Text for the Week: Guided along the Path of Peace

Scripture: Luke 1:68-79

⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a mighty savior for us
    in the house of his child David,
⁷⁰ as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
⁷¹     that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
⁷² Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors
    and has remembered his holy covenant,
⁷³ the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us ⁷⁴that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness
    in his presence all our days.
⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
⁷⁷ to give his people knowledge of salvation
    by the forgiveness of their sins.
⁷⁸ Because of the tender mercy of our God,
    the dawn from on high will break upon us,
⁷⁹ to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Questions

1. Twice in this passage Zechariah talks about being saved or salvation, what does salvation look like to him?
2. How is God’s “tender mercy” meant to be displayed?
3. What is the “way of peace” and how do I expect God to direct my feet on it?

Background

Related Scriptures: Psalm 18, 106; Malachi 3; Revelation 5

The idea of mercy in this passage seems to match the concept of God’s faithful love in the Old Testament. Mercy is not simply God deciding to “go easy on people’ but it is the demonstration of God’s love and faithfulness to the people.

The “way” or “path” is mentioned twice in this passage, once as the “way of the Lord” (v76) and once as the “way of peace”. These seem to be parallel and indicate that the Lord’s path is one of peace that begins with the knowledge of salvation.

The concept of peace in the Bible is about well-being both socially and materially. When a person has peace they are at rest because they have enough material resources to be comfortable and have harmony in their social relationships.

Reflection

Two words in Zechariah’s song resonate with me as I have been reading it this week, mercy and peace. Both of these words have long histories in the Bible and far deeper and richer meanings than we often ascribe to them in English. For us mercy is, “compassion shown to a person whom one can punish,” and peace is “freedom from disturbance”. Neither of these approaches the level of intensity Zechariah’s song conveys about God’s activities. For Zechariah, mercy is God’s activity on behalf of those people God has promised to show a faithful and dedicated love to. Mercy is not simply “not punishing” people, mercy is demonstrating a loving devotion to people that God wants the best for. Mercy is, seeing Israel in distress and in need of rescue from oppressors and providing the deliverance that they truly need. Mercy is providing Israel with what they need to be perfectly restored to loving relationship with God and peace in the world.

And peace is not simply a freedom from disturbance, but a gift of a life of abundance and contentment. Peace is about having material and emotional well-being within our world. Bringing peace to our world is not about ending violence, it is about providing people with deliverance from all kinds of oppression and hostility so they can thrive in the world. Peace is about ensuring that people are cared for. So when Zechariah says that the Lord with guide us on the path of peace, he means that when we listen to the Lord we will learn to create a world full of material and emotional well-being. Walking becomes a metaphor for living, and forces us to see that we are not stagnant in our lifestyles but moving toward an objective with the way we live. Our objective is to create homes, and communities where prosperity reigns, where we provide comfort for those around us materially, emotionally, and spiritually.

But this song is not meant to say that God simply gives us the material, spiritual, or emotional contentment that we want, though some might like to preach that. The song tells us that God is guiding us down the path that leads to such things. That is part of God’s deliverance is to establish us with the kinds of spiritual direction that will help us create such communities in our world. God is providing us with the instructions we need to follow in our lives to be people who bring peace to the world. Though lest we think we are doing this all ourselves, we recognize that Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and is walking with us helping us at every turn to create the kind of loving community that God envisions.

We are motivated by Jesus’ example as the one who has walked down this path ahead of us and shows us how to walk it without stumbling. But Jesus also accompanies us down the path helping us to stay aligned to it, and avoid dangers. Jesus reminds us that peace, at its highest level, is not an individual goal, it is always something attained by a community. The object of peace is not simply that I am at rest, isolated from other people, as refreshing as that might sound to many. Peace is about the community moving to material security and emotional and spiritual well-being in God’s presence.

One of the good things about our cultural celebrations of Christmas is that walking down the path of peace has not been completely lost and is still encouraged. We are still culturally encouraged to give to those in need and to look for ways that we can bring material prosperity to our communities. We are encouraged to foster and build relationships, and greet others with kindness. This benefits our emotional and spiritual health as we see the potential for our society. We are told to remember those around us who might need someone and to show additional compassion because it is a season of caring. All of these activities that we associate with Christmas are how we still walk down the path of peace. The goal of Advent and Christmas is to make sure these endeavors are not simply seasonal, but to focus on such traits and to work at making these seasonal expectations regular habits in our lives. The goal of this season is to remind us of how true peace came to earth and opened up for us a new way of living, so that we can grow deeper during the year.