Sermon on the Mount 08 – Blessed Are the Peacemakers
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God. –Mathew 5:9
Today, we will be studying about peacemakers. The direct translation is “You who are blessed! You are peacemakers. You will be called sons of God.” Like this, the Bible clearly says that only the peacemakers are called sons of God. We will be contemplating together if we are indeed qualified to be sons of God.
We understand being a peacemaker as my existence contributing to someone else’s peace. Making others peaceful. Isn’t this a peacemaker? There are many who try hard to become peacemakers, reading this part of the Sermon on the Mount. The most notable person is Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi became a non-violence, non-resistance peace advocate after reading this. Gandhi read this Sermon on the Mount till the day he died. It was the first thing he read after waking up in the morning. So, then, is he really a peacemaker? Isn’t he so? Seeing through the world value system, he is a peacemaker for sure. Gandhi. Is the Lord talking about that kind of peace here? I have said the Sermon on the Mount is a particular response and symptom which only come out of the saints who have received the Holy Spirit. Gandhi is a Hindu. Then, it is clear that the peace the Lord is speaking of here is not the kind of peace Gandhi acted out, right? Looking in the Bible, the Prince of Peace who accomplishes reconciliation comes out and it is Jesus Christ. Prince of Peace, peace, reconciliation, harmony - all these are of the same word, ‘Eirene.’
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon[d] his shoulder, and his name shall be called[e] Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. –Isaiah 9:6-7
So here peace is being talked about and what is going to make this happen? The zeal of the Lord will make this peace, right? The Prince of Peace means the owner of peace. So it means peace cannot go out or be reduced without the permission of the owner. That is why it is Prince of Peace. The same word comes out in Micah 5:2. Let’s take a look.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.5 And he shall be their peace. –Micah 5:2-5
Peace is not something we can create somehow but it says Jesus Himself is peace here, right? It is not the kind of things we can posses as a feeling or an emotion but someone is the Prince of Peace and He owns that peace. Therefore the peace, reconciliation, or peacefulness the Bible talks about cannot be felt or sensed without a relationship with Him. It means there cannot be peace without Jesus. So, no matter how many good works Gandhi might have done and contributed to the peace of the people in the world, that is not the peace the Bible is talking about. Jesus is not telling you to be that kind of peacemaker or make that kind of peace. “And that’s how you become sons of God?” Nonsense! That is not what He is saying.
Jesus Christ, the King of Heaven who has come to this world to give peace is the peacemaker. Then, for whom is this peace for? For reconciliation between who has He come? It is for peace between God and the people of God, primarily. And once this vertical peace has come, the horizontal peace naturally occurs. As you would understand in full at the end, it does not mean it becomes very, very peaceful. Jesus came to make peace between God and His people. The word ‘peacemaker’ in today’s text is ‘eirinopoiros’ in Greek and this Greek word only comes out twice in the Bible. Of course, the parts of speech are different. With one as an adverb and the other as a verb, it comes out twice, once in today’s text and once in Colossians as a word meaning ‘peacemaker.’ Let’s go to Colossians chapter 1.
For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. –Colossians 1:19-20
This is the same word in verb tense. Making peace with what? By the blood of His cross.
God sent Jesus and shed His blood so God can be pleased to have all things reconciled to Him. Therefore, peace, or reconciliation, primarily is peace between God and His people, or reconciliation between God and His people.
Today’s text is indicating that peacemakers are the people of God who are to bear the cross of reconciliation and die since peace is made by the blood of the cross. Indicating their whole life. Peacemaking is not just making others peaceful but it is how one’s relationship with God is reconciled by bearing and dying on the cross, just as Jesus, who came into the world as the one and only peacemaker, made reconciliation by bearing the cross and dying on the cross and shedding His blood. This peace is horizontally expanding through the message about the peace that comes out of his life and his lips. (Ah, my voice is not coming out right hahaha… because I am tired. It is frustrating. I need to yell out but my voice is not coming out.)
Thus, primarily, the peacemaker is Jesus Christ, who dismissed the dissension between the Father God and His people and also the saints who trust the merit of the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ while their autonomy and existence are seized by God. “I only trust the blood of Jesus. I have nothing to add to that.” This is his existence, identity, and autonomy being seized. That is dying. That is peacemaking. Such saints who are living the life of self-denial are called peacemakers. The self must be denied for God to be received as God and that state is peace. If a man tries to keep his own autonomy, identity, or existence, even if just a little bit, God must attack him. That is why there is no peace. So, in order for peace to be made, those who are opposed to God must die. He must be surrendered as a dead man for peace to be made. In this history, aren’t we to live actualizing the cross? Aren’t we to be pushed down the road as those who only trust the blood of Jesus? That is dying. That is being reconciled. As I die more and more, God takes me over. As God takes over and reigns in me, I completely surrender saying, “God you are right, I am the worst of all sinners. Please God, reign in me.” This is reconciliation. This is peace. Please wonder “where should I go today and deliver peace? Whom should I mediate and reconcile?” It is not about that. Not even a single line about that is recorded in the Bible.
