Peace in the midst of dark times

Advent 2025, Week 2: Isaiah 9, Part 2

Matthew was there.  He not only saw the light of Jesus’ peace change others, Matthew personally experienced what happened when Jesus light of peace enters the darkness of a person’s life.

Matthew’s life was dark, without peace. He was a tax collector.  Hated by his fellow Jews because tax collectors were not only in league with their Roman overlords, but also because the tax collectors got rich by overtaxing people.  

Imagine how Matthew himself might have felt.  Have you ever been in a situation like that when it seems that the people in your life are against you?  It doesn’t feel peaceful.  You might not ever have been a tax collector, or have to face your family, friends, and neighbors calling you and treating you a traitor, but my guess is that you have experienced brokenness, relationships that fall apart, grow distant, even conflicted or hateful.  You’ve experienced the darkness, the lack of peace.  You can identify with Isaiah 9:2 (see previous post here), and you might think to yourself, “Yeah, I get why Matthew quoted that verse.”

In Matthew chapter 9, verse 9, we read the story of the very day that light broke into Matthew’s darkness.  “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

How amazing is that?  Jesus asks Matthew to join his group, to enter into his peace, and experience a new way of life.  Matthew sees the light, turns from the darkness, and follows Jesus.  Then they have dinner together.  In Luke’s version of this story, he describes the dinner as a “great banquet.”  It’s a party!  Matthew wants to celebrate the light, the new peace he has found. 

Notice who is invited to and shows up to Matthew’s party?  Matthew 9, verse 10,  “Many tax collectors and sinners.”  That’s an important detail.  Jesus partied with sinners.  Jesus partied with people who were walking in darkness, so that he might bring light and life to them.  Jesus wanted more and more people to experience the wholeness of life, the peace that Matthew was now experiencing. 

It makes sense why Matthew makes the connection between Jesus’ ministry and Isaiah 9:2.  Jesus, through his words and deeds, brings light to the darkness, he brings peace to our hearts, minds, and bodies so that we can experience wholeness.  

At this juncture, though, I need to make an important clarification: please don’t read me as implying that Matthew never had any problems ever again for the rest of his life. Matthew is rightly celebrating the new peace he found in Jesus, but there would be numerous difficult days ahead for Matthew.

Jesus himself, the Prince of Peace (as we will see in a post later this week), experienced deep darkness just before he was arrested and crucified.  He was betrayed by one of his followers. In the garden, he prayed an anguished prayer to his Father, that if there was any other way, asking God to make it so.  He was sweating hard, eager for his followers to surround him, but they just fell asleep.  Then when the betrayer, Judas brought guards to arrest Jesus, the rest of his friends fled.  One of his friends denied him three times. The crowds who once adored him did a 180 a proclaimed “Crucify him!”. But Jesus carried peace through the darkness. 

We won’t always have peaceful situations in our lives. And that is not the point. Jesus did not come to make all situations peaceful. Some, yes. More and more, hopefully, as Christians live out our calling to be peacemakers. Still there will be moments and seasons in which the situations of our lives are less than peaceful, or downright awful. Just like Jesus experienced at the end of his live. Also like Jesus, we can have his peace in the midst of the darkness because he is with us.

The apostle Paul writes about this in Philippians 4:6-7, ” Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

When you are in one of those dark situations, go to God in prayer, ask him to help you be thankful, to experience his peace.

Photo by Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash