A Community of Peace

We are a school that has had, since 2021, a strategic intentions document* called Shalom. It’s an audacious aspiration, but – for us – a simple act of obedience.

God’s call on His people is to seek shalom.  It is a theme that recurs over 300 times in the Old Testament and almost 100 times in the New Testament (in the New Testament, the Greek word eirene is used to communicate a similar intent).

We are to be a people seeking shalom – seeking a form of peace that, ultimately, only God can give. It is a complex concept and, like an onion, it has many layers.

But let’s start at a relatively simple spot – with Jesus – Sar Shalom – the prince of peace.  He is the fulfilment of the writings of the Old Testament prophets – Jeremiah, Isaiah and Micah being amongst those who foretold His coming and His restorative work of peace.  Not peace on earth, but peace between humans and their creator God.

In John 16:33, Jesus tells his disciples, "I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world". We again hear the explicit contrast between the peace Jesus offers and the peace that the world may promise but cannot deliver. 

"In me," Jesus says, "you have peace." But, "in the world you have tribulation." The disciples will face this hardship in the world for two reasons. One reason is that the world simply cannot provide anyone with genuine, restorative, fulfilling peace. No one will find completion and wholeness in the world, apart from God and His redemptive work through Jesus. 

Another reason the disciples will have tribulation in the world is that the world will turn against them, even as it will turn against Jesus himself. Jesus assures his disciples that He has "overcome," or "conquered," the world.

An interesting byline to this notion of shalom, as taught and lived by Jesus. Perhaps no one among the first-century followers of Jesus understood God's shalom better than the apostle Paul. 

Before he met the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), Paul (or Saul, as he was previously known) was not a peaceful man. He fiercely persecuted the Jesus movement, even to the point of death. After his conversion, he admitted that he had tried desperately to justify himself by following the law of Moses in a strict manner. But when he met Jesus, he began to understand what peace really was.

In one of his letters, Paul tells the Roman Christians that "to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" Romans 8:6. Here "peace" can only mean that sense of wholeness and completion that shalom often conveys. The mind that is set on the Spirit of God results in "life and peace."

Meeting the risen Jesus changed everything for Paul. In Jesus he found peace. He found joy in life. And he found understanding about the shalom God spoke of in the scriptures he studied so hard – he found that understanding in a relationship with Father, Son and Spirit. 

May it be that our relationships within our community are reflective of our relationship with Jesus – our common thread in amongst all the delightfully different stories and experiences we bring to our life together.

*If you would like your own copy of Shalom, just send an email to communications@donvale.vic.edu.au and we'll put a copy in an envelope with your child's name on it at Reception for you to collect.

Shalom.