Peace Be with You

My peace I give you.
         —John 14:27

It was Jesus’ last meal with his disciples before his crucifixion. “I will be with you only a little longer,” he said.

While they sat in stunned sadness, he said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.”

The next two days were packed with one disaster after another: betrayal, arrest, trials, crucifixion. Their world was in chaos. He was dead, and they were scared.

On the following two Sundays, they were back in that room. Shattered. Confused. Terrified. Suddenly Jesus appeared. “Peace be with you,” he said (Jn 20:19, 26).

When you, like those disciples, have retreated behind locked doors because you are afraid, anxious, discouraged, remorseful, he has a promise for you as he did for them: “My peace I give you.”

His offer of peace to his disciples in the first century
is his offer of peace to you in the twenty-first century.