Originally men were not created to live as autonomous beings, discerning good and evil on their own. Men living with the fruit of knowledge of good and evil in their mouth, discerning good and evil based on their own system of good and evil and exercising their own autonomy is called ‘being fallen,’ isn’t it? It is called ‘fallen.’ God is destroying that. There is no peace there because God must charge into that. All beings are created as an absolutely God-dependent being that must recognize and accept that they are merely nothing when the power and grace of God are not involved. Not 50% dependent, not 90% dependent but absolutely dependent beings. Absolutely God-dependent beings. But God’s name is blasphemed when His creatures mimic autonomous beings, independent beings before God by exercising their autonomy to keep their own identity. The name of God, who is the creator, is being blasphemed there. And the wrath of God is poured there. But by God hanging His own son on the cross, reconciliation was made. The event of putting all His people inside the Son and killing them had taken place in history.
I have been crucified with Christ. (‘I’ died. There is no more ‘I.’ There is no ‘I.’ As long as we hold on to this firmly there is no more hurting of pride and we are okay no matter how we are treated by others. Originally there is no ‘I.’ I am dead.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. –Galatians 2:20
This is the reality of the Gospel where my own existence is eliminated. This is reconciliation. This is peace, us being killed by God, dying on the cross. Since I cannot die, God killed me by putting me inside Jesus, because if not, the wrath of God would be poured out on me eternally. This is the Gospel. That is why God has to kill our fleshly self-ego. But if we are killed, we have no power to resurrect. So He puts us inside Jesus and kills us and resurrects us in Jesus. So the core of the Gospel is all ‘in Christ,’ ‘in Jesus,’ ‘in Christ,’ and ‘in Jesus.’ All in Jesus. If all is complete in Jesus, then what am I? There is no ‘I.’ There is not even a bit of what I have done.
Thus, dying on the cross and resurrection in Jesus does not contain only a message about paying the price for sin, but it is an explanation about the life manual for the heavenly existences whose identity must die before God in order to become living beings as the citizens of heaven. Not only is it about ‘Jesus embraced us and died on the cross so our price for sin is all paid’ but the cross is something that explains the mechanism of the birth of a being or the existence manual of the kingdom of God that only those who died on the cross before God can be abundantly and richly bestowed with things of God and become the beings of heaven. It is not just ‘we sinned and God paid the price and we came to live.’ (I don’t think water can solve this… it’s mixed with honey… hahahah)
Human beings are the safest when living as absolutely God-dependent beings and gain peace and freedom as those who are seized of their own identity and existence by God. When we know ‘there is nothing I can do anymore,’ we are freed from insecurity. The Bible calls this peace. The saint’s life of self-denial, of discovering and knowing the reality of grace, that his fleshly self-ego is already seized by God in the cross and now completed as a son of God, is a life of making peace between him and God. We become reconciled with God when we know ‘ah, God adopted me as His son for free.’ Why? As I know more and more that I am nothing, God endearly calls me His beloved child.
People, think about it. Your children are the cutest when they receive your help in your arms. Once they grow old and go into their room, locking the door saying, “I will take care of myself. Mom you just do your own thing,” the mother’s heart breaks. Some time ago, I happened to see a documentary on a children’s hospital for cancer. I learned there are different kinds of children’s cancer, including leukemia. Having cancer since birth, children who are like 20 months old, 19 months old, or 10 months old, or those children who are 3 or 4 years old have never stepped outside of the hospital. And they are all in a clean room. They are locked up, in addition to being in the Hospital. So their parents who are in their 20s and 30s have given up their jobs and pour themselves into taking care of them. They were feeling happy that they could do something for their kids. They said they are happy. They do not know when their kid will die but they said they are happy that they are in a situation where they can give something to the child. The parents are barely sleeping on that small bed while the children are sleeping wide open on their bed, but they are saying they are happy to be able to do something for the child.
