The King of Peace

Whoever knows Jesus and has seen his mighty works cannot help but praise him. The Pharisees want Jesus to rebuke his disciples because of this praise (v. 39). They think the crowd has gone too far. They don’t like to see Jesus praised as king. They don’t like this talk of glory where Jesus is concerned. They want this ended.

Our Lord’s response is famous in every expressive church and among those who love to praise God. God will be praised by his creation, even if inanimate rocks must give voice to his greatness (v. 40). The rocks will cry out. The trees will clap (Isa 55:12). The mountains will skip and sing (Ps 114:4,6; Isa 55:12). The sky will proclaim his handiwork (Ps 19:1). Everything that has breath will praise the Lord (Ps 150:6).

Do not let anyone stop you from praising Jesus, including outwardly religious folks. Do not be afraid to express yourself when you praise him. He is worthy! If Christ brings you peace, then bring him praise!

Luke 19:41-44

The Lord finally catches sight of Jerusalem itself (v. 41). The Prince of Peace also weeps. You can have peace in yourself and weep over your city. Jesus does. Perhaps there’s something wrong with someone who claims to have the peace of Christ but never seems to have the tears of Christ. That may not be peace but indifference and hard-heartedness.

Our Lord looks on the city he loves and his heart melts. Perhaps you have not thought about this at any length, but God cries. Here the Son of God with all power and glory looks on the city of sinful man. Thunder does not rumble, and lightning does not flash in divine curses. The earth does not quake in destruction. Instead, rivulets of tears flow down the Savior’s face. He weeps for the city, for entire cities and entire communities and entire nations. He weeps because what he has come to bring has somehow escaped them. It eluded them.

Peace is elusive. First, peace eludes people when they don’t know what makes for peace (v. 42). The Lord wishes Jerusalem knew the key to peace. He wishes Jerusalem knew what would settle their hearts and minds. He wishes they knew what would heal their relationships, what would give them a settled confidence before God.

Even today cities are full of people who do not know what things produce shalom, peace. People try all kinds of things. We pass people along the way who are medicating themselves with drugs and alcohol. We see people trying to calm their raging hearts with sex and relationships, money and power. There are those seeking peace with God in false religions and cults. If you ask them why, they tell you that they are looking for peace.

Peace substitutes will not fulfill or last. But Jesus has come to give us this peace. In some ways Jesus’s mission may be summed up in that one idea (1:76-79). When someone comes to guide you to Christ and into the knowledge of his salvation, forgiveness of sin, and the righteousness of God, they come guiding you into peace.

Jerusalem will one day be surrounded and besieged by enemies. Those enemies will reduce the city to rubble and tear families apart because they did not know the day or recognize the moment of the visitation, when God came to them.

Peace is a difficult thing to find if you do not know that God is present with you. All that Jesus prophesies in verse 43 comes to pass. In AD 70 the Romans occupied and destroyed Jerusalem along with the temple. No stone was left on another. What had been known of that great city was obliterated. Our Lord effectively says, “It would have been different for you if you had known I had come to visit you.”

Have you ever thought about how many of our problems come from a failure to recognize God’s presence with us? That was true in Jerusalem, and it is true today as well.

Yet Christ has fulfilled God’s law by sacrificing himself on the cross. His act of self-giving made peace—peace between men, peace within, and peace with God. When Christ died on the cross for our sins he ended the strife so characteristic of a fallen world. So whether we are Jews or Gentiles, by the preaching of Jesus Christ crucified, buried, and resurrected, we have peace. By faith in the Son of God we receive reconciliation with God. We stop trying to earn God’s approval by our good works. We stop trying to please men. Instead, we begin to live to please God who accepts us in his Son.

We worry no more about God’s acceptance because Christ has become our righteousness (1 Cor 1:30). We worry no more about God’s justice because Christ has been condemned for us. He was punished in our place. All the anger of God toward the sin of men is satisfied in the Son of god. There is peace with God—a quiet mind and confident assurance that in believing and following Jesus we are reconciled to our Father in heaven and to our brethren on earth.

Do not let little church squabbles fool you, beloved. Oh, we may have our periods of disagreement. Some of those may be sharp. We may think differently on things. But such struggles should never rob us of peace as the people of God. For our peace remains in Christ who has reconciled us to himself, to each other, and to the Father. Nothing in this world can destroy that peace.

Luke 19:45-48

Not only is peace elusive; it also requires we maintain it once we have it. Keeping peace differs very little from grass that needs to be mowed, exercise that needs to be monitored, or a relationship that needs repeated investment. In fact, since peace is most fundamentally a relationship with Christ, we should not be surprised if, like all relationships, we must give peace with Christ constant attention.

First, once Jesus enters Jerusalem, he purges the temple and restores prayer. Sinful men have always made religion big business. People have always attempted to make money off of their gods. Such people are not true worshipers or teachers. These are the false teachers who worship mammon.

In Jesus’s day the moneychangers set up shop right in the temple. They sold the animals and things people needed to make offerings to God. They did so for a profit rather than for genuine religious motive. The temple became a den of robbers.

Sometimes maintaining peace requires confrontation. So the Lord Jesus made a whip and drove them out. To say Jesus is the King of peace does not mean he is soft. The Lord can be angered just as he can weep—especially when predators corrupt his worship.

We are God’s temple (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19). We are also his priesthood. So we ought to be a people of prayer. We can never pray enough if we want to maintain the peace of God. God will “keep the mind that is dependent on [him] in perfect peace” (Isa 26:3). So do you pray as you should? What robs you of prayer and peace? Is there anything you should drive out? If so, do it before Christ makes a whip and cleanses you, his temple.

Once the Lord cleansed the temple, he went back to teaching the people. Jesus loves to teach. “Every day he was teaching in the temple” (v. 47). How important must the Lord’s teaching be if near the end of his life he did it every day?

“The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people were looking for a way to kill him.” However, “They could not find a way to do it” (v. 48). Why could they do nothing? “All the people were captivated by what they heard.” There were too many people peacefully listening to Jesus’s words, so conflict could not advance. They hung on his words. All around them conflict and violent rage surged, but they sat listening to Jesus. They were content. They were filled with peace. The remedy to blindness, ignorance, and disquieting anger is listening to God’s word.

What will we do with seasons of peace when the Lord gives them to us? We should be captivated by Jesus’s every word.

God’s people don’t always have this peace and quiet. In a few days the calm of this scene will be shattered by the crucifixion. The peace that comes before the storm suggests we may better survive suffering and disappointment by using seasons of peace to store up our Lord’s word. Later, the disciples remembered what the Lord taught while he was with them. By remembering his teaching they regained and maintained peace. By remembering the teaching they had received in seasons of peace, they were able to correctly interpret and understand the horror that befell them on Calvary.

How about us? How are we doing at being captivated by the Lord’s words? Are we more focused on the chaos around us or on Christ’s word?

Praise God for his peace. Seek God for his peace. Listen to God for his peace. Praise, seek, and listen, and peace will be yours. The world cannot give and cannot take away the peace the Savior gives (John 14:27; 16:33).