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 When they successfully retrieved the chip from bad-guy Cosmo
(played by Ben Kingsley), Bernard Abbott (played by James Earl
Jones), a senior agent from the NSA negotiates with each member of
the team for possession of the chip. The last person of the team,
“Whistler,” a blind savant (played by David Strathairn) made his
personal request:
Watch it on
YouTube here
Bernard Abbott: Are
we done here?
Bishop: Not yet. Whistler?
Whistler: I want peace on earth and good will toward men.
Bernard Abbott: Oh, this is ridiculous.
Bishop: He's serious.
Whistler: I want peace on earth and goodwill toward men.
Bernard Abbott: We're the United States Government! We don't do that
sort of thing.
Bishop: You're just gonna have to try.
Bernard Abbott: All right, I'll see what I can do.
Whistler: Thank you very much. That's all I ask.
Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men is a common request in a world
where peace is an uncommon quality. Zooming out, we read the
headlines and watch news stories that reveal a world that seems
totally bent on destruction and violence, war and famine, inequality
and subjugation, chaos and conflict.
 While we call for Peace on Earth, we seem to be relying on someone
else to establish peace; someone like the government, or the United
Nations, or the World Court; someone big with a lot of power. But
the fruits of government and court efforts seem to produce even
greater collisions and clashes.
Perhaps Bernard Abbott was right: “We're the United States
Government! We don't do that sort of thing.” The method of
governments and courts seems to be to take out, or lock up, all our
enemies, and then they say we will have peace. But these very acts
make even more enemies, and so the cycle continues.
And so we have peace initiatives, peace summits, rallies for peace,
peace marches, peace symbols, and peace signs. But even with all
this focus on peace, the world doesn’t seem to experience even a
moment of peace.
Zooming in, our own lives reveal much the same: inner conflict,
external hostilities and unrest, and a real lack of peace. Although
we say with our mouths that our souls yearn for peace, our personal
contributions toward it seem to be severely lacking.
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In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall obtain peace!” What He meant is that peace begets
peace, that when we act without self-interest to promote peace, the
result is that we ourselves experience peace even though we have not
sought it for ourselves. It’s serendipity. We each need to be agents
for peace in every situation, and then, locally, regionally,
nationally and internationally, there may be moments of goodwill and
pockets of peace.
Will there ever totally be permanent Peace on Earth? Where
governments and courts and even the United Nations fail, the Bible
has an answer.
Although misquoted to say “And the lion shall lie down with the
lamb,” an allusion toward final peace, what Isaiah 11:6 actually
says is an even greater statement about the peace to come: “And the
wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with
the kid, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them” (NASB) Isaiah 11:6. It’s a
prophetic statement about a time to come when Jesus will return and
bring real lasting peace once again to the earth.
Revelation 21 depicts this scene of peace in verse 4 and brings such
a sense of comfort: “… He shall wipe away every tear from their
eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer
be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed
away." (NASB)
When we request peace on earth, we are indeed calling on a higher
power to establish permanent peace where we are unable. Peace shall
once again come to earth when Jesus returns. And so in this season
of celebration and remembrance, that’s all we ask, Peace on
Earth, goodwill toward men. Come Lord Jesus!
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