Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

John Paul Lederach spent decades as a mediator in some of the world's most intractable conflicts — Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, Tajikistan, Somalia. He is a Mennonite Christian whose practice of peacemaking is explicitly theological. He wrote: 'Peacemaking is not the absence of conflict. It is the active, courageous pursuit of a reconciled relationship. It requires going toward what everyone else is fleeing.' He described the loneliness of the peacemaker: often criticized by both sides, rarely thanked, frequently misunderstood. And the reward Jesus describes — 'they will be called children of God' — he took personally. 'I am doing the family business,' he said. 'The Father is a reconciler. So are His children.'

The beatitude about peacemakers is the only one where the reward is an identity: 'they will be called children of God.' Peacemaking is family resemblance. The God who 'reconciled us to himself through Christ' (2 Corinthians 5:18) is fundamentally a reconciler. His children look like Him. Peacemaking is distinct from peacekeeping (avoiding conflict) and peaceloving (simply preferring peace). It is active — making what doesn't exist, creating reconciliation where there is rupture. It is costly because it requires going toward conflict rather than away from it. And it is God's business: the cross is the ultimate peacemaking act. Where in your life are you being called to be a peacemaker? The family business is ongoing.