Robert Kolb (PhD, University of Wisconsin) is mission professor of systematic theology emeritus at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books and articles.
A profound sense of disquiet and discomfort has fallen upon the people of the United States. Rising prices, political assassinations, and random school shootings, the tone and content of public discourse have combined to confront us with the natural consequences of living out what we all want when we sing “I did it my way.” We turn in on ourselves, to use Martin Luther’s description of sinners, and try to “go it alone” or “stand on my own two feet.” We find ourselves alienated and isolated from those around us, from the weaker whom we lean on for support despite our wanting to stand on our own two feet, and from the stronger, who also are searching for someone to lean on without regard for the fact that they are crushing us.
When we lose the vision of Genesis 2:18, the vision of humanity as family, as individuals like Adam and Eve, who are created to be support and help in the life God gave them to share, we fall into a defensive pose. Such a posture wraps us up in ourselves. Not only does the weight of the mightier around us crush us. Those weaker than we are, upon whom we plop ourselves to get some rest in restless nights, give life a bumpy feel. We wrap ourselves into a ball so tight we crack our own egos, with misplaced pride or unjustified self-pity or self-degradation.
We search for comfort, stability, calm, and tranquility by looking within, by striving to establish our own identity, sense of security, the meaning and worth of our lives. This way of asserting our own integrity cuts us off the true source of all of what we seek. For it ignores the God who created us and the network of relationships he designed to provide for us.
In him and in the web of relationships with other creatures he bestows, we find comfort, stability, calm, and tranquility. He alone can establish the firm foundation for our identity, security, and worth. Only in fellowship with him and with those whom he has placed within our reach we find true peace.
When we turned away from his peace in Eden, we fell into mutual accusation and spite. We sought ever better ways to dominate and exploit other people, to use them to secure our own lives. It always leads to resorting to flames, arrows and other weapons to defend ourselves or to control those whom God designed to be our sisters and brothers, no matter what their flaws and faults.
God could have turned a cold shoulder to us. God has every right to send his wrath upon us, every last one of us. Indeed, we do experience the anger that results from our breaking out of God’s peace-designed forms for human life. Flames and arrows, bombs and artillery, assassinations and abortions all bring disquiet and discomfort to our inner beings. Disquiet and discontent set our mood on edge as we long for peace in the midst of our futile efforts to find it through self-defense in any manner that brings suffering to others and leaves us without our relationship with our Lord. God had no reason not to let his blueprint for human life collapse upon our inward bent lives. But he lets his plan for peace, order, and delight in our lives take hold by severing the chains that we have hoped would hold our lives together. The baby came to Bethlehem and Golgotha to give us freedom to become truly human again.
He has accomplished that by coming as a newborn who was born to die. He died in order to deny our death its sting. God has brought us peace by being with us as a human being, Jesus of Nazareth, our Emmanuel. He has replaced the battle cries with our songs that echo what the angels sang to announce his birth. God is glorious in and of himself. But he claimed a new glory for himself by bringing peace to those upon whom his favor falls through the baby born in Bethlehem. This prince of peace came to make war on all that has driven us into wrapping ourselves into our own protective ball so tight that we have smothered ourselves.
This warrior came to suffer the defeat of life and peace in torture, terror, and trauma that ended in death on the cross, and he comes into our lives as our Emmanuel this day. He has taken us into his blood-soaked holey hands and will not let us slip through the holes. He has come to wash our feet—and our hands and heads—in our baptisms, where he has unwound us and set us upright, with hands outstretched to support others, with feet on the move to bring his love to others, with heads that fear, love, and trust in him above everything else.
And so, like a gentle rain on parched land, the peace that Jesus brings descends on those who trust him when he says that he has all power and will be with us to the end of this age. In this, our age, he lifts us up in his hands precisely in the midst of those troubles and tribulations, the turmoil and terror that disrupts the tranquility of our every day. In the midst of battle cries and pain-filled cries, burning forests and burning hearts, Jesus comes with songs of reconciliation and peace. He comes with the lullaby sung from the cross, where disruption and despair reached their climax in the entire history of the world. He sings peace into the midst of our lives.
This peace unites us with people around the world. Our nations may be jockeying against each other for their own domination with maneuvers military, economic, political, social, but Jesus Christ has reconciled us not only with our heavenly Father but also with people of every tribe and tongue. We may be different from any given individual in terms of skin color, gender, economic status, citizenship—we may even differ with a person over definitions of right and wrong—but Jesus leads us to be ready to wash feet and join in song whenever one of his human creatures crosses our path. For we know that that person, whether in God’s churchly family or alienated from the people of God, is a creature fashioned by our common Creator. Every person is a creature included in that world for whom God sent his only-begotten Son so that those who trust in him will enjoy peace forever. When we are incorporated into his demonstrations of love, even for the unlovable and loathsome, we will know the true peace that the Sinless One brings to us sinners.