Jesus Christ's opening words in his Sermon on the Mount are called the Beatitudes(Matthew 5-7). The Beatitudes are good material for reading or singing aloud. Their literary form, moral truths, and religious teachings, tastefully framed, are often given a central location in one's home. However, when it comes to applying the Beatitudes to daily living, one may find them difficult to accomplish. The poor are not always poor in spirit; the mourning are not necessarily mourning for the right reason; the meek are not usually found in a right mental attitude; and the hungry and thirsty are often seeking something other than righteousness. I believe that by now you understand my point. Now, let me ask you this: "Are you the peaceable or the peacemakers?" Who in his right mind does not cherish peace? But are we really peacemakers? Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God" (Matt. 5:9).

Peace is what we all want, and what is most certainly promised in the Gospel. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives" (John 14:27). If we think that the peace of which Jesus is speaking is a soothing syrup for short repulse of our souls, we are seriously wrong. If we think it is the kind of peace that is so often offered by the world, the peace of a temporary euphoria, then we have not heard Christ speak. The blessing peace of God comes through struggle and pain. It is the gift of the risen Christ in whose hands are still the marks of the nails. In other words there is no quick way to this lasting, inner peace just as there is no shortcut from here to Easter that bypasses Gethsemane and Calvary. There is a cost.

In a time of acute conflict of nation against nation, race against race, generation against generation and strife in the home, streets, schools, and industry, people long for peace. Suicidal bombs are answered with air raids. How do we make peace in the Mid-East? Some people give the radical answer: refuse to fight, abandon all arms. But most of us are unconvinced that such a course would make peace. Quite apart from such considerations, the peace Christ speaks is something much more than mere absence of warfare. It is the outcome of justice and freedom. A peacemaker has a more positive task than mere refusal to fight. It is peaceful to pull a blanket over our eyes, but one real peep over the edge of the blanket will show us the unpeacefull world on our doorstep crying out for the attention of the peacemaker.

Churches pray for peace. Everyone talks peace. But how many of us are really peacemakers? When we pray for peace, are we enlisting as active servants, willing to face our responsibilities in a world of conflict, or are we simply seeking to be left in relative state of comfort and tranquility?

Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers," not peaceable. There is a big difference between the two. The temptation of the peaceable is always to withdraw from trouble. The peaceable pretend it isn't there, and when it's forced to their attention they try to smooth it over. The peacemaker, however, is the one who is willing to take the consequences of involvement. They want to know the truth, and are courageous and patient to work for reconciliation. They are the ones Jesus calls "blessed."

The question underlying the tensions of the world, nation, and personal relations is "Are we at peace with ourselves?" How much of the strife in our world is caused by men and women who are not really at peace with themselves? We know how often the hostilities that break out between men are the result of civil war within. The classic description is Paul's confession: "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it" (Rom. 7:18-20). The Scripture goes on to state that while we were yet sinners, Christ came and died to save us from eternal damnation. God, being the great Peacemaker, has made peace with us. Christ came to proclaim and affect our peace with God. The peacemaker, in the pattern of Christ, is the one who takes the initiative, who breaks the circle of hostility, who is ready to share the cost of reconciliation.

In peace making, there is still a divine initiative at work. Christ will not let us close our eyes to the evils that have to be fought before peace can come. He will not let us simply wait for the evil forces to convert themselves to good. We must go to all parts of the world to make followers of Christ with the power of the divine Peacemaker who has reconciled the world unto Himself.

(Johnny Wang, General Secretary of CCM )