“But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.” -Isaiah 53.5
“Peace on earth and good will to men.” This is a common refrain this time of year. We hear it on the radio and TV, we see it lit up on wreaths in peoples’ yards. Christ came to bring peace, for sure, but oh how we have perverted this.
How was it that Jesus brought peace? By being born? Certainly not. Nor was the peace he brought in the way of a worldly armistice (or else he would have been an utter failure unworthy of our praise, and a liar, cf. Matthew 10.34). We may fancy that a destitute child born in a barn is what the world needs for peace, but this radically misses the point.
We are told that it is in his chastisement that we were given peace. First off, that he was chastised at the cross, not in the manger, is clear. Second, he is said to have completed our peace. This is certainly not worldly, military peace. It is the peace Charles Wesley wrote about singing, “Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”
Christ worked peace, on the cross, in the form of reconciliation with the Father of those sinners who are in him (John 16.33) and among whom he is pleased (Luke 2.14).
