Peace in the Midst of Conflict? – Mr. Abdu Murray, J.D.
Transcript: Peace in the Midst of Conflict?
But what is this peace? I think oftentimes we misdefine this thing called peace. We think it’s really the absence of violence, or the absence of conflict, or the absence of aggression. I want to suggest to you that this isn’t really the true definition of peace, at least not the foundational definition of peace. We think of it in these cliché terms, or I would say superficial terms. While they have big important issues, you know, in terms of aggression and all these things, we need to get back down to what fundamentally peace is really all about. We’ve gotten to a cliché version of this.
May I suggest to you that the ancients did not see world peace this way. They did not see peace as merely the absence of conflict, or the absence of aggression, or the absence of violence.
No, they saw peace as something that was about reconciliation. Something about being made whole. You know when you look at the way the ancients describe this, in their very words: the Hebrew word shalom, the Arabic word–which shares as its root, the same root because they’re both Semitic languages–salaam, and the Greek word–found in the New Testament–eiríni. These words from different cultures–in different forms and in different aspects–they don’t mean the absence of conflict. They don’t mean merely the absence of strife, or violence. What they mean is wholeness. What they mean is reconciliation. That’s what they mean. And so to have true peace is to have the sense of being made whole once again.
Now I want to take you to a story in the Bible. In John chapter 14, there’s this story. Now the context of the story is that Jesus is with His closest followers, His disciples. And Jesus is about to undergo unspeakable violence. He knows it’s coming. He’s predicted it. He knows He’s going to be betrayed by one of His very best friends into the hands of wicked men. And those wicked men are going to torture Him to death, and then put Him on a Roman cross. And the crucifixion was the most heinous way, the most excruciating way the Romans could devise for someone to die in a humiliating fashion. And He knew it was coming within hours of the Last Supper He’s having with His closest friends. So He knows violence is coming. And amidst that knowledge that the violence is coming, Jesus says:
“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled. Neither let them be afraid.”
That’s fascinating, because if peace is simply the absence of conflict–the absence of violence–the only person in that room who shouldn’t have had peace, would have been Jesus, because He knows the violence is coming. And yet He has something that the world does not give. In His own words, He has peace.
What is the peace He’s talking about? It can’t be freedom from violence. It has to be the relationship He has with the Father. That pure, whole, complete, salaam, shalom, eiríni. And He offers that to His disciples. He’s the only one who shouldn’t have had peace, but He had peace left over to give.
You see, that relationship He has with the Father is something so whole, that no violence and no injustice on this planet could take it away from Him. And He suffered on the cross for our sake, so that we can have the shalom, the salaam, the eiríni. He suffered so that we can have that peace with God–a peace that no violence, no injustice and no sorrow can take away from us in this world. The only peace amidst conflict is the kind of peace that doesn’t depend on the lack of conflict; it’s that relationship. Jesus offers us that wholeness in the midst of the conflicts we experience, even in our day.
Mr. Abdu Murray, J. D.
Abdu Murray is a speaker, author and attorney who specializes in addressing issues where religious faith and emerging cultural trends intersect and collide. Since founding Embrace the Truth in 2004, Abdu has spent decades analyzing how the major religious and non-religious thought traditions have attempted to address emerging cultural issues, he has authored several books including Saving Truth, Grand Central Question, Apocalypse Later and his latest, More than a White Man’s Religion: Why the Gospel is Not Merely White, Male-Centered, nor Just a Religion. His articles have been featured in Fox News, Christianity Today, Christian Post and Western Journal.
For most of his life, Mr. Murray was a Muslim until a nine-year historical, philosophical, theological and scientific investigation pointed him to the Christian faith. He has engaged with diverse international audiences in debates and dialogues across the globe and hosts the podcast and YouTube shows, All Rise, Deliberations LIVE and CouldaShouldaWoulda.
Mr. Murray holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School and was named to Best Lawyers in America and to Michigan Super Lawyers three times.
He lives in the Detroit, Michigan area with his wife and their three children. Read his full bio here.
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