Peace Be With You
Every gospel writer has little bit of a different emphasis when they write their account of Jesus’ life and ministry. It’s one of the beautiful things about the way that God chose to write his Word through regular people like you and me. The Holy Spirit didn’t erase their personality or perspective when he inspired them to write down the testimonies and accounts from the disciples and other witnesses. Far from it. He used their unique voices to join in a chorus of witnesses to testify to God’s faithfulness to his promises to save us from our sins through his Son Jesus Christ.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all give an account of the first Palm Sunday…the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem at the beginning of what would come to be known as Holy Week. This year Luke gets the focus, and he has a unique emphasis in his telling of that day. The major components of the story are all there: Jesus tells his disciples to go into town ahead of him and retrieve a young colt that has never been ridden from some random person’s house. They bring it back, put their cloaks on it and then Jesus. Then they lay their cloaks (and in some of the other accounts palm branches) on the ground in front of Jesus as he rides into the city. The crowds gather and join in praising God and proclaiming Jesus as King.
But when Luke tells it he has a couple unique bits in there. First, his crowd shouts something a little different from all the other gospel accounts. They don’t say “Hosanna!” which in Hebrew literally means “save now, we pray.” Instead, in his account they shout, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Second, in his account the Pharisees tell Jesus to rebuke his followers, and Jesus responds, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” These unique parts of Luke’s gospel work together with the rest of the story to highlight and emphasize a particular part of Jesus’ work…something that Luke alone records at the beginning of Jesus’ life too. And that is peace. Jesus came to bring peace.
This is not in contradiction with the other gospels by any means. They all have this embedded in their accounts too, which we will see, but they don’t emphasize it in the way Luke does. In Luke’s birth account of Jesus, the angels appear to the shepherds in the field and proclaim one of my favorite promises in the whole Bible, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (2:14 KJV). From the start Luke highlights the fact that Jesus would be the Prince of Peace, the fulfillment of Isaiah 9:6. He had come to bring an end to the war that we began in Genesis 3. Since that fateful day, we’ve been at war with God, at war with each other, at war with the world around us, and at war with ourselves. As Paul says, we made ourselves enemies with God (Romans 5:8, 10). Jesus came to bring peace between God and us and all of creation.
Luke bookends Jesus’ life with these two proclamations about him. The first, as we have seen, comes from the angels and speaks of peace on earth. The second here at the triumphal entry comes from the crowds at Jerusalem and speaks of peace in heaven. The two different sides of the war recognize the power of Jesus’ work and ministry to bring peace with the other side, to reconcile us to God (2 Cor. 5:11-21).
All of the gospels are very clear that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey, which also drives home him being the Peacemaker (Zechariah 9:9). In the Ancient Near East the manner in which a king rode into a city spoke to what his intentions were. There were two animals upon which kings would ride: a horse or a donkey. The horse was seen as an animal of war and conquest. You would ride a horse into battle. When a king rode a horse into a city it was either because he had already conquered it or was sending the message that he intended to exert his power and authority over them. The donkey on the other hand was an animal of peace and humility. Jesus choosing to ride on the colt of a donkey revealed that he came in peace to bring peace. He did not come to battle against us or to conquer us. He came to deliver us, to save us, to make peace for and with us. The fact that the colt was previously unridden also highlights the fact that no one else could or would do this. He alone was the true King, the true Lord, and the true Prince of Peace. This was his job alone. Only he could save us.
The final part of Luke’s account is when Jesus responds to the Pharisee objection saying, “if the crowds were quiet, the stones would cry out.” This also drives home another aspect of Jesus being the Prince of Peace. He is not just King of the Jews or the King of Christians or even the King humans…Jesus is the King of the Universe…Lord of all creation. Likewise, as we have said he came to bring peace to all of creation. All of creation broke as a result of our sin. Death entered the world and affected everything. Therefore, the entire creation was desperate for redemption, for new life. As Paul wrote,
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:19-23)
Luke reveals that Jesus knew this very well as he rode toward Calvary on that first Palm Sunday. He came to bring peace to all of his creation…to answer the cry of the stones, the trees, the oceans, the stars in the sky, and all the creatures everywhere. And just as it all came undone through the sin of one man, it would all be redeemed and healed through the sacrifice of one man, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:18).
This is the good news for you today that Jesus is indeed the Prince of Peace. In the midst of our increasingly chaotic and unpredictable world we have Luke’s testimony that puts a spotlight on this truth: Jesus has won peace for you and me. His is a peace the surpasses all understanding (Php. 4:7). No matter what the circumstances, no matter the storm you may be going through right now, no matter if everything around you is falling apart, he rode into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey to lay down his life for you, to save you, to give you his peace.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). Amen.
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