Finding the Path to Peace
How do you find the path to peace during the Christmas season?
You’ve probably heard this, but I love how one person described the Christmas story…
If the story was about three wise women, they would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, brought practical gifts, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and there would be peace on earth!
I don’t know about you, but if I ever feel like peace is lacking in my life, it’s almost always because I’m headed in the wrong direction. I’ve gotten off track. Maybe I’m headed in too many directions at once. But it almost always comes down to this…
The amount of peace in my life is directly connected to the direction of my life.
I remember when I was 16 years old, still a fairly new driver, and for some reason I was driving in the downtown of my hometown. I grew up in Montgomery, AL and the downtown area is like a lot of downtowns I’ve been in, there were a lot of One Way streets. [Picture]
I would love to talk to a city planner someday, or a civil engineer, or someone who could tell me why there are so many One Way streets when you drive downtown. I really don’t get it!
But I distinctly remember driving downtown on this particular day in Montgomery because somehow I had turned the wrong way and now I was headed the wrong direction on a One Way street.
What was worse, I soon realized the car driving directly at me wasn’t just any car, it was a police car!
You want to know what I was feeling in that moment? It wasn’t peace!
Peace & Direction
My suspicion is that if we took time to take an inventory of the times in our lives when we were the most stressed, the most agitated, aggravated, frustrated, anxious, and worried, we would discover that in one way or another, our lives at that time were headed in the wrong direction.
Instead of heading in the direction of forgiveness, we were too hurt to speak to that person.
We chose not to go in the direction of patience because we were in too big of a hurry to slow down.
Instead of heading in the direction of simplicity, we kept making things more complicated than they had to be.
And we should have headed in the direction of quiet time with God each day, but we were too busy to pray.
We could go on and on with all the ways we so quickly abandon the way of peace because we get caught up in the moment, because we get overwhelmed with all we have to do, we become so concerned with what others think of us… but the simple reality is:
The amount of PEACE in our life is directly connected to the DIRECTION of our life.
So how do we find our WAY to the kind of peace we’re all longing for, especially this time of year?
Before Jesus was Born…
To answer that question, I want to back up to a story that takes place a few months before Jesus is born.
Before Mary and Joseph had angel encounters telling them that they would be parents, by way of the miraculous intervention of the Holy Spirit, to the Messiah… there was another set of parents who would have a different but similar experience.
This story is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 1.
There was a Jewish priest named Zechariah. He and his wife Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes. But they had no children. And don’t miss this… God was pleased with them, his favor was on them, and I’m sure they had prayed for children but now they are old and they don’t have any children.
There’s so much to learn from this faithful couple, but don’t miss this… you can be in good standing with God, righteous in His eyes, and still be living with unanswered prayer. Your perceived responsiveness to your prayers by God does not necessarily reflect God’s actual responsiveness to your prayers by God.
In the case of Zechariah and Elizabeth, God heard their prayers and was waiting for just the right time to answer their prayer in a way they could have never dreamed or imagined. That may or my not happen for you, but keep praying and keep trusting God to do for you exactly what He wants to do for you.
Trust HIS PLAN for your life over YOUR PLAN for your life.
The Promise
One day, Zechariah is in the Temple performing his service as a priest when an angel by the name of Gabriel appears to him. Zechariah is shaken. Gabriel tells him that God has heard their prayers and that he and Elizabeth will have a son and that they should name him John.
Then Gabriel goes on to tell Zachariah that God has a plan for John’s life. He says,
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.” – Luke 1.15-18
Talk about an answer to a prayer! All those years spent living faithfully, praying to God and depending on God, all of that culminates in this moment.
But it’s so incredible Zechariah can’t believe it. He thinks… we’re too old to be used by God in this way! His exact words?
“How can I be sure this will happen? I’m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.”
Gabriel can’t believe that Zechariah doesn’t believe him! After all, he’s an angel who stands in the presence of God. So because of his unbelief Zechariah was unable to speak and had to remain silent until his son was born.
Because he spoke words of disbelief in the presence of God’s messenger he would remain silent until he stood in the presence of God’s promise. When his son was born his voice would return. Then his words of doubt would become words of worship and faith.
The Prophecy
That’s exactly what happened. John was born and when he was born his father, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke a prophecy over his life.
Just imagine Zechariah standing, holding his newborn son, the son God had promised, the son God had miraculously provided, the son he always wanted but never thought he would have, and listen to these words of prophecy this father spoke over his newborn son:
“And you, my little son,
will be called the prophet of the Most High,
because you will prepare the way for the Lord.
You will tell his people how to find salvation
through forgiveness of their sins.
Because of God’s tender mercy,
the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
and to guide us to the path of peace.”
– Luke 1.76-79
From the very beginning of his life, John had a purpose. He had a mission. And his father who at first found it hard to believe is now filled with faith.
What is John’s mission?
John’s purpose in life, the entire direction and trajectory of his life, would be aimed at “preparing the way for the Lord” and “guiding people to the PATH of peace.”
And this is what John did. If you know much about John’s story, he’s more commonly known as John the Baptist, not because he was a Baptist, but because he was known for baptizing people in the Jordan river. At that time this was incredibly strange.
Baptism as a spiritual practice wasn’t strange. People got baptized all the time before entering the temple to worship.
