What does peace have to do with Christmas? Why do songs contain this word and idea? Why did the angels from heaven proclaim this as part of their herald to the shepherds? Is peace possible in our world? Today’s word study around Christmas, as you have guessed by now, is peace. Let’s consider what peace is, then answer these questions.
In Luke 2:14, the angels proclaimed—heralded—the birth of the Messiah. Prophets and angels foretold the Messiah’s coming for millennia. Prophets and angels taught the Jews to expect His coming. They did not expect the Messiah to come as an infant son of a carpenter from a small town. The Jews expected the Messiah to come with power and authority as a warrior king to oust the Romans from the Jewish lands and reestablish the throne of David. What the angels proclaimed to the shepherds that night, as recorded by Luke in chapter two, did not match the expectations of the Jews. The response from the shepherds of awe and worship showed Jesus transcended status, income, lineage, and education. When the shepherds understood the angels’ proclamation, they felt a sense of peace from God.
The host of angels in Luke 2:14 declared, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men on whom His favor rests!” It is fitting that the angels began heralding by exclaiming about God. No one is greater than God, and their proclamation relayed that. Their heralding began like Jesus started the Lord’s Prayer. Both began with a statement about God’s ultimacy and His worthiness of praise. Jesus said, “God’s name is holy,” and the angels sang, “Glory and honor is due to God.” The angels, by starting their proclamation this way, acknowledged God and His sending of them to make this proclamation. It led people to take notice of what they said.
What was the message about which the angels proclaimed? They said, “Peace to men on earth on whom God’s favor rests.” If you are like me, I have sung this song each year and proclaimed God and acknowledged God’s peace, but I have not studied what this whole phrase means. The last prepositional phrase in this sentence affects each of us individually. It tells us to whom God gives peace. First, though, what is the peace God gives? This peace the angels proclaimed God gives comes from the Greek word eirene, which comes from eiro. Eiro means to join and make whole. Peace is a gift from God that makes a person whole. God’s peace is a wholeness that comes from Jesus saving a person by belief in Him as God’s Son—the Savior of humanity. When Jesus saves a person, He makes it possible for a person to have a right (righteous) relationship with God through His forgiveness of his or her sins. As the person grows to know God more each day and grows to be more like Jesus, God grows that person increasingly closer to perfection. That perfection will be complete when the believer enters heaven upon his or her death when his or her glorification occurs. When that happens, the person becomes completely whole, at peace. For now, while still alive on earth, God gives the believer peace and makes him or her whole in heart, mind, and spirit. The person has peace through trust in God and hope in his or her future perfection in heaven.
That thought leads us to understand the last prepositional phrase. The angels sang about peace on earth for men on whom God’s favor rests. The “favor” of God means His goodwill, satisfaction, and good pleasure in the person. How does one get God’s good pleasure, His “well done?” Until a person believes in Jesus and He forgives him or her of his or her sins, God is not pleased with the person; He is not satisfied. The person carries the result of sin in his or her life and God cannot be where sin is, since holiness and sin cannot be in the same place. For this reason, God sent Jesus to earth. Jesus came to cleanse each believer in Him of their wrongdoings (sins) and the stain and guilt of those sins. When cleansed by Jesus, a person can be in the same place with God because Jesus removed the sin stain and guilt from him or her (justification) and provided forgiveness of those sins through His sacrifice of Himself on the cross. How can we have peace with God? By believing in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Who is to receive the peace of God about what the angels heralded? Any person God favors—each person who believes in Jesus as the Messiah.
Peace is for anyone who believes in Jesus the Messiah. The angels sang this truth. Luke wrote about the gospel of peace in Acts 1:36. Micah prophesied about the Messiah being the Israelites’ peace in Micah 5:5. Peace came from heaven that first Christmas when Jesus was born. The Peacemaker entered the world in bodily form when the Son of God came to live incarnate with humanity. God was no longer merely God of and for us. In Jesus, He was Emmanuel—God with us. God continues to be God with us for each believer by the Holy Spirit of Christ dwelling in him or her.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem
entitled I Hear the Bells on Christmas Day became a Christmas carol. It
aptly expresses this peace.
I heard the bells on
Christmas day,
Their old familiar
carols play,
And wild and sweet,
the words repeat
Of peace on earth,
good will to men.
I thought how, as the
day had come,
The belfries of all
Christendom
Had rolled along th’unbroken
song
Of peace on earth,
good will to me.
And in despair I
bowed by head:
“There is no peace on
earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong
and mocks the song
Of peace on earth,
good will to men.”
Then pealed the bells
more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor
doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail,
the right prevail,
With peace on earth,
good will to men.”
Till ringing, singing
on its way,
The world revolved
from night to day,
A voice and chime, a
chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
Peace is possible because God gives
it to people who have believed in Jesus for salvation. That cold night for the
shepherds in Luke 2 seemed to be like any other night protecting their sheep.
It was unlike any night before or after for them. Angels came from heaven
proclaiming God’s glory and His peace to all who believe in Him for salvation. The
shepherds reacted initially with fear. They reacted in another way, too. Luke
recorded the shepherds’ response upon hearing the angels’ proclamation. He
wrote in 2:15-17,
When the
angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let
us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has
made known to us.” So, they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby,
who was lying in a manger. After they had seen the Child, they spread the
message they had received about Him. (BSB)
Peace is still possible. Wadsworth wrote the poem two years after his wife died and while the Civil War raged. He penned his poem to focus on the peace God gives. Though days seemed dark, he thought of God, who is Light and greater than anything that confronts us. We, like the shepherds, upon hearing the angel’s message today, should proclaim about God’s glory, His Son’s birth, and His peace to anyone who will believe. I promise, like people hearing the shepherds’ testimony in verse eighteen, people will be amazed. Some will then believe and receive salvation from their sins and its guilt.
Offer
peace. Herald the birth of Jesus the Messiah.
