Jesus’ birth would be announced as “peace on earth”; and he would leave his last meal with his friends before his death saying, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid”. Jesus brings peace. This was anticipated by the prophets, too, with Isaiah calling the Messiah the “Prince of Peace”. But how often the peace Jesus brings looks different than we may have been expecting it to look. Walter Brueggeman says this, in his “Names for the Messiah: An Advent Study”: “A ‘Prince of Peace’ in the Roman Empire – or in any empire… - would be a victor who would impose peace and burn the weapons of the defeated. It is, of course, impossible to imagine Jesus undertaking such violent acts as a way toward peace. Thus if we can at all apply the phrase ‘Prince of Peace’ to Jesus, it will be in contradiction to the old expectations of the Isaiah oracle, a contradiction of the hopes of Rome and a contradiction of the expectations of such a prince of peace in the American empire as well. The peace that he will initiate and sponsor, a peace that passes all human understanding and that defies all ordinary expectations, will be a peace that is wrought in vulnerability that does not seek to impose its own way. Peace via vulnerability confounds the empire!” How do you see peace coming through vulnerability (Jesus’? your own?), as you wait this Advent season?

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2020-12-08 15:22:46 UTC