark contrast to the way of Jesus.
I am 100% certain this was not what Jesus had in mind when He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).” In fact, just a few short verses later, Jesus provides some clarification of how His followers are to conduct themselves as peacemakers on this earth. In Matthew 5:38-39 & 43-45 Jesus reveals the way of peace in the Kingdom of God, turning the way of this world upside-down. It reads, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the left also… You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”
There are few passages of Scripture that inspire more consternation than these. Invariably, referencing these verses will incite a chorus of “yeah, but’s.” It is extremely difficult for may of us, in our current cultural moment, to understand how to make peace without at least presenting a posture of power and the threat of a fight. We’re much more comfortable with the proverb espoused by then Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” This may be the American way, but it stands in stark contrast to the way of Jesus.
I don’t know if Jesus spoke softly, but I am certain He carried a big stick, just not in the way we would like. Rather than using His stick to beat His enemies, He hung and died on it in their place.
Jesus didn’t ask anything of us that He didn’t demonstrate with His own life. As Philippians 2 tells us, Jesus was and is God incarnate. He had all of the rights and power of divinity within His person, but chose to use that power to bring about peace, not through destroying His enemies, but through making a way for them to become His friends and family. In fact, while He hung on the cross, Jesus prayed God’s forgiveness upon those who were persecuting Him. I don’t know if Jesus spoke softly, but I am certain He carried a big stick, just not in the way we would like. Rather than using His stick to beat His enemies, He hung and died on it in their place. The example of Jesus is more reflected in the words of Abraham Lincoln who said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
Isaiah 9:6 tells us that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. It makes sense then that those who claim Him as Lord would become people of peace, or peacemakers. We aren’t to bring about peace in the same way the world does. Rather, we are to take the less traveled way, the way of sacrificial love, compassionate grace, and enduring love. It’s not the easy way to our desired end, but the way of Jesus rarely is, which is probably why, as Jesus noted, so few walk it (Matthew 7:14). Peacemakers aren’t meant to be weapons we wield, but the people we become and the lives we live. And, if we’d follow the words and example of Jesus, not only would we be blessed, but so would the world at large, and I have to believe the world would be more peaceful.
