Going to Rundle Garden in Victoria, I was pleasantly surprised at the decorations to celebrate Easter. Lots of bunnies and Easter eggs, but above all, a rainbow. The rainbow was adopted by God Himself to remind us that all people are His own and that He wants all to live in harmony and peace with one another, as the Xewkija roundabout so boldly proclaims.
By his rising from the dead, the Lord Jesus has fulfilled the work of his and our Father. He harmonised all mankind in himself. He is the new and effective rainbow, more than a mere symbol. He fills the earth with his spirit of peace as the plentiful paper doves on the roundabout loudly proclaim.
We need to be realistic about peace, or else it would remain ‘pie in the sky’. Above all, we cannot afford to be cynical about the reality of peace.
Peace is a gift of the Risen Lord. We do not manufacture or declare peace into being. We must prepare ourselves to receive this gift. Before his death, Jesus lived only in Palestine. Now he lives in every human heart though his Holy Spirit, who descended on him at his baptism, like a dove. This is the reason why we are continuously crying out for peace.
Most tragically, however, we are making sure that the peace of Jesus Christ, the true and lasting peace, remains a silenced prisoner in our hearts. Peace has become a sort of pacifier given to us by those who pretend that they have the power to donate it. As we go about our dualistic game of demonising others, labelling, tricking and of seeking the ‘next target’, when even simple justice is trampled on, what kind of peace is being wished to us?
Jesus rose from the dead to give us a life of freedom, full of harmony within ourselves, with others, and with God. Peace is a gift that does not come to us laced with gold, but adorned with humility and respect.