One of the favourite sayings on mass-produced Christmas cards is “peace on earth and goodwill toward men”. Christmas is the season of peace and goodwill, it is said. It is the time of year to put aside our conflicts and disagreements and to – well to be nice to each other temporarily.
A famous incident from WWI illustrates the nature of the Christmas season very well. It was December 1914, the first Christmas of the war. Already the stalemate along the western front in France had begun to set in. British, French and German troops faced each other in their lines of trenches. If you know anything about trench warfare then you’ll know it’s a nasty business. Hastily dugs holes in the ground about two metres deep topped with barbed wire. Special periscopes were fixed at intervals along the front line trenches because to stick your head above ground even for a second could easily be a fatal mistake. Artillery bombardment could come at any time, day or night, and the soldiers were in constant mortal danger not only from enemy fire but also from the cold and disease that by the end of the war had caused more casualties than the enemy. In between the trenches was no man’s land. It was littered with craters from artillery fire providing a momentary safe haven for attacking troops and, later in the war, a place where the poison gas could pool and stagnate. It would be liberally strewn with barbed wire and bodies in various states of decay. If an attack was ordered soldiers would have to go over the top through this quagmire. Many were cut down within metres of their own trenches by machine guns. That was trench warfare in the Great War.
But on Christmas Eve 1914 something strange happened. No orders were given by the commanding officers (in fact the British High Command hated the whole thing), but in Ypres in Belgium German troops began placing candles decorating the few trees that still remained around their trenches. They sung Christmas carols, including Silent Night which was originally written in German. The English soldiers responded with their own carols. The two sides continued shouting greetings to one another until there were invitations for visits across no man’s land. Small gifts were exchanged – whiskey, jam, chocolates. A joint funeral service was held in the middle of the battlefield where Psalm 23 was read in English and German. In one spot a soccer game was played – won 3-2 by the Germans, incidentally. In some isolated pockets on the lines the truce lasted all the way through to New Year. But in most places it ended on Boxing Day. In one spot a British captain climbed up on his parapet and fired three shots into the air. The German officer he had shared a beer with the previous day also rose from his trench, bowed his head to his counterpart and also fired three shots into the air. And, as the officer wrote at the time, the war was on again.
“Peace on earth and goodwill to all men”. That’s the Christmas spirit, isn’t it? But where does that idea really come from? Is it a quote from the Bible?
Many people think so. In fact, it’s most probably a distortion of Luke 2:14 when the host of angels appears to the Shepherds heralding the birth of the saviour. They chorus: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.”
It’s a bit different, isn’t it? Not just the words, but the meaning as well!
On one hand we have the world’s view of Christmas. Even if we avoid being altogether cynical by saying Christmas is now about consumerism, family stress and personal greed – even if we’re a little more positive then what we come up with is a grandiose and repeatedly unfulfilled statement about world peace and personal peace.
But the Bible’s version of the peace that Christmas brings is not the sort of peace that is palatable in our anything goes western world of the 21st century. The message of the angels focuses on God not on us. They talk about giving glory to God, not us. And rather than being of peace on earth and goodwill to all, the angels are uncomfortably specific and exclusive: “peace to men on whom God’s favour rests”.
And the reason why the angels say this, and the reason why a lot of people wouldn’t like it if they really looked closely at Luke 2:14, is that they have in a mind a very different peace than what most of us have in mind. They have in mind an eternal peace that isn’t broken when the next war starts or when the next truce ends or when the next insult is thrown across the classroom. They have in mind peace with God.
It’s that eternal peace with God that is highlighted in Colossians 1 which was read for us earlier.
Christmas is, of course, a celebration of the birth of Jesus, God become Man. And in Colossians 1 we get a description of Jesus. We don’t have time to unpack it all now but let’s look at some highlights:
• He made everything, and everything was made for him
• He’s the head of everything, especially God’s people
• He’s the firstborn from the dead, the first raised to life so that the rest of us can also be raised to eternal life with him.
• He is completely God, with all the fullness of God dwelling in him.
When we come to Christmas every year and reflect on the birth of Jesus it is very limiting if all we have in mind is a nativity scene with a baby in a manger. There’s nothing wrong with that but what we need to realize is that that baby lying in an animal food trough is the beginning and end of all things. He created the entire universe. And it’s only through him, that tiny baby, that God has chosen to bring us back to himself.
That’s the peace that Christmas is all about – the peace talked about in Colossians 1:20 – “through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
When it comes to discipline at Peakhurst High I tend to find that the main issue isn’t arguments between teachers and students. It’s arguments between different students or different groups of students. One of the most frustrating things to have to deal with is trying to teach a class whose members just can’t relate to each other productively. He took my pen. She touched my bag. He said something about my mum. She threw a piece of paper at me. On and on it goes. In some classes you could spend your whole time investigating various cases of missing pens. You’re constantly trying to reconcile two parties who seem far more interested in creating conflict out of nothing. Sometimes it’s more serious than that. I spent countless hours a while ago trying to reconcile a difficult mother and her wayward son after she had thrown him out of the house for refusing to go down to the shop to buy alcohol for her. It was a very sad situation and the discussions which I had with both of them were a painful and difficult process which was never completely resolved.
That’s what reconciliation is, in the end. Restoring a relationship which has been ruined. Making peace between enemies.
And vs. 21 goes on to explain why we are enemies of God: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”
We ignore God and reject God by what we think and by what we do. That’s why we’re his enemies. That’s why we need to be at peace with him. And the solution that God provides is the blood of Jesus.
