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“For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”
A vexing challenge for the church in any age, always incomplete, often one step forward and two steps back, is the battle it must wage against itself, against its most fervent adherents, against its own pride, against its worst instincts, against its own misinformed propaganda. For if Christ is truly our peace, as Paul suggests, and if through Christ the dividing wall of hostility has been broken down, then the church must always and honestly confront its legacy of violence and death, so often instigated in the name of Christ, under the cross of Christ, and purportedly out of zeal for Christ. Inquisitions, Southern lynchings, ethnic cleansings, hate speech, exclusion, book burning, race-baiting, political targeting, rage rousing – Wherever this has happened, is happening, or inevitably will happen, the name of Jesus should never be tied, allied, or tethered to it. For if Christ is our peace, the name of Jesus represents the opposite of all that would impede peace. If Christ is our peace, our waking moments should be marked by the ongoing effort to reflect that peace, make room for that peace, work for that peace, and offer that peace, not just toward those who pass our litmus tests of like-mindedness, but toward all. Every encounter offers the opportunity to remove bricks from or add bricks to the dividing wall of hostility. If Christ is truly our peace, which of these labors would Christ have us do?
In a classic Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, young Calvin’s sardonic stuffed tiger, Hobbes, asks Calvin, who is wearing an army helmet, “How come we play war, and not peace?” Calvin’s answer? “Too few role models.” In the home, neighborhood, school, office, grocery store, legislature, and across the nations, let us be role models for peace so that one day Christ’s church may truly reflect its namesake. For Christ is our peace.
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