PEACE BE UNTO YOU by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 17, 1900

“PEACE BE UNTO YOU.”

By Uriah Smith

The world sighs for peace, but is greeted with the alarm of war. Waves of strife, fulfilling our Saviour’s prediction of the nature of the closing years of time, are surging over all the earth. “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” The world is in the turmoil of war, because war dominates the hearts of men. “There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.” “The way of peace have they not known.”

The most comprehensive and abundant promises in all the Scriptures pertain to the blessings of peace. The Lord will bless his people with peace. “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Of Jerusalem rebuilt, after the captivity, the Lord says, “In this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.” And the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, are beautiful on the mountains. The Lord promised to make a covenant of peace with his people. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.” The Saviour is named the “Prince of peace;” God is the “God of peace;” his kingdom is the kingdom of peace “from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.” Zech. 9:10. The birth of the Messiah into this world was heralded by the proclamation, “On earth peace, good will toward men,” which under his reign will all be accomplished. “Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end.” Isa. 9:7.

In his last legacy to his people, the Lord laid greater stress upon the bestowal of his peace than upon any other point. He said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” John 14:27. And this is peace such as the world can not bestow upon us, and can not take away from us; for it is beyond the reach of the world itself. It is the peace that “passeth all understanding.” Again and again it is said to be “peace from God the Father;” and comes as a benediction “from him which is, and which was, and which is to come,” growing ever in volume, power, and blessedness, with no sign of any end.

After his resurrection, our Lord made this endowment more prominent than any other. When he first met with his disciples collectively, twice he greeted them with the words, “Peace be unto you;” and when, after eight days, again they were within, and he met with them, by passing miraculously through closed doors, as we shall have power to do when our vile bodies are fashioned like unto his glorious body (Phil. 3:21), his first greeting again was, “Peace be unto you.” From what one has been uniformly in the past, we may accurately judge of what he will be in the future, especially in the case of our Lord, who changes not. We may be assured, then, that as he was then, while with them in the flesh, he will continue to be, as related to his people, to the end of the world, according to his promise, breathing upon us his Holy Spirit, and summoning us to the enjoyment of his peace.

His visit to his disciples at that time was undeserved, uninvited, and unexpected, but most welcome, nevertheless. How it brought out the divine characteristics of forbearance, gentleness, and love! The disciples, as professed followers of Christ, had been acting most unworthily. They had fled from him when he was betrayed, and deserted him at his trial, and they were even then unbelieving respecting his resurrection, refusing to credit the testimony of those who testified that they had seen him. Yet he was anxious to lift them out of their embarrassment, banish their trial, and restore their confidence and comfort; for they were like sheep without a shepherd, and needed his presence. But they had this in their favor: they were making use of the little life they had left. They were assembled together, and though it was from “fear of the Jews” that they had shut themselves up in the place of their common abode (Acts 1:13), instead of having met to celebrate the day of the resurrection of Christ, in which they did not then believe (Mark 16:13), nevertheless it gave the Saviour opportunity to meet with them, and help them. But more than this, they were overwhelmed with what they supposed was their irreparable loss, and were lamenting his absence, thus manifesting their desire for his presence again; and then he met them, and said, “Peace be unto you.” How full of life and comfort these words must have been to them.

This greeting was a benediction. He wished them to dismiss their troubles from their hearts, and let the divine peace within.

It was to make actual what he had spoken to them before his departure from them: “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me.”

It was a declaration that they were at peace with God.

It was a divine fiat, as much as to say that it should be so; and it inspired them with peace.

And it was a divine sentence of absolution from all their wrongs; for it must have put away all their offenses and shortcomings, which were calculated to destroy their peace of mind.

These words, “Peace be unto you,” were for all time; so to-day by his Spirit the Lord says the same words to us, to calm all the disturbances of our hearts, if this is not already done; or if it is, to do it in a still greater degree, to relieve from care, to discharge from all sin, to deliver from spiritual conflicts, and to give each one of us immediate and perfect peace.

And what was the result of this meeting of Christ with his disciples, and of his benediction upon them?—It begot them again to a lively hope, so that even Thomas was obliged to cast off his obstinate unbelief, and to exclaim, “My Lord and my God.” He placed upon them the seal of his love for them, by showing them his hands and his feet. He refreshed their memory: “These are the words which I spake unto you.” Luke 24:44. He opened their understanding. Verse 45. He laid out before them their work: “And ye are witnesses of these things.” Verse 48. He filled them with joy. John 20:20. Does the Lord ever come to us for the same reasons, and with the same results? If not, why not? “Lo, I am with you alway,” he says, “even unto the end of the world.” And may we not expect that as we draw near the limit of the time, he will vouchsafe to us more marked fulfillments of the promise?

It is said that there are, far down in the ocean bed, depths where the waters are forever undisturbed; no storms ever move them, but everlasting calm and silence reign supreme. There are also heights in the heavens above, far beyond the airiest films of clouds or winds or birds, basking in everlasting sunshine, and reached only by the music of the spheres. These are illustrations of the exhaustless mines and sure treasures of peace that belong to the Christian, the fruit of righteousness that is sown in peace, of them that make peace, and that will, according to the prayer of the apostle, be multiplied unto the elect.

The first words of the Master to those who first met him after his resurrection were, “All hail;” that is, Rejoice. To the second company he said, “Peace be unto you.” Those who composed this company, as we have seen, had been guilty of waywardness and unfaithfulness in regard to him; but like his great prototype, Joseph, he took special pains to relieve them from all embarrassment and depression of spirit. After his brethren had put Joseph into the pit, and had then sold him into slavery, and finally were brought before him, face to face, as suppliants, when he was possessed of all the power and glory of Egypt, he did not say, simply, “I am Joseph,” and then leave them to the terrible emotions of their own hearts, under the memories of their past wrongs, which must have crowded into their minds; but he said, “I am Joseph your brother.” To the mention of his own name he immediately added that of his relationship, “your brother.”

So when he met his disciples, Christ, knowing all hearts, knew that, besides their great grief, they

must have had a feeling of burning shame on account of their treatment of himself; and he said, as he disclosed himself to them, and showed them his hands and his feet, “Peace be unto you.” It reminds us of the course pursued by the angel toward the prophet Daniel, when he had sunk down overwhelmed with a sense of the angel’s glory. He placed his hand upon Daniel, and said, “O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me,” says Daniel, “I was strengthened, and said, Let my Lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.” So the Lord, in making himself known to those whom he had loved so intensely, but who had treated him so unworthily, sent them first the message, by Mary, “Go, tell my brethren.” Then he followed this message by personally appearing before them, with these words: “Peace be unto you.” Their own experiences and thoughts at that time were not calculated to throw them into a very peaceful frame of mind; but Christ wished them to be peaceful and strong in him, and expressed his wish in words which were for all time, and for the whole household.

U. S.