Peace that comes from God alone
John 14: 27-31
Christ grants a peace that surpasses any kind of peace
the world could offer. The peace He is referring to is not merely an absence of
war, or aggression even – what our Lord is talking about is a peace that is an
infusion of God’s constant strength and interior serenity. The world cannot
provide this kind of peace – human beings on their own cannot achieve that
inner peace. And our Lord is clear that the source of this inner peace, inner
strength and inner serenity is God the Father. And the only way we can tap in
to that source of peace is through Christ – Christ being in Himself that unity
of God and man.
“The Father is greater than I” – this phrase of Jesus
can cause confusion if we consider it in the context of the doctrine of the
Holy Trinity. Surely in the Trinity the Father is equal to the Son is equal to
the Holy Spirit. And that is true. In their divinity they are equal. But our
Lord is referring to His humanity. And He is talking about completing His
mission of bringing His human nature (which resulted from the Incarnation) to
the Godhead. In “returning” to the Father our weak human nature is lifted fully
into the Godhead, and the consequence is that the peace that our Lord is
talking about becomes a real possibility. But not only peace but all the means
of grace that can enable us to also “return to the Father” that is “eternal
life in bliss and perfect love and joy”.
What we must do now, in this world, is make sure we do
what our Lord did, which is obedience to the Father. Obedience reveals love.
Our Lord is bidding us to obey because we love.
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