Reflections on the Prince of Peace

We are coming to the end of the second week of Advent in 2013 and the theme for this week is peace. So my thoughts this week, as we prepare ourselves for Christmas, has been upon one of the titles given to Jesus, the title “Prince of Peace.” The title comes from Isaiah’s prophecy, one of the many we evoke during the Advent/Christmas season:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

How are we to interpret the peace of which Jesus is prince? More often than not it seems like we tend to interpret this word in a sentimental way, peace as inner peace, emotional peace, or “spiritual” peace. Certainly I would not argue against the claim that Jesus reigns over his people whereby inner peace is made possible by the Holy Spirit; but maybe there is more to the peace mentioned here in Isaiah 9:6.

If we look at the context of this reference by looking at the previous verse, we see a larger definition of the peace provided by the son who was given. The context for “Prince of Peace” is:

for every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire (Isaiah 9:5).

The Prince of Peace comes to rule not only over a kingdom of inner peace, but of a real, physical, nonviolent kingdom. The kingdom of the Prince of Peace is a peaceable kingdom where war, conflict, fighting, violence, force, and harm comes to an end. In other words, peace means “nonviolence.”

Why such an emphasis on nonviolence?

I have heard this murmured-complaint more than once. Christians understand there are other topics within the scope of Christian ethics beyond nonviolence. I agree. The Jesus Way is paved with other things to do (and not do) than rejecting the assumption of violence as a means to conduct ourselves in a fallen world, but we do live in a world of violence. Even as a write this blog post, I am listening to reports of another school shooting. This shooting has happened just today at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado in the same school district as the tragic Columbine High School shooting fourteen years ago. Another school shooting and this one on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the horrific Newtwon school shooting.  May God have mercy on us.

Elevating the value of Christian nonviolence as a way to reduce violence in our world is noble, but my embrace of Christian nonviolence has not occurred as a knee-jerk reaction to violent shooting sprees.For me, the virtue of nonviolence has grown brighter as I have become much more serious about being gospel-driven and cross-centered. The heart of the gospel is the proclamation that Jesus has become the world’s true Lord, and indeed the Prince of Peace, by his death upon the cross. Isaiah paints the picture of his death in the vilest of terms:

He was DESPISED and REJECTED by men; a man of SORROWS, and acquainted with GRIEF; and as one from whom men HIDE THEIR FACES he was DESPISED, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our GRIEFS and carried our SORROWS; yet we esteemed him STRICKEN, SMITTEN by God, and AFFLICTED. But he was PIERCED for our transgressions; he was CRUSHED for our iniquities; upon him was the CHASTISEMENT that brought us peace, and with his WOUNDS we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was OPPRESSED, and he was AFFLICTED, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the SLAUGHTER, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By OPPRESSION and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was CUT OFF out of the land of the living, STRICKEN for the transgression of my people? (Isaiah 53:3-8)

We are jumping from Advent to the end of Lent by looking toward the cross, but it will be helpful as we attempt to make sense of this peace Jesus is prince over. His throne was a cross and his inaugural celebration was a violent pain death and yet, Isaiah writes: they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth (Isaiah 9:8). Jesus committed no violent acts to deserve the death he received and he remained nonviolent in his death. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light…the way of nonviolence is the way of peace.

Nonviolence is not merely a good idea in response to a violent world.

Nonviolence is an essential Christian virtue because of the cross of Jesus Christ.

I first began to see this a few years ago. While living and pastoring in South Georgia, I began to read and listen to “America’s best theologian,” Stanley Hauerwas. (When Time magazine named him “America’s best theologian,” he responded that “best” is not a theological category! Perfect response.) I was listening to a lecture he gave at the 2007 Convocation & Pastor’s School at Duke University entitled, “Call for the Abolition of War.” I was listening to Hauerwas via podcast while driving to a birthday party and as I drew near to the house hosting the party, I heard Hauerwas say “We call for the abolition of war, because, at the cross, God in Christ has abolished war.” This statement stunned me. My eyes were beginning to see a hint of a great truth.

My vision of Christian nonviolence has grown from reading Hauerwas and others. My understanding of Christian nonviolence has continued to develop from my ongoing conversations with my pastor, Brian Zahnd. He has been on quite a journey himself from being pro-war to embracing Christian nonviolence. He has preached on this subject and we have talked at length about it. I just finished reading a manuscript copy of his latest book where he tell his story. (The book is entitled A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace. It will be released in June 2014.) His insight has been helpful.

We who call ourselves “Christian” believe Jesus is our savior, the savior of the world. His saving act was to die a violent death upon a cross so we may see fully and most assuredly what God is like. We see God as the benevolent King who dies for us even while were yet sinners. We see God who would rather suffer and die than respond in violent retaliation. We see the suffering God; the nonviolent God. And in suffering for us, Jesus has left for us an example “that you (all) might follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

I understand the message of Christian nonviolence comes with a whole host of questions:
What about self-defense?
What about an intruder in my home?
What about law enforcement? Police? The military?
What about protecting my family?
What about gun ownership?
What about gun laws?
What about Word War II?

We all have our questions (I have mine too!), but before we begin to answer these questions we need to let our imaginations be shaped by Isaiah and his picture of a Prince of Peace who will reign over a peaceable kingdom, where he invites all the nations to the mountain of the LORD where “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4); where “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together” (Isaiah 11:6); where “they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)

Once our minds have been thoroughly renewed, then we are ready to work towards answering some of our questions. Finding solutions will be difficult, because we live at a time when the kingdom of God has come, but it is also still coming. During this in-between time we can talk about moments when force is necessary, but as faithful followers of Jesus, we must begin at the place of nonviolence. If we start from a place where violence is always an option, then we will lack the imagination to come up with nonviolent solutions. By centering our discussion around nonviolence, any act of violence would be deemed an unpleasant anomaly.

I hope such discussions will make our world less violent, but maybe not. As Stanley Hauerwas has often said, “Christians are not nonviolent because we believe our nonviolence is a strategy to rid the world of war. Indeed our nonviolence may make the world more violent. But rather because as faithful followers of Christ in a world of war we cannot imagine being anything else than nonviolent” (paraphrase). I do not have all the answers, but one thing I do know. Jesus is Lord. He is the reigning Prince of Peace and in him do I put my trust.