The Peace That Follows Resurrection

When Jesus rose from the grave and saw the disciples for the first time, his first words were, “Peace be with you!”  This is also the phrase used in many liturgical churches when the members rise from their seats and “pass the peace” by saying, “Peace be with you!” and the response is “And also with you.”

Think how appropriate a greeting that is after the resurrection.  Prior to Jesus’ resurrection, the faithful had a hope of an afterlife, but it wasn’t a sure thing to them.  If you aren’t confident of a resurrection, there’s not much peace here on earth.  We would have to accept that whatever happens here is all there is  – all the injustice, all the pain, all the separation, all the losses, all the infirmities and disease and inequality.  How can any of us have any peace knowing that this earth is the end?  Even if you have a cushy life or loving family, you couldn’t be happy knowing your handicapped friend or the starving child on the border have no hope of anything better beyond this crappy life.  

The resurrection is the only source of real peace.  Jesus starts out his resurrected life by saying those words to the people who had been the most traumatized by his death.  He’s saying, “Don’t be scared anymore.  Don’t dread anymore.  Don’t be focused on protecting yourself anymore.  You are now reconciled with God – at peace with Him – and now you can be at peace with yourself and the world.”

This is why many books of the New Testament open with this greeting “Grace and peace to you,” and this is why Christians greet each other at church with these words.  This is a New Testament greeting, a post-resurrection promise, a mantra for us today.  Meditate on this phrase this week.

“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’” John 20:19