Clamor
There is such clamor all around us. Shouting, shooting, looting, lying, demanding, demeaning, denouncing, destroying.
Even those who bemoan such clamor are prone to joining it when it’s their issue at stake. There are many who clamor…ironically…for peace!
This doesn’t come as a surprise to us, though. Jesus gives us his peace—and it’s decidedly not the peace the world thinks of. Then he asks a hard thing: that we not be troubled or afraid (John 14:27). Later that night he says, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
How did he overcome it? Not by shouting it down, not by angry antagonism (Matthew 12:19-20). He overcame it by putting to death the cause of all the clamor: the flesh, the “I-want-what-I-want-and-I-want-it-now”. He overcame it, put it to death, every day. Not just the day he died on the cross, but every day when he deliberately shouldered the cross (Luke 9:23).
The peace Jesus leaves us with isn’t hiding, it isn’t joining in protest, it isn’t ignoring. It isn’t pretending everything’s all right. It isn’t turning our back and carrying on with our own pursuits. Those things are what pass for peace in what the world gives, and they are shabby pseudo-peace at best.
Not being troubled or afraid means, first of all, not joining in the clamor. This can be tough for us humans—we are clamorous creatures by nature. Accepting the peace Jesus gives means shouldering the cross of self-denial, which is even tougher—we are not self-deniers by nature. And then, toughest of all, we are to be peacemakers. (Matthew 5:9, Romans 12:18 & 14:19, 2 Corinthians 13:11, Ephesians 4:1-3, Hebrews 12:14, James 3:18—and more; this is only a starter set.)
The “peace that passes understanding” begins with withdrawing from the clamor of the world, and then also requires denying the clamor of the flesh. The clamor is within as much as it is outside, so we’ll never gain peace on our own. Our Lord offers it to us as his gift. To receive it, our attention has to be on him—not on all the clamor.
Love, Paul