Luke 8 | The Prince of peace
When you think of peace, what comes to mind?
Maybe it’s a cozy fireside evening with your family around you.
Maybe it’s a night through the town, touring the local Christmas lights.
Maybe it’s a chair on a beach with a book in your hand.
Or maybe, as I delighted in witnessing this weekend, it’s a baby blissfully asleep in his mother’s arms with a room full of ladies enjoying a Christmas brunch around him.
Whatever your idea of peace, I wonder if you feel it now that we’re in the throes of the Christmas season with holiday shopping and festivities galore.
Even as I type, I feel the tightness of fatigue in my head after a week packed full of activities. It seems all our special events landed themselves in the same 5-day span this year! A classical concert, a company Christmas party, a Christmas brunch, a voice recital, a ballet, and a choir concert. Phew! It’s been a lot. A good lot, but a lot nonetheless!
The temptation is to think, “When I just get to… things will slow down and I’ll enjoy some peace.” But who’s to say that will actually happen? Who’s to say there won’t be some other situation vying for the place of peace in my life?
Most likely, there will always be something. Thankfully, our peace is not dependent on cleared schedules and perfect scenarios, but on a steady Savior.
As I read Luke 8 this morning, I was struck by five chaotic circumstances brought into perfect peace by the Prince of Peace Himself:
- Mary Magdalene: from the horror of seven demons within her to complete freedom.
- The sea: from wild and raging to obediently calm.
- The man of Gerasenes: from living among the tombs consumed by a legion of demons to complete peace of mind and body.
- A woman in the crowd: from a chronically bleeding body to complete healing.
- Jairus and his wife, from grief-stricken over the death of their daughter to a miraculous resurrection of life and joy.
Who then is this that commands winds, and demons, and ailments, and death?
Who is this who commands my heart and brings peace in the midst of chaos, calm in the midst of a million things on my to-do list?
This is Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Promised long ago, and brought in a manger. I don’t have to wait until tomorrow for peace. It’s here right now. In my heart, in my mind, through the chaos, in my grief, and through any storm: Jesus is my peace.
So I ask gently again: do you feel peace right now? If the answer is no, I invite you to turn to the One who offers true and lasting peace now, and for all time.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…and his name shall be called…the Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:5-6