Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.2”(ESV)
We have carefully progressed through the Beatitudes, building upon a solid foundation of Christlikeness. Now we arrive at a designation — peacemaker — that in Jesus’ day would have been reserved for emperors and governors who suppressed uprisings and reduced conflict under Roman rule. His audience would not have naturally associated themselves with this word. They may have even felt helpless to put on its meaning personally.
We may think of a peacemaker as a negotiator, mediator, or legal arbiter. But we have to consider where we have come from in this passage. Immediately preceding the peacemaker, we walked through verse eight: blessed are the pure in heart. That is where all peace begins. Purity is the only foundation from which one can truly strive to make peace. This is not getting another person to reconcile with your position. It is seeking the truth between both parties and is willing to step into the conflict to find it.
Peacemaker is a two-word compound, representing the full vigor of action. Peace and Maker. It gives no hint of pacifism.
In 1910, Teddy Roosevelt, more than a year removed from the presidency, stood before the most elite scholars of his generation at the Sorbonne in Paris and delivered this:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Teddy Roosevelt
The peacemaker in Matthew 5:9 is the man in the arena. He doesn’t watch the conflict from the stands and offer commentary. He steps in, absorbs the blows from both sides, and does the costly work of reconciliation. The critic counts for nothing. The one who acts, who risks, whose face gets marred, that’s who Jesus blesses. That’s who gets called a son of God.
Roosevelt put a frame around it that leaders respect. Jesus put the promise behind it that makes it worth the cost. There can be no peace with sin, and that is exactly where the peacemaker goes to work, stepping into the wreckage, seeking to bring people into right relationship with God and with each other.
There are so many vile areas of our culture today, yet so many sit and do nothing. Silence is not peace. James 4:17 puts it plainly: “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is a sin.6” (NKJV)
So friend, where can you be a peacemaker?
What in your life do you need to war against to bring peace?
Stay on Mission
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