Luke 2:14 Glory to God in the highest,
 and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Some of you who are our age will recall 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night recorded by Simon and Garfunkel in 1966. This recording juxtaposed the music and words of Silent Night with an actual news cast from August 3, 1996. The result was powerful. It echoes the thought of Longfellow’s 1863 Christmas Bells which states, “For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men”. 

Going back across the years, from Simon and Garfunkel in the turbulent 60s, Longfellow in the time of the Civil War, and certainly Bethlehem in the days of Herod and his slaughter of the children, the words, “on earth peace” can seem an impossible hope.  In our day of racial tension, terrorism, and growing dread of what comes next, the hunger for peace on earth aches in the hearts of men and women around the globe.

Peace on earth seems so distant as we look at the smoldering, and at times blazing, circumstances of the world around us. But there is the problem. Peace will never be found, and was never intended to be found, in the circumstances. Micah 5, the familiar prophesy of Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, was spoken at another time of political turmoil. The prophet lays out the hope. “And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.  And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.”

Do you hear it? Do you see it? Peace is not circumstances. Peace is a person. Ephesians 2:14 says it outright: “For he himself is our peace”. And in Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  Hebrews calls him the King of righteousness and the King of peace.

When the angels announced the coming of Peace to the broken world, that Peace is Jesus himself. Receive Him. He is your peace.