But once the kids say ‘I will take care of my own things’ and lock up their room, parents mourn and say things like ‘empty nest’ or ‘what am I living for?’ This is explaining the relationship between God and His people. God wants to pour something over His children as a Father, since we are like a child with cancer who cannot do anything. But we lock up our door and say ‘Why do you keep meddling in my life when I can do things on my own?” This is called ‘being fallen.’ But we are mistaken to think that is praiseworthy maturity and development. No! We must cry out before God, “God please help! Save me! Have mercy on me!” We must not go “Father, I will do something for you!” Changes in life that are praiseworthy do come out of your life. But that is what the Father is doing inside of you and it is not ‘you’ doing it. It is not ‘I’ maturing up. That is not what the Father wants. The Father wants to do everything. He wants to wipe you, clean you, and feed you. That is love, isn’t that? Do you know you feel rather happy when you experience loss like this? Look at it. Those parents are all taking loss. They do not have to do that. Compared to other parents, they are taking a great loss. They cannot go to work, they cannot eat well, and their movements are restricted in the clean room. Aren’t they losing out? But those parents are much happier than the parents of the kids playing on a computer in their room with the door locked. It is because they can do something for their child. How much do we lose out when going on a mission trip? We miss work and pay for the cost and must pour out everything in ourselves to the kids we have never seen before, but we end up crying because we are happy there and do not want to come back. When we go there and come back… The reason God shows us a little bit of that is because that is the life of God’s kingdom. He is showing us through life that there is real happiness. In that TV program, there was a lady and this kid named Sun-Ae. This kid cannot talk and cannot see. The lady somehow saw this girl and decided on her own that she will become a mother for this kid. So she gave up everything and stays with the kid, serving and sacrificing. The lady and her family together. She seemed like a wealthy person. She said she only knew about investing into herself before she met the kid, shopping for luxury and looking for a good education academy for her kids. She was that kind of normal person but now she says she does not want to waste money on buying even a pair of socks for herself because she needs to take care of the kid. However, she says her life now is worthy and happy beyond comparison to her life before.
God is showing us these kinds of things to make us sense little by little that something about judging, reasoning, and speculating based on the value system of this world is greatly wrong. People, Jesus obeyed to the death and accomplished the will of the Father, losing everything and being emptied out. By obeying to death, He became a dead man before God. God said ‘you die!’ and He died, right? He died and reconciliation came. God is making us bear this cross here in this world. That is why He says ‘pick up your cross and follow me.’ That means ‘I will kill you.’ It means ‘you will never live by your own will.’ That is why things that you would not have happened occur in your life. But once those things pass, they all become your own benefit. Right now you must be saying, “When would this long tunnel end? When would this darkness go away?”, but all those are for our own benefit for sure. As such, a saint’s life of self-denial of discovering and knowing the reality of the grace completed by the Son of God, being seized of his own fleshly self-ego in the cross, is the life of making peace between God and himself. The life of a saint who must live bearing the cross and actualizing the process of the death of his fleshly self-ego in this history is a life of peacemaking. Reconciliation between God and me comes as I die and because I die the horizontal reconciliation with the others and neighbors takes place. That is being a peacemaker. Telling with our body and lips the reality of such reconciliation, that God is the owner of that reconciliation and by doing so, others also becoming reconciled with God, is called peacemaking. Gandhi could not do this because he did not know the Gospel. Apart from Jesus and the Gospel, there is no reconciliation. There is no such peace, people. Apostle Paul is calling this ‘the ministry of reconciliation,’ the ministry of reconciliation given to the saints.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[a] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself (Through who? Through Christ. Who is ‘himself?’ God. Reconciling us to God) and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; (this means you must live your life on earth actualizing the life of the cross of Jesus, right? That is the ministry of reconciliation.) 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling[b] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. -2 Corinthians 5:17-20
What does it mean? It means you must reconcile to God, you must die. You be reconciled to God. You must die! That word which reconciles is given to us by God. That word is the word of the Gospel about the reconciliation between God and His people, accomplished by the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ. Because the word of the Gospel eliminates the existence of human being when it comes to salvation, it is making reconciliation. ‘Be reconciled to God’ means you must only trust the precious blood of Jesus Christ and believe only in His blood, which is prepared by God since you cannot reach the state of being reconciled, the state of being peaceful, with your own might, because only then, reconciliation is possible. If you go to Isaiah, it is recorded more clearly what kind of life a life of peacemaking, a life of declaring peace is.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” –Isaiah 52:7
Declaring peace is bringing good news, bringing the Gospel, and declaring salvation. And it clarifies in detail what declaring peace is and it is declaring ‘your God reigns.’ It is declaring the reign of God. This is publishing peace. It is declaring peace. Peace is ‘the reign of God will completely take over you and now God will lead and take you according to His will.’ That is the Gospel, isn’t it? By God reigning and taking over us, we, who are fallen in sin, do not fall into death while going as we please. That is the kingdom of God. That is the kingdom of heaven. ‘Basileia’ means sovereignty. The original meaning is sovereignty, rather than a kingdom. Although it is translated as kingdom or nation, its original meaning is sovereignty. Thus, the kingdom of God is where the sovereignty of God has completely taken over the people. That is called the kingdom of Heaven. You are the place where that is accomplished. That is why you are called the kingdom of God, the holy nation, on whom God reigns. What happens when God completely takes over and reigns in us? Our autonomy is dismissed. The Bible calls this peace. So being peaceful is being completely taken over by God by going into the reign of God and sharing ‘that is the true state of peace’ is peacemaking. That is what Jesus did, right? Jesus reconciled us to God by being taken completely over by God and dying. That is why it is said ‘peacemakers will be called sons of God.' God only has one son, Jesus. We are going into Him and being adopted as sons. So we who are blessed before the creation, becoming peacemakers and His sons means that like Jesus, we will be taken over and led away by the will of God in this world.
