Prince of Peace

"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." -Isaiah 9:6

I can only imagine how striking this prophecy was to the early Jewish people. After all, their lives revolved around protecting themselves from God, building their own holiness, and thus creating their own sense of safety. So for them, to use the word shalom to describe the coming Messiah (and, as we know, the coming of God Himself), would be a shocking thing. The simplest definition for the complex Hebrew term shalom is nothing missing, nothing broken. It is complete and utter wholeness, it is harmony and unity with oneself. Rest.

For the original audience of this prophecy, any sense of shalom they had would have been based on the law of commandments. Meaning, I generate my own cleanliness, I pray as I ought, I bring sacrifices to the priest to administer on my behalf, and I follow the rules. To our modern ears, this lifestyle and this posture before the Lord may sound suffocatingly awful, but to the ancient Jewish people it was a source of great shalom because they knew their God, Adonai, was with them. Their relationship with God was the level of effort they put in. If you forget to bring a guilt offering? Well, you're not in a good place before the Lord. If you did bring a guilt offering? Looks like you're doing very well, woohoo!

But hold on to your hats everyone, because Paul offers some commentary on Isaiah's prophecy hundreds of years later, and it is way too good to miss.

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." - Ephesians 2:13–22

Jesus Christ is the Prince of Shalom- He is quite literally the King of nothing missing, nothing broken. His coming was the end of "the law of commandments expressed in ordinances" because He has "broken down in His flesh" anything that separates us from God. We, as children of God living in this unique time in history, have more freedom and more opportunity for shalom than anyone before us. That is because shalom is no longer a state of consciousness we must manufacture to protect ourselves from an all-powerful and holy God, shalom is a person.

And the Prince of Shalom (nothing missing, nothing broken), was broken for us. The One who is completely whole was broken, His blood poured out. He administers not punishment or condemnation, but instead, He sets a table for communion. And in the deepest part of His heart, He wills us to come and partake.

"and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." -1 Corinthians 11:24

I'd like to note how Jesus at the Lord's Supper sounds strikingly similar to when He was speaking of the Holy Spirit being given to His friends after His ascension.

"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

The Prince of Peace gave away His shalom upon the cross, being beaten and tortured and slain and broken and condemned so that He could hand that peace to us:

"My peace I give you."

The broken body of Christ given unto us, His beloved, is our peace. What was broken for us becomes whole in us. To refer back to Paul's letter to Ephesus, a mere page after where I earlier referenced, Paul was speaking about God equipping believers for the work of the ministry until the Church may reach the "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13), that is, reach full maturity. The Greek word for fullness means to reach completion. Nothing is missing, or until nothing is broken.

Are you guys tracking?

The Bride of Christ partakes in His Body so that He may be complete in her. The Prince of Peace offers her Himself so that she may grow up into the fullness of Him.

Christ wills for us to be one in Him, and that is the very definition of shalom, because as I said way back when, shalom is a sort of harmony and completion and oneness.

Jesus, the Crucified King, is the Prince of Peace.

Every lash that struck Him is a touch that healed us, and healing means to repair or restore. Restore us to what?

We are restored to the wholeness of Jesus, to reap the peace of His fullness. We are healed from obsessive self-focus and self-examination and self-condemnation and can rest. Rest because Jesus is the completer of our souls. We cannot satisfy ourselves, or enlighten ourselves, or love ourselves. Because our souls are broken and incomplete unless the Prince of Peace has reconciled us and made us whole in Him.

Peace is nothing more than Jesus, and nothing less.

He is my shalom.