In the 1930’s in his native England, then Prime Minister Chamberlain said: “I believe it is peace for our time.” That statement prompted a huge cheer from the listening street crowd, from the House of Commons and from every newspaper in the land. There was the feeling that Mr. Chamberlain should receive the Nobel Peace Prize. It wasn’t long before England realized that Hitler had lied to them. He got them to agree to peace so he could trample Europe underfoot. Great Britain learned a hard lesson: peace, real peace, comes at a great cost.

One lesson that should be learned from history is that Peace is costly. Peace comes at a price. Peace does not mean closing your eyes and pretending your enemies don’t exist, or that what is happening somewhere else doesn’t concern you. Because of sin in this world, we will continue to have tyrants and terrorists and forces of evil that work against peace. In order to have peace, sometimes war is an unfortunate necessity. Years ago there was an article The Lutheran Witness about the concept of a just war, one that has peace as its goal. Such a war is not an act of aggression but an attempt to end aggression. Yet Christians continue to come down on both sides of that issue.

As we ponder on this, we should do so, as we should ponder all things, in light of God’s Word. Speaking to His disciples at the Last Supper, Jesus said:

John 16:33  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

And a little earlier that same evening He had said:

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Something Jesus makes very clear is that His peace, the peace most often spoken of in Scripture, is not of this world. It is the peace that He established between God and man, and it was more costly than any peace in this world has ever been. He accomplished it by coming into this world, living a perfect life, and offering that life in payment for the sins of all people. In this world we will have trouble, but Jesus has overcome the world for us. We know that this is not all there is. Because of the peace that Jesus has established between God and His fallen creation, we know the message of forgiveness, the message of life, the message of salvation that is ours in spite of all that is going on in the world around us.

That is the peace we need for our time.