More Than a Referee

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9

Having one child makes you a parent; having two makes you a referee.

— David Frost

Can you imagine how often God would need to blow his whistle or throw a flag if he were attempting to referee all the squabbles his children got into? But our lives clearly show that broken relationships are common—and God doesn’t miraculously rescue every situation.

Just because God is not a “helicopter parent” who nervously hovers over every situation involving his bickering children, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care or that he has no solution. Rather, he chose to deal directly with our most pressing broken relationship—our separation from him due to our sin—by sending Jesus to take our punishment. His plan for peace is that we rely upon him and act as peacemakers.

In Matthew 4:17, Jesus began his public ministry with the following pronouncement, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” All of the beatitudes, the “blessed are” statements of Jesus in Matthew 5, are examples of what life in the kingdom of God is to be like. They are as countercultural as the notion of repentance, a U-turn in heart attitude and behavior. In other words, those redeemed by Christ’s blood are to live lives that reflect these values, because doing so will allow others to see what God is like.

Since humans are estranged from both God and other people, the call to be peacemakers is two-fold. We are peacemakers both when we share the gospel with those in need of salvation, and when we seek to reconcile people or groups who are estranged from one another or even engaged in violent struggle. While our first objective ought always to be introducing people to Jesus so they can be saved, we would be wrong if we did not also attempt to make peace out of our own broken relationships and between others suffering in similar brokenness. We don’t know if our higher objective, someone’s personal salvation, might occur as a result of our faithfulness in pursuing peace in our relationship with them, or by actively working to ensure that they experience peace in other relationships.

We have all been called a lot of things by others over the course of our lives. How wonderful it is to be called children of God as a result of working to bring about peace!

Peter Borg

PONDER: With whom might you share the gospel at this time in your life?

Unbroken: The Last Chapter

Louie Zamperini, the Olympic runner and WWII prisoner of war whose life was the subject of the recently released book and movie, Unbroken, began his relationship with Jesus in October of 1949 at a Billy Graham crusade. Graham’s sermon that night reminded Louie of the promises he had made to serve God forever while adrift in the Pacific Ocean. Louie and one other soldier survived when their plane ditched in the ocean, and they spent 47 days in a life raft only to be rescued by Japanese soldiers and subjected to two torturous years in POW camps.

They endured horrendous treatment from the guards. One guard in particular, nicknamed “The Bird,” was especially evil. Louie and his fellow prisoners expected to die in the camps, but they were eventually liberated by the advancing Americans.

Louie looked forward to a new life when he returned home. He married, but the relationship soon deteriorated. Louie’s days were filled with drunken binges, and his nights were filled with nightmares of the torture he had experienced. He awoke one night to find himself strangling what he thought was “The Bird,” but it was actually his pregnant wife.

But the moment Louie surrendered to Jesus, his nightmares miraculously ceased. Louie was filled with a profound peace he had never known before. His thoughts of returning to Japan changed from revenge to forgiveness. In 1950, Louie traveled back to Japan to shake the hands of the Japanese guards and offer them the life he had found in knowing Christ. Several of the guards became followers of Jesus through Louie’s testimony.

Louie again had the opportunity to return to Japan in 1998, to carry the Olympic torch through the city where he had been imprisoned. He was 80 years old. Louie never had the opportunity to meet “The Bird” in person to extend his forgiveness, but he sent a letter in which he said, “Love replaced the hate I had for you. Christ said, ‘forgive your enemies and pray for them.’”

[Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand]