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War and Peace
[Anniversary of the end of World War II]
Mari Ikeda
It will be the 77th anniversary of the end of WWII tomorrow. As I said last week, I think many of us are forced to think about war and peace more than we do usually in August, because of the war in Ukraine since last February. Thus, I’d like to focus on war and peace in this message today, leaving from the series of Romans. Let’s start with the Book of Isaiah, chapter 9.
A. Jesus, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9)
2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:2-7)
Perhaps many of you might notice, but this passage is one of the frequently read passages in Christmas. It is a prophecy of the birth of a king, who will bring a light into the dark land, put an end to war, and bring peace and justice into the world. Just as this prophecy said, Jesus was born into this world 2000 years ago as the “Prince of Peace,” in order to establish the kingdom of everlasting justice and peace.
Then, why does our present world have no peace? This is the big theme today. What we can say first is that the peace given by Jesus is different from the peace we expect. Let me introduce two words of Jesus. First is from John’s Gospel 14:27.
B. The peace that Jesus gave
1. How is it different from our expectations? (John 14:27, Luke 12:49-53)
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)
Jesus said this while he was teaching to his disciples about his own arrest and death. That means, the peace that Jesus gives is given to us only in exchange of his suffering and death. It was totally different from the peace that people try to achieve by defeating their enemies by force.
Moreover, Jesus says something even more bewildering to us, in the other passage. It’s in Luke 12:49-53.
“49 I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each
Here Jesus says that he did not come to this world in order to bring peace, but rather he came to bring fire and division. What on earth does it mean? It means that the peace Jesus gave us is so deeply related with God’s love and justice that we have to oppose to anything and anyone that goes against it.
Now then, what is the peace Jesus gave us? First of all, it is forgiveness of sins.
2. Forgiveness of sins
All the mistakes we humans make are caused by our sin of making something or someone other than God as God. It is the mistake of relying on something that is unreliable. By this mistake, we end up in hurting others and destroying our relationships, or never get satisfied by obtaining anything, or never get free from emptiness.
Jesus taught us by dying on the cross that it is such a way of our heart that is fundamentally wrong. In the meantime, he also taught us that God loves each of us with the love that any human beings cannot give. What we need is just to make our mind to trust in Him. By trusting Him, we are able to be released from sin and live with God eternally. In summary, the peace that Jesus gave us is, first of all, the peace between God and us, and it is the new way of life to be loved by God and to love Him.
3. Healing for our hearts and bodies
However, that’s not the only peace Jesus gave us. We know it by reading the record of the journey Jesus went on with his disciples. He healed the sick, became friends with those considered as sinners, treated women and children equally with men, and loved the poor. He showed in actions with using his supernatural power at times that it is wrong to have prejudice and discriminate people based on sickness, disability, gender, age, family structure, social status, job, or anything else, because God loves anyone as his beloved child.
This is the second of the peace Jesus gave us. While the first one was the peace between God and us human beings, the second is the peace between the same human beings. It enables the relationship among us to respect, help and love each other, by getting rid of injustice and inequality among us.
We are fighting for this peace to be realized. That is the “fire” Jesus brought in this world, and it is the battle against human sin for God’s love to be realized. This battle will not end until Jesus comes back to this world to put an end to this world. Only then human sin would be defeated once for all, while God’s love would have the complete control of this world. Until then, we have to keep fighting in hope, and should never get despaired. The peace of Jesus is entrusted into the hands of us, who have received it already.
Now, we have a problem here. Even by knowing what the peace of Jesus is, we don’t know yet how we should fight against injustice that is already happening in this world. Because our modern world is a complex society entangled with many factors, we often face a difficulty in even judging what is just and what is unjust. How can we achieve the world peace?
C. The peace that has been entrusted to us
1. The Bible doesn’t teach us about modern wars
First of all, I’d like to tell you the biggest finding of mine that I got while preparing for this message. That is, the Bible doesn’t directly teach us about war and peace of the modern world. I was expecting that there should be a passage somewhere in the Bible which tells us that war is an absolute evil, but I found no such passage.
Moreover, I got to know by studying further about church history that it was only in the 20th century when theologians started to condemn and deny war. Before then, church was teaching that it is inevitable for believers to participate in war and military service if it’s for justice. (Refer to the Augusburg Confession, Article 16, and the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 23.) The reason why the direction of teaching shifted in the 20th century was because the world was terrified with the magnitude of tragedy caused by war, with new weapons after new weapons developed, which resulted in the surge of casualties by an order of magnitude. The two world wars pushed the world even more to reach the recognition shared internationally that war is an absolute evil and illegal. (Charter of the United Nations in 1945) This was a conclusion that could not be reached only by reading the Bible or repeating the traditional teaching of the church uncritically. It is essential to pay attention to what is actually happening in our face and listening carefully to people’s suffering in its midst, in order for us to judging what is just and what is unjust. We also should keep learning from history and never give up saying that war is an evil to be avoided by all means.
However, as a practical matter, war is already happening. Russian invasion of Ukraine revealed clearly to us that we cannot inhibit an autocratic invader only by saying no to war. Here we are facing the reality that pacifism is no viable in this world.