That is why peacemaker is included in the list of the aspects of life of the people of the kingdom of heaven in the Sermon on the Mount. It is not talking about going somewhere and working as an evangelist. Being a peacemaker is living a life of being denied as you are led by God. Those who are reconciled to God enjoyed that peace and that peace is felt a little by little by the dying of the self-ego of the flesh. Therefore, the peace of the saints appears in the form of death of the self-ego of the flesh. So it is totally different from the peace we expect, right? The peace we are thinking of is where I become the main character and everything is done as I want. If not it is dissension. But the Bible is saying not becoming as I want is peace. It says peace is God forcing me down the road according to His will.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. -Romans 5:1
How do you have peace with God? “I will now not eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil if God tells me not to. By doing so God and I will be at peace.” This means I cannot do anything I want to do. This is having peace with God. Having peace, which is completed by Jesus, with God is a life of peacemaking, and this life of peacemaking is believing in the blood of the cross, and believing in the blood of the cross is being completely denied of one’s own righteousness, and being denied of one’s righteousness means the denial of one’s self-ego of the flesh. That is peace and reconciliation. And how this peace of Heaven is sensed in this history? It is felt as suffering. Do not say such things like ‘why is there no peace even though I believe in Jesus?’ That is peace. People, please do not think that I research the Bible in order to reverse what others have preached… hahaha someone actually emailed me saying that it seems like that’s how I research… that is not it… hahaha… The Bible has become a moral or an ethics book because it is read too superficially but it is absolutely not about that. That is why even though the Old Testament said Jesus came to the world as the Prince of Peace, the King who reconciles, the King of peace, Jesus Himself said in the history ‘do you think I came to give you peace?’ What he said was something that will flip over the Old Testament. The Prince of Peace, Shalom, Solomon, Shulamite, Jerusalem, all these mean peace. The Bible calls Jesus peace but Jesus is saying He did not come as a king of peace because it is not peace in the history.
I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. (What is this? He says he did not come to give peace but to raise dissension. Tell me what Jesus did to make peace among the people. Tell me anything he did. There is none. It is because the peace Jesus talked about is not about that.) 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. -Luke 12:49-53
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. -Matthew 10:34-39
Why all of sudden does He talks about life while taking about family and peace? What a man holds onto the tightest as an expansion of himself is his family. That is his life. But God is saying He will come and tear it. This means He will kill him. That is why ‘losing his life’ comes out here in the end. Why come and tear the family? I am using my family, even my children, my parents, my wife, and my husband, as an instrument for me to be at peace, aren’t I? But God saying that He will destroy and rip that apart means He will kill me. But that is peace. When that is felt in history, it hurts like losing life. That is why He said ‘do you think I came to give peace?’ He is saying it is not the peace this world of men, this history is expecting. It means He will give the peace of Heaven since we are doing what is the opposite of that peace. People in this world want to have a feeling or an emotion of peace based on what they can see. It is because the people of the world who can only see what is visible do not feel insecure when there is a visible protection layer. Because they do not know the transcendent territory and transcendent being, they feel secure by what is visible. They feel at peace. They do not feel insecure. That is why parents give their child, who is about to go on a journey, enough travel money saying, “You won't feel insecure when there is some money in the pocket.” Men feel safe when they have something visible. That is why they try to base their peace on visible things. But no matter what they possess, man’s insecurity does not disappear. In other words, men cannot obtain peace by whatever possession or action. The Adams of this world, who must protect themselves and secure their safety as the owner of their own life, can never be at peace. That is why God says He will dismiss the identity and autonomy of His people and instead He will take care of their lives. That is why He says ‘I am your strong tower’ as we have looked at last week. ‘Do not try to be responsible of your own security by building the city of Babel or Babel tower. I am the strong tower. I am the city.” We even sing this. Don’t we say the Lord is our fortress, the rock, our refuge? We are safe when hiding in Him. That is peace. But when we try to secure our own safety, peace is broken from that moment. We become insecure because ‘I’ cannot do this. Jesus, who came as the Prince of Peace is saying “Do you think I came to give you peace? That is a short lived emotion and not true peace. How long does that peace last? How long does the peace you have last? They are not your children anymore once they become teenagers.” This sounds real… hahaha “I will give you the real peace. I will start by cutting away your family, which you hold onto as the expansion of yourself and your power.” That is why the families of the saints are not so peaceful. They just pretend to be peaceful. Right? Hahaha. We use even our own family as an instrument for our own peace. That is why God is showing us this as an example, as a shadow that must be cut off. Through dissension, God eventually ends up cutting away men’s tools of gaining peace on their own. They can be people, money, reputation, etc. in your life. God is cutting these away. He is scattering these. But that is God’s way of peacemaking. Of course human beings do not like this kind of Heavenly peace. They are pursuing the earthly peace where they become the main characters but Heavenly peace is peace where they become eliminated. Who would like this kind of peace?
Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’-Jeremiah 6:16
God is continuously suggesting the road of peace but no man would go that way. “Why should I go that way where I would be eliminated? Given the choice, I should be the main character.” None would go that way. That is why Jesus is saying this to Jerusalem, the city of shalom and peace.
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.-Luke 19:41-42
It is showing how the people of Jerusalem, the city of peace, are focused on the peace in which they have become the main characters. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! I came to you as the Prince of Peace to die on the cross, embracing you in my arms to give you peace but you killed me saying ‘why do say you would die with me in your arms?’ I am the Prince of Peace but you cannot recognize this peace?” That is why the Bible sometimes uses the peace this world is pursuing to describe the enemies of God’s people.
Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.-Psalm 123:4
This Psalmist describes the enemy of God’s people as “those who are at ease.” In Psalm 73, those who were living in peace in this world were non-believers, right? Asaph believed in God but he couldn’t live in peace in this world. Same here. Those who are at ease, those who are peaceful in the worldly perspective, were scorning the Psalmist. They had the worldly peace.
They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.-Jeremiah 6:14
Even the false prophets were saying, ‘peace, peace.’ But the peace they are talking about is the false peace of this world. So He is saying that is not peace and there is no peace there. You can think like this. The peace of this world, family, or church, given apart from Jesus is like giving a dose of painkiller to a person who is terminally ill to forget the pain for a short time. That is not peace. It is not getting better. It is making the illness worse. People, please think about it. What peace is there in the world? Do you think people in the world like peace? People think nothing happening is peace but what if nothing happens? People get bored soon.
Do you know why human beings make wars and terror attacks? Because they are bored. Because they don’t like peace. That peace is not true peace so it cannot make them happy. Men start wars to bring world peace. Their excuse is to bring peace. US starts a war for peace, UN bombs the terrorist groups for peace, and terrorist groups make terror attacks for their own peace. Men would endlessly break peace. They are tired of that peace because it is not true peace. That is why men endlessly break peace. But they say the reason for that is for peace. They are deceived. They are deceiving themselves. Real peace comes when my own existence is eliminated before God but in the worldly peace, I am the main character. US talks about world peace but it wants peace where the US is in control. Isn't it true? That is not peace! The peace offering in the Old Testament shows a good picture that explains well how the Heavenly peace is given.
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. -Romans 3:25
As you can see, the sacrifice given for the peace between God and His people, for reconciliation, is Jesus Christ the Son of God. The regulation for peace offering comes out in a few places in Leviticus. Let’s go to Leviticus 3.
If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. 2 And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and Aaron's sons the priests shall throw the blood against the sides of the altar. 3 And from the sacrifice of the peace offering, as a food offering to the Lord, he shall offer the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, 4 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. 5 Then Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering, which is on the wood on the fire; it is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. -Leviticus 3:1-5
The name of this peace offering is “zevah shelamim.” Sacrifice of peace. The word shelamim comes from shalom, shalam, peace. So the sacrifice of peace, the offering of peace, or this peace offering is about an offering given for the peace between God and the people of God. The regulation for the peace offering comes out and it says to burn the fat and kidneys of the sacrificial animal and offer up to God. God likes fat a lot, right? Fat must not be thrown away. It has to be given to God. Do not hate your belly fat too much. Hahahha… Why does God like fat? The fat represents the anointed one, the Messiah. It is showing that the only offering given to God is the Messiah. Then, what do kidneys and liver do? They do detoxification.
Jesus the Messiah, the anointed one, is offered up to God as a sacrifice and our sins are detoxified. That is why the kidneys, liver, and fat are given to God. They are all burnt. Only the peace offering does not distinguish male or female animals. You can offer all, old and young and male and female. That is showing there is no horizontal discrimination among those who are reconciled with God. This is the ideology of one body in the book of Ephesians. Unlike other sacrifices, the peace offering is used as a banquet food shared with the priest, the one who offers the sacrifice, and his neighbors. This is later pictured as the banquet of the lamb in Revelation. This is the peace offering.
