The Peace of Jerusalem

            The History Channel has been offering a program called The Bible which began with Eden and has taken us through the story of the Hebrew people into the story of Jesus and his life, death and resurrection.  It is in many ways a chilling story.  There is a terrible emphasis on violence, with not only the Egyptians persecuting the Hebrews and chasing them when they fled Egypt, but the drowning of the Egyptian soldiers in the reconstituting Red Sea, and the terrible violence that the Hebrews themselves perpetrated on the residents that they found in Canaan, which was to them the promised land.  There is one horrible unsettling scene where the prophet Samuel demands that King Saul kill every living thing that is a part of the Philistines.  Saul fails in this and is denounced by Samuel.  

            Throughout the centuries and millennia that have followed, peace has been an elusive word not only in the Middle East, but throughout the world.  Crusaders fought with Muslims and kings in Europe fought with dissenters of one sort or another.  Joan of Arc died at the hands of the church because she was seen to be a witch.  There is a long legacy of martyrs to religion that is abominable when looked at as a whole. 

            Where is God in all of this?  I love the passage from Isaiah that speaks about the creation of a new world; the creation of a New Jerusalem where there will be no tears and that long life will be seen as the norm.  Praying for the peace of Jerusalem has been a staple of religious life, but when has there ever been peace in Jerusalem?

            This is Easter.  It is the day that is the culmination of God’s desire for humanity.  We began with the Nativity and then followed Jesus’ work throughout his life.  He healed, he loved, he brought hope to the poor.   Jesus came to us to show us what it means to be a child of God.  He lived his life in fulfillment of all of the commandments, and he gave us new commandments; to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind and secondly to love our neighbor as God loves us.  That is a beautiful mouthful that we have kept with us for all of the years that we have celebrated the resurrection of our Lord, and the conquest of the one thing that we all dread more than anything else:  Death.  Easter is the day that death is conquered, and we see it in Jesus resurrection.  Because of that, we can all be certain that we will survive death also.  It is also God’s promise to all of humanity that not only the peace of Jerusalem will be attained, but the peace of all of the world.  That is also what we constantly pray for.   So in Jesus’ resurrection, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled.  We will all know the glorious peace of God and the new world will be created.