There is a reason Jesus said, “Blessed are the
peacemakers” instead of blessed are the peacekeepers. Peacekeeping involves managing a compromise created
between two opposing forces in order to manage their unresolved conflict. The issues that create a lack of peace are
never dealt with through peace keeping.

Peacemaking is different because making peace, by its
very nature, is a spiritually violent act. 
This was the nature of the cross of Jesus.  It was a violent act that made peace between
God and people. When we come to make peace those elements in control of the
status quo of a kept peace will confront your presence as they did with Jesus when
He walked the streets of Jerusalem. When you try to set free those held captive
by the terms of a false peace things can turn violent.

When Samuel Colt created his iconic Colt 45 revolver
in 1872 it was named the Peacemaker.  Historians
call it “The gun that won the West.” Colt’s naming of his revolver was
prophetic because it would be worn on the hip of marshals and sheriffs who
walked the violent dirt streets in the boomtowns of the American West. These
lawmen would sometimes be forced to pull their Peacemaker and engage the thugs who
held these small towns captive to their version of “peace” – a version of peace
that only existed as long as you agreed to their terms.

In life we can try to keep the peace at the expense of
making peace.  Like two unruly children
who only get along when a parent steps between them and keeps them apart, we
try to do the same thing in a business, a church or community.  Peacekeeping temporarily salves the wounds of
division, but never really discovers its root cause. Peacemakers push deeper into
the core issues that cause our division in the first place, arrest the root lie
that holds us captive and then walks that lie out into the light of truth
where the possibility of real peace exists. This is what happens when peacemakers
come to town.