False Peace
By Rev. David Wilson Rogers | May 2, 2015
As Christians, we all agree that we believe in peace, but when it comes to actually applying that peace in our world, we suddenly realize that we do not always agree on what that peace looks like.
Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah faced this challenge in their time. At issue was the comfortable illusion of peace. People wanted peace. People genuinely believed there was a reasonable peace. People were happy to believe that there would be no problem so long as everything remained calm. It was also a lie! There was no open conflict or active war, but the frail illusion of peace was as fake as a Hollywood movie set. It sure looks good, but holds no substance. Ezekiel describes the façade as a meaningless whitewash intended to give the illusion of peace when none truly existed.
Just below the fragile surface of the presumed peace was corruption, inequality, injustice, and oppression. Forces of power and systemic injustice forced an uneasy peace. The prophets Micah and Amos, illustrate the severity of the injustice. The powerful in the land maintained a dominating and inhumane control over those who lacked power. Poverty cursed individuals to live in abject slavery, be denied human dignity, and get trapped into cycles of utter dependence on the mercy of the powerful—a mercy that was frequently denied.
This unholy alliance of power and submission was labeled peace by priests, leaders, and false prophets who enjoyed relative advantage in the system. The cries of injustice and oppression were unfounded, they argued. They blamed the victims of oppression for their own lot in life and valued the social order as essential for maintaining peace. It was a lie!
As the powerful became greater in authority and less sensitive to the needs of those struggling to carve out a life without power, both Ezekiel and Jeremiah pronounced strong and prophetic warnings. Jeremiah renounced the shameful and careless treatment of God’s people by those who would justify the inequality by celebrating the peace it brought. Ezekiel denounced the misleading illusion of presumed peace, calls for true peace through equality, and proclaims judgment upon those who would promote it to ignore the very real lack of peace.
“There is no peace,” both prophets boldly preach. Out of the prophetic words of Ezekiel 13 and Jeremiah 8, God speaks to those in power to make a change for the good and choose, rather to accept the fragile illusion of peace as good enough.
A prophet of our modern age, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1956 that if people accept exploitation and injustice as necessary to keep the peace, it is not a peace worth keeping. In embracing peace as nothing more than a lack of conflict, King taught that the peace we receive is as frail and fragile as that which Jeremiah and Ezekiel knew in their day. Dr. King went on to say that was not the kind of peace he wanted. It was not the kind of peace he would pursue.
Any notion of keeping the peace that does not also confront the evils of injustice, inequality, and oppression is a false peace. It is a sinful lie that, if left unchecked, will fail to maintain the peace. Given enough time, frustration, anger, fear, and pent-up despair, the frail illusion of peace may only mask a ticking time bomb of great destructive power—as has happened again this week in Baltimore. Peace begins with justice, equality, mercy, and love. Otherwise, we will see more “peaceful” cities erupt in violence. As Christians, it is our imperative to actively reach out for true peace.