“But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.” Genesis 33:4
This has long struck me as one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible. I can’t read it without being moved. We all feel the power of it. When we see ex-friends reconciling, so removing every barrier that they run and embrace and fall on one another’s necks—I love that expression—and weep, the beauty of it gets to us. Not a negotiated settlement. No face-saving hypocrisy. Honest. Unforced. Deeply felt. We all perceive true reconciliation with awe. It is of God.
The apostle Paul said, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18). He didn’t mention “moments of reconciliation now and then, when I feel like it.” He said that God had given him “the ministry of reconciliation.” In other words, “Reconciliation is all I do. It’s how I roll. What else is there for me, as a minister of the gospel?”
Left to ourselves, we might think it’s okay to leave ex-friends as ex-friends. No further harm is being done. Why not “just move on”? That’s the glib slogan we might use. And Paul did qualify his hopes for reconciliation: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). Some people just shut down. We try, but they’re not open. So, it doesn’t depend on you or me at that point, not any more. We have to leave it with God. But so far as it does depend on us, we seek out a real experience of shalom with all, absolutely all, for the Lord’s sake.
The gospel being what it is and always will be, “the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19), our churches should be the most reconciling, peaceable, happy places in town. We are so open to enemies, so meek in the face of injuries, so forgiving toward the undeserving—if we do make people angry, let this be the reason. We refuse to join in their selfish battles. We’re following a higher call. We are the peacemakers, the true sons of God (Matthew 5:9).
May our ministries of reconciliation stand out with public obviousness.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on the gospel coalition website on May 20, 2023. Used with permission.
