In the presence of God, we hear: “Peace be with you!” (“Sh-a-l-o-m-e-g-a”, in Hebrew).
Everything we told each other last time about what “jubilee” means is found in the Biblical concept of “peace,” or “shalom” in Hebrew.
Let me take you back to that day, three days after the crucifixion of Jesus, April 30 A.D. (according to our best calculations).
We read this in all four Gospels, as in Matthew 27:45 ff.; Mark 15: 21 ff.; Luke 23:26 ff.; and then also in John 19:17 ff.
Just a little background: The disciples heard from several people that Sunday, can you believe it, Jesus rose from the dead, and He is alive!
Then John tells us the following further there in chapter 20:19 ff., under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit:
“That Sunday evening, the disciples were together. Although the doors were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, “Peace be with you!”
After he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
“Peace be with you!” he said to them again. “As the Father has sent me, I also send you.”
After he had said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of men, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Have you heard? The Risen Jesus says to each of us who believes in Him: “Peace be with you!”
“Eirene humin”, in Greek.
The Hebrew word that we have translated as “peace” in Afrikaans is the well-known word “SHALOM”.
You will immediately understand that “eirene” in Greek and “shalom” in Hebrew, in this context, entail much more than what we try to translate as “peace” in Afrikaans. Let me try to briefly summarize what “eirene” and “shalom” entail for me and you in Jesus.
I want you to understand that what I am talking about is not just a head thing. You and I must, as it were, together with the disciples of old, that Sunday evening after His resurrection from the dead, hear how Jesus says to us: Peace to you!
Experience where you find yourself how the Risen Jesus, the King of all kings, even stands before you and says this to you!
Just remember for a moment everything that He has also done for you because He loves you so much!
Taste and experience it in your whole being, in your spirit, soul, and physical-chemical body! Taste all the dimensions of this “peace” with which He wants to serve you anew!
Hear how God the Spirit says to you: “Because you believe that Jesus also died for you on the cross, and bore the full punishment for and on your behalf…
• Is there now “peace” between you and God! Experience how God’s arms of love wrap around you, and He presses you tightly to His heart.
• All your debts have been paid. Your sins have been forgiven, washed clean, removed, and taken away from God’s memory and presence, as far as the East is from the West!
• Your relationship with God has been completely restored. There is nothing between you that needs to cause distance, alienation, guilt, shame, or a feeling of condemnation.
• You are reconciled to God in Jesus! Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Choose to believe it fully again! Come to rest in that knowledge!
• You are God’s child.
• God's Spirit himself lives in you, in your body, to remind you every day that God is your Heavenly Father. He also reminds you of everything that Jesus came to teach us and promised. He also reminds you that you are now in Christ Jesus, heir of all the gifts of grace, privileges, and benefits that Jesus has worked for and on your behalf through His life, His words, His death, and His resurrection.
• In Jesus, because you have accepted Him and believed in Him, you have received 100% share in the Life and that in Abundance that He also came to work for you. Allow Him to flood you with this life in abundance, until it is as tangible a reality for you as you can feel the clothes on your body!
• In Jesus, through the working of God's Spirit in you, you are also part of a new creation that God is busy with here on earth. After all, this is what 2 Cor. 5:17 also says.
• God's grace is therefore sufficient for you every day! Because in Jesus, you have gained access to all of God's grace, which is always, in everything, not only enough for you and your loved ones, but more than enough!