Becoming Peacemakers: Embracing Matthew 5:9

Matthew 5:9 ESV
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Practicing Reconciliation by Roy King. March 27,2025

INTRODUCTION:

I was recently invited to learn from and walk with a great team of people who have a ministry to help the church be PEACEMAKING .

Visit Matthew 5:9 Fellowship https://matthew59.org

I am so excited to be in training as an Ambassador of Peace and to be sent out to assist other Jesus followers to be intentional peacemakers.

If you are heart broken to see people engaged in toxic polarization, destructive power games and unable to walk in a healthy tension of loving by listening, learning and forming a path forward together even in our differences cry out to God with me for peace.

Not peace as the absence of war but peace as seeing one another as having value, special and worthy of honor. Who really wins in war that settles for nothing less than total destruction of other people.

All good theology is relational not simply propositional.

• Jesus came to us full of grace and truth (John 1:14 ).
• Those following Jesus will relate to ourselves and others filled with both grace and truth.
• Jesus never wrote off others and made someone his enemy.
  • I tend to read the stories of the earthly life of Jesus and see some as the good guys who loved and believed in Jesus and the bad guys were always opposed to and attacking Jesus. But Jesus never made the bad guys his enemy. Many made Jesus THEIR ENEMY but he kept the door open to them. He reached out to the elder son, representing the religious leaders seeking to kill him to come in to the Father’s banquet (Luke 15).
  • He went to the homes of those who were seeking to discredit him.
  • To Jesus no one was beyond the reach of the Father’s love and hope.
  • He prayed for those to be forgiven who nailed him to the cross.

All of my problems in life, at their root, are relational.

• The best summary of God’s life-giving design for his children is to love God and others.
• Jesus revealed a future moment when all people would be before Him and be divided according to how they fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger and visited those in jail and cared for other needs of those overlooked or devalued. His point is that those who reach out to care are actually caring for Jesus. Loving others is loving Jesus.
• Every person God allows to touch my life — face to face, by phone, through online — is to be treated as though I am loving Jesus.

Peacemaking in a specific offense with another person

When there is a break in love between specific people reconciliation rests on someone taking the first step.  To begin reconciliation involves going face to face, offering words that describe the sin or offense and giving or receiving forgiveness.

God took the first step in reconciling with us.  Romans 5:10-11; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Ephesians 2:13-21.  The death of Christ was not only a sin sacrifice it also broke down barriers of racial distance and formed God’s people as “one”.

We are to take the first step.

Luke 6:41-42 – When my heart is passionate about changing others how do I first remove the “log in my own eye”?

Matthew 18:15-20 – If you recognize you have been sinned against before the other person you are to GO.

Matthew 5:23-26 – If you are in worship and realize you sinned against someone you are to leave worship and GO.

To grow spiritually will always involve repentance or movement toward God’s truth, grace, and love.  The steps of repentance always involve:

• Exposure — bringing light on my current attitudes, words or behaviors.
• Disruption — Accepting that the current life choices are never going to produce the love, joy, peace and freedom God intends for his reconciled children.
• Enticement — Moving toward and accepting God’s grace and truth and finding his Spirit in us gives us the capacity to forgive and rebuild relationships.

Jesus lived in a shame based culture which frequently avoided direct confrontation and devised indirect channels to communicate.  But even in this culture Jesus says God’s plan is for us to GO to one another.

We  don’t avoid the person and talk to others about the break.  As my mentor Roberston McQuilkin told from his experience as a missionary in Japan, “THE ABSENT ARE SAFE WITH US.”

2. What if the separation is not over a sinful wounding but is a strong disagreement?  Again, Robertson had a question to guide him as President of Columbia International University, “Do I want to win or do I want to see healing and repairing of the gap?”

1 Corinthians 6:5-8 The example Paul gives is a financial disagreement but I believe the principles apply to many disagreements.  There are two options.

First, The disagreeing people agree to submit to and accept the judgement of a wise person in the church.  They each present their perspective and then live by the ruling of the wise fellow believer.

Second, If there is no acceptable person of wisdom present then Paul’s approach is, “Unity and loving one another is such a basic foundational rule of BEING God’s people then volunteer to take the loss.  Just let it go.  Give it up.  And move on to restore the love.  Surrender personal rights for the sake of the community.  A challenging idea for us hyper individualists.

Peacemaking in fractured and polarizing groups – often on several subjects in defining what the problem is and which answer will win the day.

WRESTLE WITH THESE QUESTIONS AND REALIZE UP FRONT THAT TO EVEN SERIOUSLY CONSIDER THESE QUESTIONS WILL CAUSE YOU TO BE ATTACKED AS ONE WHO COMPROMISES AND IS NOT WILLING TO STAND FOR THE TRUTH.

• Do I see this person who makes me so uncomfortable with equal status?
• What am I afraid of?
• How does fear rob me of enjoying a life of joy and contentment?
• If someone else makes me afraid who really controls the quality of my life?
• Do I have to take one of two sides on every dividing issue?
• Can I discern and help us focus on common goals, even if they are very broad and basic?
• Do I make quick observations and listen for code words that trigger me positively or negatively and believe I now have the motives and beliefs of others figured out?
• Does being loyal to my group mean I see others as us OR them, us CANCELS them?
• Can those with strong differences move from it is us versus them, and THEY are the problem to a posture of WE, even in our differences, HAVE a problem?
• Do I like it when others measure me by one rigid singular identity?
• Can I recognize that each of us is more complex than our view on one issue?

A working definition of peacemaking involving polarizing positions between groups

Peacemaking is the active pursuit of reconciliation, justice and harmony mirroring God’s heart for restoration.

Just as God, in Christ, reconciled humanity to Himself, we are called to be His agents of peace, restoring relationships, challenging hostility with love and working for righteousness in a polarized world. (working definition of Matthew 5:9 Fellowship)