In 1938 Neville Chamberlin returned to London declaring that there was peace in their time, because he had worked out an agreement with Adolf Hitler. It wasn’t a lasting peace, because in the fall of 1939 Great Britain and France were at war with Nazi Germany. Chamberlin’s definition of peace is what we experience and often seek in this world. While we hope it is long lasting, it is temporary. Jesus described another type of peace in John 14. Jesus leaves peace with us, which removes a troubled and afraid heart. Jesus’ peace cannot coexist with trouble and fear; his peace is mutually exclusive with trouble and fear. Jesus’ peace is not what the world defines as peace, that is absence of violence, but a calm and peaceful spirit and heart. The sense that all is well between the person and God. Such a state of being permits the person who possesses Jesus’ peace to truly rest, even in the midst of difficult circumstance. This relates to what Jesus declared as our basis for rejoicing; we rejoice not because of what we have or what we can do, but because of our relationship with God our Father. While peace in the world is always temporary, the peace that Jesus offers and gives is permanent and cannot be removed by events that we encounter in the world and that is the basis of great joy!
David Freitag 