And from it he shall offer one loaf from each offering, as a gift to the Lord. It shall belong to the priest who throws the blood of the peace offerings. (Heave offering is lifting up and bringing down method. Burnt offering is burning, waver offering is shaking, and drink offering is pouring. Like these, there are four ways of offering, right?) 15 And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering. He shall not leave any of it until the morning. 16 But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow offering or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day that he offers his sacrifice, and on the next day what remains of it shall be eaten. -Leviticus 7:14-16
This is peace. God and the one who is making the offering, or the people of God who are making the offering, are sharing and eating up the offering, which is Jesus. God is receiving Jesus and the people of God are eating the flesh and blood of Jesus. This means all of those who drank and ate the blood and flesh of Jesus become ‘little Jesus’ and are offered up to God. This is peace offering. And there is a banquet beginning. Now in the banquet there is no more dissension. The banquet of peace, the wedding banquet of the lamb, is a scene where my identity is being eliminated. Why? Becoming a living being after eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Jesus means there is no more me. Living by the flesh and blood of Jesus means living by Jesus. It means living by faith of believing in Jesus. It is a scene where the identity of “I” is eliminated and my autonomy is seized. That is heaven, the kingdom of God, the world in revelation of eternity where the kingship of God is completely realized. That is peace and reconciliation. That is why Moses tells Israel in his will, “Build an altar on Mount Ebal once they enter the Promised Land!” Why Mount Ebal? Mount Ebal, the mountain of curse. Mount Gerizim is right next to it. Let’s look at Deuteronomy 27.
Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep the whole commandment that I command you today. 2 And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. 3 And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4 And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. 5 And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them; 6 you shall build an altar to the Lord your God of uncut[a] stones. And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God, 7 and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. -Deuteronomy 27:1-7
Mount Ebal is a mountain of curse where curses are proclaimed. But Moses is telling the Israelites to build an altar not on Mount Gerizim, but on Mount Ebal, where the curses are proclaimed. And the altar is to be built with uncarved stones. This means it is an altar where no human zeal or human labor is added. There the sacrifice of peace offering is given. This means salvation, the peace of Israel, or Israel's entrance to Canaan, is not accomplished by Israel doing anything good. Israel must enter death under the proclamation of the curses and that is why they are standing on Mount Ebal. We all must go up Mount Ebal because we deserve being cursed and death. But despite this, by God killing Jesus the lamb on that mountain of curse, by Jesus being offered up as a peace offering on the altar where no human zeal or labor is added, we are dancing in joy shouting “we can saved!” This is the reality of those who know the Gospel. This is the peace offering. That is God’s peacemaking. What does that mean then? This means Israel itself is being made to nothing on Mount Ebal. “What do you think you can do? You are to die in this death!” He is making them into nothing. Peace offering is made upon the death of Israel of flesh and reconciliation comes. Peace comes. Think about it. Why is our dying peace? All human being who ate the fruit of good and evil live only to enhance their existence and exercise their autonomy, right? That is why they try hard to keep their sense of being wherever. ‘Crazy sense of being.’ Losing one’s sense of being? Not getting noticed? Then they must hang themselves these days. Everyone lives to enhance and establish their own existence. But the Bible calls this life of exercising autonomy a sin. This kind of life is insecure and peace-less. “Let me try once”- this does not work. And being like this is called death because no one can escape when the law accuses. You can enter the kingdom of God only if you keep all the laws, not missing one. But here is no human being who can keep all the requirements by God by exercising his autonomy. That is why all must die. What does the law do? It reveals us as sinners, right? That means the law investigates our sins and accuses us before God. It is prosecuting us. “This man sinned this and that so kill him.” Why? Death can surely say that because all sins are punished by death before God. Then, what is the way for the indictee to be set free from the interrogation and prosecution from the prosecutor? Something like this happened before. The former President of Korea was being interrogated for something. Now a lawyer, In-Kyu Lee was the prosecutor at that time. He was about to prosecute the former president but it was taken care of all at once. How? The former president jumped from the Owl Rock and died. So the investigation ended. He could not be prosecuted. That is why God has to kill you. He has to so that the law cannot prosecute you. That is why you died on the cross. So now no prosecution can be done against the dead bodies. And you have become a completely different existence as a new body with Jesus as its head. You have become a collective being called church. You are no longer a being that can be individually punished or rewarded but a collective being as a church which the law cannot individually prosecute. That is called peace. This is reconciliation. That is why you are living a life of your own existence, identity, with your autonomy being taken away. The Cross is where Jesus held us in His arms and jumped to death because it is hard for us to jump down on our own. So being set free there is enjoying the peace. But we who have been reconciled appear in this world as those who defamed human pride because our existence and sense of being is deprived. That’s called dying. Saints are led to this. We are those who enjoy peace in Jesus. We have nothing to be anxious about anymore. But human beings keep wanting to sense peace through feelings and emotions. That is why we keep on troubling ourselves saying ‘I am not in peace.’ That kind of peace will not be given to you. It was made clear that human beings’ understanding of peace is totally different from the word of God under Mount Sinai, where Moses received the law.
