Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
Matthew 5:9
“Peace I leave with you,” Jesus tells his disciples (John 14:27), “my peace I give to you.” Peace is Jesus’ gift to all who follow him. Again and again in his ministry, he offered those who came to him his peace. And before he returned to heaven, he promised to leave us his peace. But Jesus also challenges all who follow him to share his peace. And not just to share his peace, but to work to bring his peace to our world. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus says in his seventh beatitude, “for they will be called children of God.”
This beatitude arrives late in Jesus’ beatitudes, which suggests that there are prerequisites to being a peacemaker. And the beatitudes themselves describe these qualifications. First, a peacemaker should be poor in spirit; they should know in their hearts that they cannot make peace without the ever-present help of the Prince of Peace, Jesus. A peacemaker should also be willing to mourn the lack of peace in our world before beginning the hard work of making it. A peacemaker is meek, willing to be led by God. Peacemakers always hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they know that there can be no true peace apart from justice. And yes, a peacemaker should be merciful to all, and be pure in heart. In other words, a peacemaker is one who has walked this path of blessedness with Jesus.
To put it another way, peacemakers are those who have first been peace-receivers. We cannot share what we do not have, so first we must receive the gift of Jesus’ peace. In other words, the peacemakers that Jesus blesses are people who have already been blessed to know the peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). Justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus (Romans 5:1). We have received the priceless gift of peace from Jesus himself, the gift that he reminds us this world cannot give (John 14:27). All who have received this priceless gift of peace simply want for the world what we have already experienced ourselves, the precious gift of God’s peace in Jesus. Perhaps this is why Jesus calls the peacemakers “children of God” – to remind us that this task may not always be easy, but it is simple. Even a child can do it.
God knows that our world needs this peace, and that it needs peacemakers. Our world needs followers of Jesus who are willing to roll up their sleeves and work at the “ministry of reconciliation,” as Paul calls it (2 Corinthians 5:18). Our world needs ambassadors for Christ, people who hunger and thirst for all the world to know the deep peace that comes from knowing the God of all peace.
Yes, our world hungers and thirsts for this peace, even when it does not realize it. And so Jesus calls us to be peacemakers. But peacemaking is not for the faint of heart. It is not easy. Our efforts will not always be successful, and consequently this work is not always rewarding. The reward does not come from the work of making peace in this world, which is perhaps why Jesus blesses those who are willing to do the work. Jesus knows, more than anyone, the challenge of bringing peace to our troubled world. And he blesses all who are willing to join him in this holy task. May we be faithful in sharing this great gift with our world, the peace which surpasses all understanding. To the glory of God. Amen.
This is my eighth in a series of devotions on the Beatitudes in Matthew’s Gospel. You can find the others here:
My Pastoral Ponderings 
Love this line: “Peacemakers must first be peace-receivers!” So true!
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