You may have heard it said that Jesus came to die. That Jesus was born to die. Now I think Jesus came to do a bit more than that, but ultimately the statement is true. Christmas is meaningless without Easter. God becoming man and living the perfect, sinless life among us achieved very little until he was our substitute when he died on that cross some thirty years later. That’s when God made peace with us.
It’s a lasting peace, too.
Peace this side of heaven isn’t like that at all. The counselors at Peakhurst have on more than one occasion spent hours sorting out some personal issues between groups of girls - and if you think that’s sexist then I’m sorry, but it’s true! – to find that the next day they’re walking arm in arm through the playground. And then the day after that they’re back to fighting again. Who hates who and who’s friends with who is in a daily state of flux amongst some of the girls at Peakhurst High. I don’t have a hope of following it. The boys are so much easier to understand. He insulted me so I punched him in the head. Hardly mature peace-making behaviour, but at least I can follow the logic!
On a grander scale, history is littered with failed peace deals, ongoing warfare, generational hatred. As soon as one was is over another one begins somewhere else. Any student of history will be able to tell you that a desire for peace on earth is a noble but ultimately naïve and futile endeavour.
The best peace we can hope for this side of heaven is a transient, temporary peace. Conflict is always there, simmering below the surface, ready for a stray comment or missile to set it off. Lasting peace is only possible if the very nature of humanity is altered, if our blackened hearts are made white, if we are transformed by the blood of Jesus.
Peace on earth is a good thing, don’t get me wrong. It’s something we should strive for. Christians should be mediators and peacemakers. If we are wronged we should forgive rather than seek revenge. I’m not knocking the goal of world peace.
But it’s not our focus as Christians because we know Scripture. We know the Bible. And we know what people are like. And when we put all that knowledge together we get a clear picture of the state of the human heart and the state of the world. We will not see a world free of conflict this side of the Kingdom of God coming down upon us. At our core, we are sinful, selfish people who need saving. Jesus promises that Christians will be violently persecuted because they tell others the message. Jesus says himself in Luke 12, “I come not to bring peace but division” because while some people accept the gospel many people angrily reject it. And he says that as the time of the end draws nearer the world will become more war torn and conflict-ridden, not less.
The extraordinary thing about Christmas is that the peace on offer now is not some pie-in-the-sky world peace that we hear parroted by brainless models at beauty pageants. It’s peace with God. It’s a solution to the problem of our own hearts. It’s the promise of a truly peaceful future where, as the prophet Isaiah says, the wolf will lie down with the lamb and no one will harm or destroy on the holy mountain of the LORD.
It’s that peace that we need to be preaching and living this Christmas. The peace that is achieved despite the best efforts of humanity rather than because of it.
If we’re telling this message properly, it’s not a message a lot of people want to hear. It’s a message which is offensive to many because it says the problem with the world is you. It’s me. And the only solution to this ongoing conflict is Jesus.
That’s the sort of peace that I’m employed at Peakhurst High to teach. You might be aware that some sections of the community think that religion should have no place in our secular education system. And yet despite this vocal minority, polls continue to show that most of the population support Christian teaching in public schools. Yet the reasons that your average Australian has for supporting Scripture in schools are probably very different from the reasons I have for supporting.
You see, most Australians support Scripture because they think their children need values and morals. They need to be taught an ethical framework for life, right from wrong. They themselves might pick and choose when to follow the values of the Bible, but it will be good for their kids to at least hear about them.
And the teaching of Biblical morality has a purpose. When God tells us how he wants us to live – he knows what’s best. Biblical morality will make for a better society. A more peaceful society.
But that’s not the gospel. That’s not the primary message of the Word of God. That’s not the good news of Jesus Christ who was born of a virgin on that first Christmas and demonstrated God’s amazing grace to us through his sacrificial death on the cross. People are not saved from the very real and very frightening judgment of the Lord by committing one less sin per day.
As a general rule, the secular world wants Christian values, but they don’t want Christ. They like to hear about peace on earth at Christmas, but not peace with God. Yet it is Christ, not values that I am there to preach.
What people really need is reconciliation with God. As Colossians 1 says, they are alientated from God because of their evil behaviour. We need to be changed. We need to be forgiven. That’s what Jesus came to earth to do. That’s what Christmas is about.
Historians have estimated that in the last 4000 years there have only been 268 years of peace. They estimate that 9.4 billion people have died in war, and that doesn’t count the billions of others who have died from poverty, starvation and disease caused by war. In the last 3 centuries alone there have been 286 wars on the continent of Europe.
Against that backdrop, the Christmas message of peace has great traction. But for the message to have any power, and for peace to have any hope, it must be peace with God. It must be the peace won by Jesus Christ. If we have peace with God then we can have peace in our hearts and minds because we know we have an eternal future.
We began by talking about the famous Christmas Truce in WWI. Amidst the brutality of war it was indeed a lovely moment. But it didn’t last. Millions more died after that Christmas of 1914. Millions more died after the peace treaty of 1918 was signed. We need something more permanent.
Charles Wesley was right when he wrote that great Christmas Carol, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”: Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. He knew the solution, and it wasn’t another negotiation, it wasn’t wishful thinking about world peace, it wasn’t a commitment to be nicer to each other. It was Jesus, God incarnate, our Immanuel who was born that man no more may die. Born and bled so that we could be reconciled to the Father and know him forever.
As a Christian author once wrote: Peace consists not in the absence of strife, but in the presence of God.