2. Is pacifism too easy on human sin?
I personally have been always wishing that we could discard all armed forces including those of self-defense purpose, because any armed force is by the assumption of war. Indeed, all forces will be eliminated from all the nations, when Jesus returns to this world in the end. By knowing that such a world is the way God wants this world to be, we should keep striving for reaching it.
However, I was shocked when I read over a book from my seminary days while preparing for this message. The author of book (Actually he was one of my seminary professors.) criticizes the absolute pacifism for being ignorant of the depth of human sin in its claim of total elimination of armed force. He asserts that it is an overestimation of human beings and a fantasy that human beings can achieve complete justice and peace by our own wisdom and conscience. Therefore, he concludes that it is inevitable to have a minimum of armed forces as a deterrent and as a self-defense, although he absolutely opposes to any war. It means that a minimum of armaments is necessary just as the function of police and government is necessary in the world where human sin still has its power. How do you think?
3. Current issues (Ukraine / Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution)
Now, I’d like to think about the war in Ukraine today. I suppose the greatest interest of many people in the world is in the question, how we can end this war. In the current state, it seems that both Russia and Ukraine cannot stop fighting because they both want to carry out truce talk in a manner advantageous to their own country. By knowing it, Western countries are supporting Ukraine by supplying weapons, while setting various economic sanctions on Russia in order to weaken the country by global isolation. Perhaps it makes sense in the current state, because it is obvious that Russia is to be blamed, not Ukraine.
However, I wonder whether it’s time for Ukraine to consider an immediate ceasefire with no condition, considering the number of casualties among soldiers of both countries and of Ukrainian citizens, the amount of physical destruction of cities, and the number of refugees in and outside the country. While of course all the blame is on Russia, the government of Ukraine is also responsible of protecting its people, even if most of the people wants a complete resistance. I don’t feel right that the government forces people who don’t want to participate in war to cooperate militarily by the order of total mobilization. It overlaps with the state of Japan during WWII, when the survival of a nation overrode its people’s lives. Maybe that is the way any war is, and all the accusation goes to Russia. Yet, I think we have to keep seeking with people in the world to find what is the best feasible option to take, in order to decrease injustice if only a little in the war full of injustice.
Now, related with this issue, I’d like to talk about Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution as well. I believe that the principle of renunciation of war stated in the article is something that Japan should be proud of to the world, and that I’m against any reforms to it along with other reforms to the Constitution that are suggested by the Liberal Democratic Party. By regulating that Japan maintains no military force as a nation and has no right to get into war with any other countries, I think that the article just goes ahead of the way this world will be by God in its end. Although the Japanese government extended the interpretation of this article and concluded that it does not deny the self-defense right, in order to establish the Self-Defense Force, I don’t think that is a problem. As I said earlier in talking about the limit of pacifism, it is inevitable in the current world where human sin still has its power over. However, I don’t know if the armaments of the Self-Defense Force truly stays within the limit of self-defense purpose. I need to learn more. Also, there is a question of the right of collective self-defense from the perspective of international contribution. But I believe that there are many sectors of peaceful means such as economy, culture, health and welfare, that Japan can make international contribution, while it is also possible in wartime to contribute by humanitarian aid, other than military cooperation. I wish that many countries in the world, not only Japan, would choose this path for peace, rather than military cooperation based on the claim of collective self-defense right.
4. Struggling against our own sin, loving our neighbor, loving our enemies (John 16:33)
Finally, I want to add something we should not forget in thinking of peace. That is the teaching of Jesus to love our neighbors and love our enemies. I believe these two speak about the same kind of love. “Love your neighbor” means, as in the parable of the good Samaritan, to become neighbors, or friends, for everyone, by overcoming our hostility and prejudice against each other. “Love your enemies” is basically same, but goes further to tell us to forgive and accept those who make us suffer. That is difficult to practice both in personal level and national level, but it is essential if we want to bring justice into injustice and love to hatred. To practice it becomes possible only by our steady efforts. It is for each of us to accept in our heart the forgiveness of sin and the peace Jesus has given, and to keep fighting against sin remaining in us.
I’ll read Jesus’ words in one more passage in closing.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Let us trust in Jesus so that we may not be overwhelmed by powerlessness, hopelessness and disinterest, but think and judge things well by ourselves. Let us keep walking by putting our trust in God’s love, justice and peace that will be fully achieved surely when the time comes.
（Prayer）Dear Lord, we ask you to fill our heart with your love so that we can bring your peace more to this world. Teach us how to keep walking and trusting in you even in a hopeless situation and in the midst of anxieties. Help us share the pains of those who suffer, and help us keep seeking the way to remove their suffering. Guide us to keep walking with hope, even when we try to grieve what grieves you, both among people near us and in the events happening in the other side of the world. Dear our Lord Jesus, we pray in your name, Amen.
Summary
Jesus came into the world as the “Prince of Peace” and he brought us peace, but peace is also something that begins in each of our hearts and we play an important role in bringing peace into the world. True and complete peace and justice will not fill the earth until the end of the world when human sin will be defeated once and for all. Rather than living in despair in this knowledge, we need to determine the best course of action in each situation. If we trust Jesus, we can love our neighbor and love our enemies without feeling powerless and hopeless no matter what our situation.
For Discussion
- Considering Jesus’ teachings, is there such a thing as “just war”? (e.g Ukraine defending itself)
- How is peace in our hearts related to world peace?