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden[a] calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. -Exodus 32:1-6
They are dancing around after giving the peace offering. They are feeling and emotionally enjoying peace. But how are they sensing and experiencing peace here? They are disillusioned to think they are at peace because they have made something visible. In verse 6, the Israelites without Moses are dancing, drinking, and eating after giving the peace offering. But what’s sitting in the middle of them is an idol they made for themselves as a god to calm their anxious heart. Like this, human beings try to gain peace through the things they can see. Look at yourselves. Why are you anxious? And why is there dissension? You are anxious because something you see is going wrong and that’s why there is dissension, right? That’s the peacemaking of the people of the world. They are mistaking their good feelings and emotions coming from possessing what they desire and want and from being the main characters of their own reality. In verse 1, the entire Israelites are in fear because Moses, who went up to get the stone template of the Ten Commandments, is not coming down. “Why isn’t he coming already?” And they call Moses as the one who led them out of Egypt. At that time, the signs of God’s presence were happening on the top of Mount Sinai. Despite looking at them, these human beings could not recognize God. Moses and God are diligently writing on the stone but down there, these people are saying there is no God because they cannot see. For sure it was God who led them out of Egypt but people are only seeing Moses, who is visible. This is the blind spot of men. When there is a preacher who preaches well or rightly preaches the word of God, you will idolize him/her without realizing if you cannot see God behind him. If that preacher disappears, you will be anxious. This is the exactly what the Israelites did. The one who led them out of Egypt was God, who worked behind Moses. You must be able to see that so that you can securely come to out to church even when there is no Moses, or when the pastor is absent for a month…. Hahahha You’d better come out. I know you all just watch it on TV. So those who followed the visible Moses are anxious because he is not seen and they must make something they can see as a replacement. And the best they could do was to make the golden calf. But because it cannot be called Moses, they called it ‘a god who led them out of Egypt.’ It is the name they called Moses by. Israel wanted to gain peace through Moses and wanted to gain peace through the golden calf which can be seen. So as soon as they made it, they talk of ‘peace, peace.’
Think about it. ‘Glory in heaven and peace on earth!’ What is it? It’s Christmas. But how do we evaluate Christmas the day after? ‘Did you have fun yesterday?’ Who is the main character of Christmas that they are trying to have fun? They are dancing around in joy? Where is God and what peace on earth is that? It’s the same today. Some special Christmas programs must be made and people have to spend good time doing cell-group talent shows because we all must be joyous. That is not how peace is gained. God is angry at that. Nothing in this world, no visible thing can bring us peace. It cannot reconcile us. Men trying to produce the kind of peace they want by mobilizing their own methods and ways, despite the fact that peace is given only through the blood of the lamb, is sin. That is why God says to kill them all. God says “Kill them all Moses. I will kill them all leaving only you, Moses.” To summarize, the intelligence that attacks Christianity today divides it two ways, one is a scientific world view and positivism and the other is historical ideology. Both of these are protesting to Christianity, “Convince me with something visible.” Convince me with visible things. The absolute truths in Christianity being relatively evaluated and becoming pluralized are the characteristic of today’s world. This is asking to be convinced with visible things. It is commonly seen among those who call themselves Christians, trying to understand and interpret Christianity with scientific reasoning. They are asking to be convinced with what they can see and feel. “Why do I not have peace? Why am I not happy? It says I should rejoice always.” This is not it. It’s the same for the historical reasoning. Historical reasoning presupposes that all things without exception have a historical beginning and are historically formed and changed. In my opinion, such ideologies outside of church are not much to worry about. But, it is a serious thing that there exists such religiosity of ‘convince me with what I can see’ even in the church. People want to feel with their senses. They want to be moved and experience something. They are coming to church with an attitude of ‘I cannot recognize a religion that cannot make me happy in history.’ They are saying, “Pastor, you must make me happy, the word must make me happy, the church must make me happy and move me, and the worship should be great in music by hiring excellent musicians so that I can be impressed.” God teaches the people of Israel what peace offering is again at the place of such corruption. God said He will kill them all but Moses stands up to stop Him. ‘I will kill them all’ means going back to the last plague of the ten plagues of Egypt. He means to kill them all, right? God said, “I will spare the eldest son of the houses that are covered in the blood of the lamb.” Then, someone must play the role of the lamb. Now, they are at the state of being back in Egypt. All will be killed. God said, “You have forgotten how you came out of Egypt. You have forgotten the blood of the lamb, which was offered as the true peace offering. And now you are praying for peace and reconciliation with visible things. Sure, I will teach you again”. And then, He is taking them to ‘I will kill you all.’ And there Moses stands up to stop playing the role of the lamb. Only who Moses mediates lives.
