A Pastor’s Perspective

Do You Have Peace From Jesus?

Over the weekend I visited my friend who is in the Charlottesville Hospital. He was taken to the hospital in unbearable pain. They gave him morphine several times, but it could not stop the pain cancer was causing. He underwent a procedure, and he no longer is in pain. The doctors told him the news we all dread. The news we all pretend we will never hear. “You only have a short time to live.” My friend said he is at peace with his present circumstance, and he is at peace with God.

How can a man be given such dire news and say with complete sincerity that he is in peace? The world cannot give this peace. The world can distract us with its vanity fair, but when we are told we have little time left, there is nothing it can do. I see value in the mental health profession, but it can provide little aid when a person is told their time is soon to end. There is great value in education, but what can be taught that will make certain and near death something not to be feared and dreaded.

Jesus and only Jesus can give true peace. In John 14:27 Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” For centuries Christians have faced death just like nonbelievers with one difference. Christians know they merely pass through the shadow of death; for in the instant our bodies surrender to death, our souls are in glory with Jesus. These are not mere words. This is truth. This is reality. “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.” In Jesus, and only in Jesus, there is peace that alleviates the hopelessness of death and the fear of judgment. In Jesus and only in Jesus there is peace.