It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Qur’an 11.69 (clearquran.com)
And certainly did Our messengers come to Abraham with good tidings; they said, “Peace.” He said, “Peace,” and did not delay in bringing [them] a roasted calf.
I like the Qur’an’s image of Abraham in this Surah (chapter). Messengers from God (Angels) come to visit and the ever-hospitable Abraham says, “Hey, I just made a roast! Let me grab it from the fire.” The scenes realism and humanity transport us to the moment.
Some passages of the Bible also bring Jesus’ human interactions vividly to life. Not because he does something miraculous, but because even when he does something ordinary, it seems miraculous. Jesus’ humanity is intensely humane. Or perhaps it just seems that way because we’re not used to seeing people act benevolently anymore.
In my imagination, Jesus is always snuggled around a campfire, heavy blanket pulled over his shoulders, surrounded by friends, students, other scholars, benefactors—you know, a portable synagogue, a church, a mosque.
They’re gathered under a clear, gluttonously star-filled sky on one of those typically cozy-chilly Middle Eastern nights that require things like blankets and campfires. There, we see Jesus for the Semitic, Middle Eastern, dark-skinned, itinerant rebel-prophet he was.
Today’s passage from The Gospel of John carries me to that place where Jesus feels human and real, like someone you want to hang out with, talk to, debate and learn from.
Notice that Jesus greets everyone with a hearty, “As-salamu alaikum.” Peace be with you. The ancient 
greeting As-salamu alaikum speaks to the truth of Jesus’ language, his ethnicity, and his heritage. It places him in his proper Middle Eastern context.
Western Christians raised in a systemically white-privileged society, spoon-fed Aryan Jesus since birth forget (or are never taught) that Jesus was from the same area of the world as Moses and Mohammed.
Of course, Jesus was also a Jew. He might greet fellow Jews by saying “Shalom,” which on one level also means “Peace be with you,” but as is typical with all things Hebraic, it’s more nuanced than that.
Shalom. The root word in the Bible meaning peace is shalom. In the First Testament, it implies wholeness or well-being and it’s used in both religious and secular contexts.
Often, shalom is used as a greeting—a form of blessing; a prayer for well-being.
The word the biblical authors often used to convey the shalom that comes from a committed relationship with God was “righteousness.”
In its original context, righteousness was about “right relationship,” not about moral restrictions. For our Hebrew ancestors, right relationship with God was one of utter and complete obedience to God’s commandments—especially the commandment to love God with the totality of our being, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Meaning we are to love others with the totality of our being.
The authors of the Second Testament adapted the concept of shalom as wholeness and well-being created through relationships—primarily through a relationship with Jesus, who then reforms our human relationships by revealing the divine heart within us all.
Shalom weaves through and connects Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. In fact, I think God’s movement in the three Abrahamic religions guides us toward global peace—shalom.
We should consider the First Testament, Second Testament, and Qur’an a trilogy about God’s peace-bringing love. All three religions are built on one fundamental idea: Peace—inner, global, lasting—is only found through complete and utter submission to God.
Let’s think about that for a moment. Submission to God.
Peace is found through absolute submission to God. This applies both to individuals and entire societies. Peace be with you. As-salamu alaikum. Shalom. Peace.
Obedience is a difficult word for people of the 21st Century, as it was in the First Century. Obedience to God is the main theme of the Qur’an and why the religion is called Islam, which means, “submission to God”.
Yet, even with the understanding that only through God can we relate to each other more profoundly, the Qur’an and both testaments of the Bible recount humanity’s disobedience to God, our unwillingness to submit not only to a higher power, but to a higher power of compassion, grace, and unconditional acceptance.
Humans. We’re kind of jerks. “Don’t eat from that tree,” so we eat from that tree. “Don’t kill each other,” and we invent weapons that can destroy planets. We want our dogs to be obedient, but we won’t even put on a face mask during a pandemic. Obedience to God? We’re not even obedient to common human decency.
I understand our hesitance to embrace obedience for fear of an all-too-plausible totalitarian state. But when we’re talking about God, obedience is a matter of respect. We are in a covenant relationship with the Divine Knower of All Knowing. We owe it to God to listen, to pay attention to God. And we do that by paying attention to the aching and screaming of a planet that can’t handle us any longer. We pay attention to God by having compassion for each other and by creating systems that take care of the sick, the needy, the lonely.
And I think we can only find that kind of respectful obedience to each other by finding our inner sense of shalom.
Peace be with you. Shalom. As-salamu alaikum. Every religion has words to describe God’s reality-piercing, realization-changing peace. Let’s pray that peace is actively converting us—right now—from fearful, selfish, and spiteful individuals, into transcendent communities of compassion, cooperation and acceptance.
Amen.
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