In fact, if you go to Jerusalem today you can see the 200 mikveh, the 200 baptistries, they’ve uncovered right outside the Temple! Every Jew, before entering the Temple to worship, would be baptized as a way of ritual cleansing. But this wasn’t the kind of baptism we practice. They would walk down into a pool of water, submerge themselves, then walk up out of the water.
What made what John was doing so strange is that it wasn’t baptism in a mikveh, it was baptism in a river. And you didn’t baptize yourself, John was baptizing people. And he wasn’t performing this baptism as a means of ritual purity for Temple worship, he was baptizing people for the forgiveness of their sins! John was preparing the way in peoples hearts for the Lord to enter into their lives (Luke 3.3).
So that John could guide them to the PATH of PEACE. Which begs the question…
WHO is the PATH of Peace?
I think a lot of times what you and I are looking for is a WHAT?
What do I need to do to find peace?
What is the path to peace? What do I need to do in order to slow down and find peace? What meditation program do I need, or what mindfulness app can I use.
But what if the PATH to peace is not a WHAT but a WHO?
A few years ago my wife, Alisha, and I were blessed to travel to Israel. On one of our last mornings there we were staying in Jerusalem and we had a little free time before our group was getting together for our next endeavor.
So I decided to wake up early and go for a run. Which was a great idea except for one problem, I got completely lost running through the streets of Jerusalem.
For those of you who know me, you’re not surprised at all by that.
Now here I am, in a foreign country, lost, alone, confused, and I truly have no idea which direction to go. I don’t speak the language. What little Hebrew I learned in college is all based on the ancient Hebrew text of scripture, not the modern Hebrew spoken in Israel today.
Not only do I not know who to ask for directions, I don’t know how to ask for directions.
Finally, as I came down a busy street filled with cars, horns blaring and all, I found two men in uniform. They were carrying machine guns. My options felt pretty clear, I could ask them for directions and they might shoot me… in which case I would have a One Way trip to heaven, OR… they might point me in the right direction to get back to my hotel.
I ran over to where they were, said the name of the hotel we were staying in, and thankfully, they pointed me in the right direction!
The ones I asked for direction that day were holding weapons of war. And they were able to point in the physical direction of my hotel.
But if you’re looking for a different kind of direction, if you’re looking for direction for your life, you might want to ask the One who laid his weapons down and willingly chose the path that led to a manger and then to a cross.
Ask the one who could have called ten thousand angels to save him from death but gave his life and died alone so that you I could find the Path to Peace!
The Path of Suffering that Leads to the Path of Peace
In Jerusalem, you can walk a path called the Via Dolorosa, also know as The way of the cross. Tradition holds that this is the path Jesus took through the city of Jerusalem with the cross on his back all the way to Calvary.
Via Dolorosa is Latin for “Sorrowful Way” or “Way of Suffering.” Jesus walked that way through the ancient city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, by the way, literally means “City of Peace.” Salem is from Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace.
So, the Prince of Peace walked through the City of Peace carrying the cross down the Path of Suffering so that you and I could find a different Path to Peace in a new city of peace, the New Jerusalem. Our Path of Peace also has a name. It’s not the Via Dolorosa. Our Path of Peace is named Jesus. Jesus is the PATH, He is the WAY, the Truth, and the Life. And in Him you can find REST for your soul.
Pointing People to the Path to Peace
John SPENT His life POINTING people to Jesus.
And at some point in his life, I don’t know when, but at some point, John decided to accept the calling on his life. Even though it would end in his death, John embraced the prophecy spoken over his life to the very end. He lived a life of incredible humility, yielding in every way to God’s way for his life.
He would be known for living in the wilderness, eating locust and wild honey. We teach our kids this Bible story about the strange man who wore camel’s hair and prepared the way for the Lord.
And that’s just what John did. In fact, one day when John was teaching people that the Kingdom of God was near, that they should repent of their sins and be baptized, John spotted Jesus out of the corner of his eye. He raised his hand, pointed his boney finger at Jesus and announced to the crowd, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1.29)
John literally pointed people to the Path of Peace. Pointing people to the One who said, “I am the WAY, the truth, and the life” (John 14.6). (Just so you know, the word WAY is the same word in Greek for the word PATH.)
Jesus is the WAY. Jesus is the PATH to PEACE.
And maybe just maybe, we’re supposed to spend our lives the same way John spent his life. Here’s my conviction…
Peace comes to earth when we leverage our lives to point others to Jesus.
What’s Your Mission?
So here’s a question for you to wrestle with.
What if John’s mission in life is your mission in life?
What if your purpose in life is also to guide people to the PATH of Peace? To point people to Jesus? And what if when you do, as you do, Peace comes to earth again, and again, and again?
By the way, John’s name has a rich meaning as well. His name means, “Yahweh is Gracious.”
That day when I was going the wrong way on a One Way street in downtown Montgomery, the police officer I was headed toward probably saw how scared I was. He didn’t didn’t give me a ticket. He was… gracious.
In the same way, our God is a gracious God.
Sometimes I wonder why why God wanted to name Zechariah & Elizabeth’s child, John. He should have been given a family name. Even named after his father, Zechariah Jr., or something like that. But God wanted their child to be named John.
Why?
Maybe because God knew the most GRACIOUS thing He could do would be to allow John to be the one to PAVE the WAY for the PATH to PEACE!
And that’s exactly what John leveraged His life to do.
In the same way, may God not just be gracious TO us, may God be gracious THROUGH us, and allow us to leverage our lives to point others to Jesus! The Path to Peace!
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