The war to end war

I am writing this on ANZAC day 2026. Like many Australians, I have relatives who served and suffered in past wars, and it is natural and right to remember them with gratitude.

Wars linger and continue. There was a widespread view that WW1 would end by Christmas 1914. When it ended in November 1918, the death toll was reckoned at 40 million and the seeds were sown for WW2. Meanwhile the present middle eastern war continues. Despite declarations of ceasefire, and multiple announcements of total victory from Iran and the US, hostilities continue. People still die. Communities are disrupted. Ports and seaways are blocked, and oil is blockaded. The whole world suffers.

The middle eastern war will end one day. As will Ukraine. And perhaps the forgotten war in the Sudan. However, the ‘war that will end war’ as coined by H.G Wells about WW1 remains elusive. Peacekeepers and relief agencies need not fear redundancy.

The words of Jesus, ‘blessed be the peacemakers’ (Matt 5:9) are an encouragement to pray for global peacemakers. They are also an encouragement to be peacemakers in our own ecosystems of family, friends, work and such like.

However, solutions to the human problem of war goes deeper than human means of mediation and peacemaking. Wars are complex in their causes and solutions. Fear, pride, ambition, self-interest and grievance all feed into causation. These traits are not confined to world leaders or generals. They are also present, in different ways, in all of us. All these need focus in peacemaking.

In a Christian view, the wars between one another and the war within have a deep root. The first war was a war of independence against God. Our ancestors tried to live in God’s world on their terms. The result was war against God, against creation itself, and against one another. We can read about this tumbling sequence of hostility in the first few chapters of Genesis.

Enter Jesus. He was predicted to be the ‘Prince of Peace’ (Isaiah 9:6) and told his followers that he gives them peace – but not the world’s version of peace (John 14:27). His peace is not won and maintained by force of arms. Nor is it shaky like the middle east ceasefires. Nor does it just deal with the outward symptoms of war.

The peace that Jesus brings goes to the root cause of the human declaration of war against God. In our language, he paid the reparations due to God for the war that we started. This is remarkable – we started the war, but God himself purchased the peace in Jesus Christ. As an old hymn puts it: ‘Peace perfect peace, in this dark world of sin? The blood of Jesus whispers sin within’.

The peace with God that Jesus established works through the lives of God’s people. It creates a platform on which we can have peace with creation, within ourselves and between ourselves. Of course, Christian people do not always, or fully, live this out, for the war within between our old and new self rages until we die or Jesus returns. That being said, the Christian message does give a basis for a peace that lasts.

While we humans stay at war with God ‘the war that will end war’ remains a myth. When we accept God’s amnesty in Jesus, the peace begins.