Peace at Christmas

Have you done your Christmas shopping yet? The countdown to the big day is well under way, and to the delight of the retailers, we are constantly reminded how many shopping days there are still to go. Those same retailers have been enticing us with their special Christmas television adverts too. This year’s offering from John Lewis has drawn lots of attention with its cute little boy and even cuter penguin, but if anything, perhaps the Sainsbury’s commercial has caused more conversation, marking as it does the centenary of the Christmas Day truce in the beginning of World War I.

Made in conjunction with the Royal British Legion it is based upon the football match that took place between British and German soldiers in ‘no-man’s land’ on Christmas Day in 1914. Though there would be a far more important football match between the English and the Germans fifty years later, the Christmas Day game has gone down in history. Amidst all the carnage of war, especially that particular war, the idea that men could put down their guns and share an hour in their common humanity has always been inspirational. This retailer is hoping the story inspires us to part with our cash!

The first Christmas, the real Christmas story, is also about peace breaking into war. The incarnation of the Son of God took place in a time of military upheaval too, as the Roman Empire sought to establish its stranglehold on the known world by imposing the tax and census which took Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem. There, amidst poverty and squalor, a baby was born, a real helpless baby, but One who was also ‘Mighty God’ (Isa 9:6). With his birth, and with his life, death and resurrection, human history changes completely. Two millennia later we are still celebrating His birth.

One of the other titles given to the baby Jesus by Isaiah seven centuries before was ‘Prince of Peace’. That reflects the reason why He came into the world. The Bible tells us that you and I are enemies of a holy God. That is because of our sin – the things that we say, think and do that are not perfect in God’s evaluation. Because we are sinners, a state of enmity exists between God and us. That enmity has consequences far worse than those when countries fall out with each other. It means we will be eternally separated from God, and shut out of Heaven.

Jesus came into this war-torn world to reconcile God to man. He brought peace by living a life of perfect obedience to God’s law, the life that we cannot live. That life, which was spent preaching the good news of the Kingdom, healing the sick, and transforming the lives of individuals, was snuffed out as He was taken by wicked hands and crucified on a cross outside of Jerusalem. But that death was God’s plan. It was Christ’s innocent blood which pays the price for our redemption. God’s charge on us is paid in full by Him. We can now be at peace with God. That peace doesn’t just last for a day, as it did in 1914, but for eternity.

A Life for a Life

 Did you see the interview that Prince Harry gave from Afghanistan, broadcast at the end of his deployment as a soldier there?  It was interesting to catch a glimpse of this ‘playboy’ prince in his camouflage uniform, poised at a moment’s notice to put himself in mortal danger.  It is good to know that he is back home again, and we pray that all serving there will return home just as safely.

          The war in Afghanistan has caused Christians great concern.  Many believers would take a pacifist stance toward any war, especially one which seems to be so far away and so unconnected with British life.  They would argue from Scripture that all war is wrong and that Christians should campaign against it.  Pacificism has a long and honourable Christian tradition.

          Other Christians would take a different view, arguing, from Scripture, that in some circumstances it is right for countries, and even Christians, to take up arms against evil.  Through history, there has been an equally strong Christian doctrine of the ‘just war’.  For those of us who hold such a view, however, the war in Afghanistan has caused us almost as many problems as it does the pacifist, particularly when we consider what might end up as the government of the country in the future.  Perhaps it will be many years before we can truly tell whether such fears were groundless.

          We struggle with war because all war involves killing people, and Prince Harry openly acknowledged that.  When asked directly if he had been involved in such killing he was frank;

"Yeah, so lots of people have. The squadron's been out here. Everyone's fired a certain amount… We fire when we have to, take a life to save a life…” 

          It was the last part of that quote that struck me particularly.  When the pressure is on, and a soldier’s finger is on the trigger, that is what goes through his mind.  It must have been the same for those who fought in previous wars.  They thought of their own life and those of the fellow soldiers with whom they served – take a life to save a life.  Or perhaps they thought of families and friends back at home who might face danger if they didn’t succeed – take a life to save a life. 

          But as a Christian, when I heard those words I thought of the Lord Jesus Christ.  His life could be summed up slightly differently – Give a life to save many lives.  It was one of his enemies who counselled that “one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish” (John 11:50).  Caiaphas spoke more truly than he realised.  Jesus gave his life that others might be saved.  Because He willingly went to the cross, you and I can be rescued from our sin and the wrath of a holy God.  As one of the hymns we sing says, he “gave His life that we might live.  This is our God, the servant King”

The One the Bible calls the Prince of Life, calls us now to follow Him!