THE PRICE OF AUTHENTICITY

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.”  Isaiah 9:6-7

I

magine yourself as a Jew whose family has for generations awaited the Messiah promised by God through the voices of Abraham and the prophets.  Your people, having been under the rule of such pagan nations as Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media Persia, Greece, and now Rome, know little of true peace.  But you and your family have been hanging on—sometimes only by a thread —to this promise from Isaiah, so you faithfully observe all the festivals, pray, watch, and wait…and wait, and wait for this Prince of Peace to arrive in His glory and take upon His shoulders this government, shattering the yoke of Rome.

            And then one day it happens.  The messengers are angels, and the first audience is a clump of lowly shepherds:  “And suddenly, there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace…’ ” (Luke 2:13-14).  Now it can begin.  At last this elusive peace that has seemed like only a fairy tale for so long will be yours.

            But we who live more than two thousand years removed from that first angelic carol of hope know that the peace that the Jews waited for so long took on a much different form from their expectations.  The baby in the manger was indeed the Messiah, the Prince of Peace that the prophets foretold, but the kind of peace He ushered in left many Jews scratching their heads and squinting their eyes.

And if truth be told, the Jews of two thousand years ago were not the only ones confused—even disappointed and disillusioned—by lives burdened down with frustrated dreams, thwarted plans, and irreconcilable conflicts. In our twenty-first century free nation of America, the city sidewalks and country lanes are filled to overflowing with lives every bit as devoid of peace as those Jews beset by alien nations.  If Jesus came to deliver peace, why aren’t we enjoying it?

            Matthew 10:34 records these words from Jesus:  “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother…and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.”

 Upon first glance, this seems contradictory to Isaiah 9, but a closer look at the angel’s message brings clarification. Maybe we were so carried away with the wonderful news of our long-awaited Messiah that we quit paying attention before we got to the end of the message:  “…and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14).

            Yes, true peace is conditional, but anything easier would be counterfeit.