“You must be here for Remy.”
Our grandson, Ephraim – Remy to everyone in the family – just turned thirteen. When he was younger, everyone said he was my “spitting image.”
I remember one Sunday when he was about four or five. We were visiting Remy and his family and had attended church with them. After worship, I volunteered to pick him up from Sunday School. I was prepared to explain to the Sunday School “gatekeeper” who I was and why it was okay for me to take him.
Before I could say a word, she looked at me and said, “Oh, you must be here for Remy.” Apparently, no explanation was necessary. She recognized the family resemblance.
I wonder if Jesus had something like that in mind when he said: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9)
What if peacemaking is one of the ways God’s children become recognizable?
What does a peacemaker actually make?
The word Jesus used for “peacemaker,” written in Greek by Matthew, is eirēnopoios. It is a compound of eirēnē, “peace,” and poieō, “to make” or “do.” That’s worth noticing. 1
Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are those who love peace,” or even, “Blessed are the peaceful.”
He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” There is something active about the word.
And what kind of peace did Jesus have in mind?
His Jewish listeners would have heard eirēnē through the rich Hebrew concept of shalom. Shalom meant much more than the absence of conflict. It carried the idea of wholeness, well-being, flourishing, and restored relationships.
Peace, in other words, isn’t simply what happens when people stop fighting. Peace is what happens when what is broken begins to be made whole.
That changes the picture considerably.
Peacemakers aren’t necessarily peacekeepers
There’s an important difference between keeping the peace and making peace.
A peacekeeper may be primarily concerned with stopping the conflict. Keep things quiet. Don’t rock the boat. Avoid the difficult conversation. Preserve the appearance of harmony.
A peacemaker wants something deeper. A peacemaker moves toward what is broken with the hope of restoration.
Sometimes that means listening. Sometimes forgiving. Sometimes telling the truth. Sometimes confronting injustice. Sometimes having the conversation everyone would rather avoid.
Biblical peacemaking isn’t built on pretending that everything is fine. Jeremiah confronted those who proclaimed, “Peace, peace,” when there was no peace (Jer. 6:14; 8:11). Jesus told his followers to pursue reconciliation with those they had offended (Matt. 5:23–24).
A peacemaker isn’t someone uncomfortable with conflict.
A peacemaker is someone who is committed to what lies on the other side of conflict: reconciliation, wholeness, and shalom.
“They will be called children of God.”
This, I think, is where Jesus’ Beatitude becomes especially interesting.
The Greek word translated “children” in the NIV is huioi, literally “sons.” In the ancient world, being identified as someone’s son communicated more than family status. It also communicated identity, representation, and resemblance.
Children look like their parents.
Sometimes it’s physical. Sometimes it’s in their mannerisms. Sometimes it’s in the way they talk, laugh, or respond to people.
And sometimes it’s in their character.
Jesus makes this connection explicit just a few verses later. After telling his followers to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them, he says, “that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”
Why love enemies?
Because that’s what the Father is like.
God’s children begin to look like their Father.
And what does the Father look like?
He is a God who makes peace. As the visible expression of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), Jesus showed us what the Father looks like. And Jesus was a peacemaker.
Paul described what God had done through Christ this way: God was reconciling all things to himself, “making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:20). The verb Paul used there is the related Greek word eirēnopoieō – to make peace.
When we participate in peacemaking work – when we move toward reconciliation, when we refuse retaliation, when we seek wholeness rather than simply winning – we begin to look like him.
Family resemblance
Maybe that’s why Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are the people who keep things peaceful.”
He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Because peacemaking is more than a behavior. It is evidence of an identity.
God is at work making all things new. His Kingdom is breaking into a world fractured by hostility, resentment, injustice, and fear. And the people who surrender themselves to that Kingdom begin participating in what God is doing.
They become people who make peace. Not perfectly. Not easily. And certainly not without cost.
But increasingly, they look like their Father.
And perhaps that’s what Jesus meant when he said they would be called children of God. Not simply that God gives them a title. Not that peacemaking earns them a place in the family. Rather…
…their lives begin to make the family resemblance visible.
The Sunday School teacher didn’t need me to explain who I was. She saw Remy in me.
I wonder what people see when they look at us.
When we’re hurt. When we’re angry. When someone disagrees with us. When relationships break down. When we’re given the opportunity to retaliate – or reconcile.
Do they see someone who simply wants to keep the peace? Or do they see someone willing to enter the broken places and work toward shalom?
Because every time God’s peace passes through human hands, the family resemblance becomes a little easier to see.
1 See Woodworking and God’s Poiema focused on Ephesians 2:10: For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do. The root Greek word for workmanship is poiema – it describes God’s creative activity. It’s the word from which poem and poetry are derived.
Practical Theology Today 