Luke 19:35-38 “Heavenly Peace”

Do you all remember Christmas? It was not that long ago really. Just seems like a few weeks ago because Easter comes early this year. At Christmas we sing the favorite Christmas Carol “Silent Night.” In that carol we sing that Jesus is to “sleep in heavenly peace.” We can imagine the star of Bethlehem shining down as the angels are in chorus. The picture is one of heaven coming down in that moment of Christ’s birth! The peace of heaven comes to earth.

When we read this text this morning from Luke 19:38, we may be a little confused by the wording as it really does not seem to make sense. In the first part it talks about the Kingdom coming in the Name of the Lord, but then it talks about peace and glory in heaven. Did you catch that? Why would Jesus’ establishing the Kingdom of God on Earth portend peace and glory in heaven? Wasn’t there already peace and glory in heaven? Isn’t it that Jesus establishes God’s peace and glory on earth when he brings down the Kingdom of Heaven?

Already way back in 1729 a pastor and biblical scholar by the name of Daniel Mace decided to translate this line as “from heaven and from the highest glory,” rather than “in heaven and in highest glory.” The thought then is “Blessed is He who has come in the name of the Lord, bringing peace and glory from the highest heaven.” Everything in the passage is about the “coming of the Lord.” Jesus has come; therefore, the peace of Heaven and its glory comes with Jesus.

By the way, Pastor Daniel Mace in making this translation did something new and exciting for its time: He put his English translation right under the original Greek text so that one could read for him or herself what was there in the Greek and come up with one’s own thoughts. Then, understanding that the preposition “εν” in biblical Greek is not the same as “in” in English but has more the sense of pure dative understanding, we could translate this as “amounting to” or even “of the presence.” (Walter Bauer’s Greek dictionary). “Jesus’ coming to the Temple in Jerusalem is amounting to heavenly peace and glory on earth.”

The expectation of the crowds shouting hosanna was that Jesus, the recognized Messiah of God, was going to ride up to the Temple’s Holist of Holies, march through the sacred curtains and take his place on the so-called “mercy seat,” which is construed to have been the throne of God on earth. That is the prophecy of Zechariah being fulfilled as the people would have expected in the day. Nah, that did not happen. We need to read a little more to get the better picture.

From verse 41:”As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘if you, even you had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!’” We continue to read that he then turns over the tables of the moneychangers. This is the most offensive we ever see Jesus in all of the Gospels.

When he is done, he retreats to the Mount of Olives (Luke 21:37). If we read this period out of the Gospel of John (Jn 12), then we can see that Jesus also in this time came to Bethany where he gets a fine meal prepared for him by Martha while he is soothed and anointed by Mary of Bethany. All this just to say that Jesus seems to find more peace and glory away from the crowds that were shouting Hosannas! This is quite curious. It begs the question of what it means that Jesus brings down the “Kingdom in heavenly peace and glory”?

This is as if you went to a political rally to cheer for your candidate who promises to solve the problems of the world and bring peace and light to your life. So, let’s pretend that you are the one right now that everyone looks to solve all the problems of the world. But instead, you go out and sit under an olive tree in a garden then go off to have a nice meal and massage at your friend’s house nearby.

The way I read this is that heavenly peace on this planet does not begin with big rallies, screaming people, and the expectation of regime change! That will never bring the kind of peace that is the godly peace and glory of the Kingdom of God. Peace is going to come with the closeness of sharing the sunset on the Mount of Olives with Jesus. Peace is going to come with a good meal and anointing in the name of God with good friends and ohana.

Even the great Evangelist Billy Graham used to say at his big rallies that “only the Peace of Christ coming into your hearts can save humankind.” The big rallies are not going to do it. Screaming and waving are not going to do it. Christ’s coming into your heart is the way the Kingdom of God brings heavenly peace and glory.

From Colossians 3:15 we read Paul’s words: “Let the Peace of Christ rule your heart.” Jesus himself says in John 14:27, “Let not your heart be troubled. My peace I give to you.” Again and again we read in the bible that heavenly peace coming into the world enters through our own hearts! The peace of Christ does not come at the time of the triumphal entry to the Temple in Jerusalem. The heavenly peace and glory comes at the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning when in the quiet moments of sunrise in the garden Mary of Magdala and the other women see his resurrected self before them.

Now we understand why Jesus was weeping at the time of the Triumphal Entry! The world needs to get off of its donkey! The heavenly peace coming to the world begins with our following Jesus’ greatest commandment of all, that being to love God and love one another. Jesus weeps at the time of the triumphal entry because shouting and waving is not loving God and each other.

How do we find this heavenly peace that Jesus is bringing to the world? I am actually going to refer to the theme of our youth retreat two weeks ago now: TRUST. When we have full trust in God, then we begin to see the heavenly peace that can come with that. The example that came up again and again at the youth retreat was that of the disciple Simon Peter. He was always missing the heavenly peace in his life because he seemed unable to fully trust in God.

Peter starts out right. Jesus finds him fishing on the Sea of Galilee and calls to him to follow. He does! He is perfectly at peace with this decision. However, Jesus then asks him one day after feeding the 5,000 to walk on water with him. Peter loses trust in Jesus and starts to sink into the Sea. Jesus comes and pulls him back up again. Then, Peter denies Jesus three times at the time of his arrest. All of this is very troubling to Peter. He knows he has betrayed Jesus. Yet, Jesus still trusts in Peter. At the end of the Gospel of John, we see Jesus once more giving reason for Peter to trust again in God and Jesus. Three times Peter is asked whether he loves enough, and three times he says “Lord, you know that I do.”

Henry David Thoreau, “On Walden Pond” author, would tell you that you should find peace with God in going back to nature. George Steiner, “Real Presences” author, would tell you that you should find peace with God in the creation of fine art. Stephen Hawking, “A Brief History of Time” author, might have told you that peace, heavenly peace, can come from contemplating the heavens and the wonder of the intricacies of the universe. I personally think you can find peace in swimming with the fishes in the ocean.

The unfortunate thing is that in all of these instances of finding peace, they all do just constitute instances, brief moments of recognition of peace. We want to experience God’s peace when we are driving in the city and get cut off by another car.

For example, the other day I was at the Costco food court. I waited in the cash line as always, I noticed in the pre-paid line a woman was being told that she needed to either use the kiosk or get into the cash line. The service person pointed my way. The woman just cut in front of me and the rest of the line behind me. I glanced behind to see others with big eyes as the woman cut in, causing them all to have to wait. They had the look on their eyes as if they wanted me to do something. I kind of shrugged.

Okay, the woman tried to make her order, however, she did not have a Costco card. She turned to me, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she just cut the line in front of me, and asked if I would mind flashing my card to the machine. I thought to myself “Olaf, you are preaching about peace on Sunday, keep your cool.” I just smiled and waved my card to the card reading gun. “No problem,” I said as I tried to smile and be pleasant.

Now I began to worry if she was going to be able to pay for her food. She ordered a lot. It was about four lunches worth. I breathed a sigh of relief as she pulled out her cash. I really thought I was about to have to buy this woman’s lunch too. Yeah. To say the least I was not at peace. What should I have done? Love my neighbor. Trust in God. Find my peace in the Lord. As she was handed her food, she turned to me once more and said: “Thank you, really helped me!” I felt that God rush hit me. I was then at peace.

Amen