Shalom

By Tyler Tankersley

During the second week of Advent, we are to reflect upon the virtue of peace. When most of us hear the word "peace" we probably think of peace treaties or peace signs. My sister used to decorate her bedroom with tie-dyed peace signs. My brother and I would walk by her bedroom door, roll our eyes, and mutter, "What a hippie."

But the Bible gives us a definition of "peace" that is much richer and deeper than merely the absence of war or flower-child protests. The concept of peace in the Bible is not just about absence of conflict, but also the presence of transformation and grace.

In the Old Testament the word for peace is the Hebrew word "shalom." Most of us are familiar with that word as a common greeting in Hebrew, but it's a powerful little word. The best translation of "shalom" is not just peace but "wholeness" or "complete." The biblical concept of shalom is about full reconciliation in relationships, not just the cessation of fighting.

True shalom is about a complete overturning of our world and a transformation into a new and better world. That is why the prophet Isaiah can daringly dream about a day when "The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them" (Isaiah 11:6). And Isaiah also dreams of a day when a ruler would come who would be a "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).

The New Testament picks up on this theme and declares that we "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). Because of Christ, our relationship with God can have shalom, can be made whole and complete again. God's people in this world have now been given the task of living out that peace and reconciliation in the here and now (see 2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

It is easy for us to overly romanticize peace, to turn it into an ethereal, otherworldly concept that has no bearing on the real world. Shalom is no cheesy sentiment; it is an uncomfortable transformation of the world. Shalom is an upheaval of the established order and is a new heaven and a new earth in which justice, righteousness and grace are made available to all people. What would it look like to have an economy, community, or government focused on shalom?

Because the task of the people of the God is to live out that peace, that shalom, in the here and now. We do that by helping to craft a world in which people do not simply stop their fighting, but in shalom they no longer even have the need to fight:

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:4)