This past Sunday we unpacked Advent: PEACE with some help from our friends over at The Bible Project. Like I mentioned in the message, the concept of peace in the Scriptures is so much deeper than just the absence of war. It’s the concept of completeness… wholeness.

According to Scripture, no one fulfills bringing the peace like Jesus does. From a prophetic and theological standpoint, this is fairly easy to see and understand. Jesus by virtue of his life, death, and resurrection, gives us peace with God. The debt we owed to sin is paid by Jesus. As a theological construct this is fairly straightforward, and it is a major reason why Paul (in Ephesians 2) says HE – meaning Jesus – is our peace.

Here’s the problem… How can Jesus be my peace in the middle of the wreck that I call my life? What good is this theological truth in the middle of financial or relational crisis? If I’ve got job issues and kid issues and marriage issues – not to mention the state of the whole world right now, then how useful or practical is this “theological truth” of Jesus being my peace?

This is not a new tension for those of us who live in the 21st Century. In the very time that Jesus was born, they had the same questions. In light of centuries of being under the oppression of corrupt governments, having a lifeless and disconnected religion putting more burdens on families, how could the arrival of a little baby boy be the solution to all of that?

There may be two different ways to look at this.

The first I pose with this question. How many messes in our life are actually out of our own creation THEN we ask Jesus to make PEACE out of it? He’s gracious, and I know He can and will cover them. I can’t count how many of these situations I’ve put Jesus in the middle of, but the truth does remain that so many times Jesus really isn’t my PEACE. He’s my life preserver after I realize the thing I was using as my PEACE (money, position, influence, smarts, other people) failed me.

Christmas can be a great time to ask ourselves what or who really is our PEACE. What are we trusting our lives with? What gives our souls ultimate rest and security? If it is something other than Jesus, we will never EXPERIENCE the PEACE of Jesus.

The second way to look at this has to do with how big is your Christmas story? If Christmas for you is only the manger scene, then you’re missing out. That’s not really Christmas. If Christmas for you includes the whole life of Jesus, the cross and the resurrection, then that’s not really the whole Christmas story either.

This is because the complete promise of Christmas will not be experienced until Christ returns again. This time, not as a baby but as the King of kings and Lord of lords. When every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. When He will make a new heaven and a new earth, where death and sickness are no more, where darkness has no place to hide.

And He will be our PEACE.

Til then we live by faith. Believing Him, based on His character that He has already proven. And that gives us temporary peace for now.