Peace in the Waiting Room

I had to take my wife to see the doctor today and that meant I had to sit in the waiting room. I took along my NT, my notebook and pen. I suppose I was looking for something comforting given the situation, so I opened to John 15. I began to read and, as is my habit, I read the verse that precedes the start of the chapter, that is, John 14:31; the last part says: “Get up; let’s leave this place”. I can’t recall ever having heard anyone preach on that text, but it certainly has great potential.

However, since that is pretty cryptic, I stepped back a little further to John 14:27:

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Peace is given by the world, after all. The world gives peace as a function of circumstances. Worldly peace dwells in the person but it is derived from possessing the good that is in the world. The good of the world is always limited and temporary and the peace that derives from it has, of necessity, the same characteristics. The shallowest people think wealth or property can give peace and contentment. Those with a little more intellectual capacity may seek peace in relationships and causes. It is almost too easy to think of rock stars and actors because this view crosses the spectrum – from beer and bass boats to champagne and yachts.

I am guilty myself from time to time. In this season it is easy to allow my mindset to be controlled by polls, to be driven back and forth by the news of the day or the state of my finances. I need more than temporal contentment.

Jesus is explaining that He has to go away. His peace, however, will not depart when He departs. The disciples were troubled in heart, thinking that their relationship with Christ was a typical human connection, doomed to end and dissipate with time. When that which we love is gone, from a worldly perspective, the peace we derived is gone. That is not the case, though with the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Christ Jesus gives transcendent peace. It not only dwells within the believer but the believer dwells in it. The peace of Christ in both apart from the world – independent of the world and its goods – and at the same time it is triumphant over the world and all that is in it.

Jesus gives peace. That is, it does not come from striving and achieving. I do not attain peace; it is given to me. Isaiah 30:15 says, “You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence.”

You will keep in perfect peace the mind that is dependent on You, for it is trusting in You. -- Isaiah 26:3

The peace of Christ is not denial or detachment. I cannot wall myself off and live in solitary. That is my personal tendency, to flee from pain, to abandon attachments and relationships, to give up on anything that causes me to suffer. Strange as it sounds, I have suffered because of that. As a follower and imitator of Christ, I embrace the pain and pass through. His peace goes with me and remains with me like the Fourth Man in the fire.

I suppose this is a non sequitur, but I feel compelled to add it today.

According to God’s grace that was given me, as a skilled master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it, because no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid – that is, Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire. -- 1 Corinthians 3:10-15