Murders in Brisbane: where is the peace this Christmas?

At Christmas we often think of peace. It is one of the themes of Christmas and we long for peace in our lives and in our society. And yet this Christmas recent news stories belie that there is peace in our society. This week a young man has been murdered in Brisbane. A few months ago a young Korean was killed at Wickham Park, right in the centre of the city. And what about our peacemakers, the police? Last week’s news showed us a policeman punching a man in an unprovoked attack. These are just the incidents that made it into the news.

We’d like to have peace but it seems so elusive. Our efforts of orchestrating it don’t seem to work. The peace of Christmas often doesn’t survive even one day, in most family Christmas get togethers, let alone survive the year. And here we discover something very disconcerting, we ourselves are those that break the peace.

If there is no peace in our society and not enough peace in ourselves to bring peace to others we might be tempted to despair. And if we looked just to ourselves then this might be entirely appropriate.

But God has not left us to our own resources to bring peace. He has brought peace in through his intervention through Jesus. For God promised

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. (Isaiah chapter 9 6-7 )

Jesus came as the Prince of Peace. He came as the one who would bring peace to society by his rule. And the start of this rule would be in human hearts. But you need to go beyond his birth to understand this. For the key to how Jesus brings a rule of peace is found in his death and resurrection. Another quote from Isaiah shows his death is central to this peace.

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, band with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Jesus suffered violence at the hands of his society to bring peace to a violent society. He bore the punishment, the chastisement for violent acts and violent hearts. And he did this so that hearts would be changed. He did this so we could live under his rule of peace and have peace with each other.

If you long for peace this Christmas then a great place to start is to read Luke's biography about Jesus found in the Bible. It explores Jesus' life and how he brings us peace with God and starts to rule in our hearts so we have peace with each other as individuals and as a society.

Photo by www.flickr.com/photos/yardsale/ (creative commons)