And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” -Exodus 32:9-10
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” -Exodus 32:30-32
In a situation where all is about to die, Moses puts his life on line and stands up to stop the wrath of God. This is the identity of peace offering. It is not because Israel changed. There is someone who has stopped the wrath, someone who is offered up as an offering. Moses is dying here with Israel in his arms. That is why the Bible says, Israel was baptized in Moses. That means God killed Moses. They may dance around and temporarily rejoice as they make an idol and sacrifice to it but there is no true peace. That is why God says “I will not accept your peace offerings of fattened animals.” It comes out in Amos 5:22. Your fattened animals, I will not accept. How about in Psalms? “Do you think I will accept your offerings because I like the burning smell of the animals? Aren’t they all mine? They are all mine.” It means to find Jesus, who is the true peace offering hidden inside there. That is why Jesus also says this in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. “Before you make an offering, if there is a friend who is not in peace with you, go and make peace with him first and then make an offering.” That means to shatter the idea that you can make peace by making your own offering. It means your worship given in the state of being reconciled is a worship where Jesus is being offered up and no human works can accomplish reconciliation.
Therefore, holy brothers,[a] you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's[b] house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.[c] -Hebrews 3:1-6
Moses and Jesus are being compared. The mediation of Moses was an example of Jesus' being the peace offering. However, even after the mediation of Moses was accepted, the law is given again. Why does God give the law again when they are spared by the mediation of Moses and He knows they will die again when the law is given? To kill them again? No. It is for them to be thankful for the reality of being saved by the mediation of Moses, to the life of Moses and to the mediation of Moses, as they are being exposed of their impossibility before the law. Like this, those who trust only Moses, Jesus the lamb, the mediator and His work, those who praise what He has done and His grace, those who are being eliminated more and more, they are who are reconciled to God. And living that out in their body and sharing that with their lips saying ‘Jesus reconciled. Jesus made peace. Let’s praise Him’ is the life of those who are given the ministry of reconciliation. Therefore, there is no peace without Jesus. Peacemakers without the Gospel? There can be no such thing.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. -Romans 5:10-11
This is peace. This is peace. This scene where your own identity is being dismissed as you trust only the work of Jesus is peace. That is when our true Father is very much pleased. Before God, we are returning to our first place, a place of a fetus where it would die and become a dead meat if not connected to the lifeline of the mother. That’s when our Father is happy even if He could barely sleep on that small bed. God is being received as God. People, do you really only feel proud when your children refuse your help? Not so. God does not want us to exercise such autonomy. He wants you to be like a child who only seeks His help. That is why Jesus says you cannot enter Heaven unless you are like a little child. That child is an ‘infant,’ someone who cannot even change his own diaper without the help of his father. Such peacemaking of God is making everyone equal, young and old, male and female. No one can boast of his own character or qualification making peace because it is done by God. That is why only in peace offering, male and female can both be offered. That state of God’s peacemaking, that state of not being able to boast one’s merit before His power and His zeal and all becoming equal, is called the horizontal reconciliation. The state where no one can carelessly condemn and judge anyone is called reconciliation. In the end, such peacemaking and horizontal reconciliation is not something we can do but God is leading us to it. Peace naturally comes about in the kingdom of God, or among the lives of those in whom the horizontal reconciliation has taken place. The state of no one being able to condemn or judge others since Gentiles or Jews, all have become the people of God by the blood of Jesus, is reconciliation. That is why it says this in Ephesians. Let’s read 2:13.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, (Now each individuality is deleted. It has become a new man.) 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. (This is peace) 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,[a] but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by[b] the Spirit. -Ephesians 2:13-22
This is peace between the saints. No one became a saint because he is qualified or worked for it. So the state of you and I praising and boasting only the work of God’s peace offering is called peace. It is called reconciliation. I will wrap up. Peacemakers are those who correctly understand the Gospel of the cross of Jesus, the Gospel of grace and live out that Gospel in their body and share it through their lips. But they live in history, actualizing the cross and are self-denied. It means they will live a life with themselves being eliminated more and more. That place of the cross being actualized is where we are reconciled to God (Why? Because our self-ego of the flesh is diminishing) and living it out in our body and sharing it with our lips is our life of carrying out the ministry of reconciliation. Can you distinguish the secular peace and Heavenly peace? Yes, let’s pray.
God, we thank you for your grace. Father God, we are reconciled by the Son of God. In this world, we are to live a life of our self-ego of the flesh being eliminated as we live actualizing the life of the cross. God, if that is the unavoidable life of those who are reconciled to God, aren’t we living correctly? But God, we want to taste the peace of Heaven by what we see and what we feel and our emotions. Please let us know how vain this is in faith and let us be happy by understanding correctly the reality of true peace being made in our lives. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.