Christ: The Ultimate Peace Child

In 1962, missionary Don Richardson his wife Carol and their eight-month-old son Stephen, traveled to New Guinea and lived as missionaries among the Sawi one of nearly a thousand tribes living in New Guinea. The Sawi people are one of only five tribes in the world who practice both headhunting and cannibalism. The Sawi prided themselves on being masters of treachery in that they would befriend an individual and gain their trust only to later slaughter and cannibalize that individual. Individuals who can sustain this form of trickery for long periods of time with various individuals are highly revered by the Sawi people



Because of this strange custom Richardson and his wife met with many difficulties while trying to communicate the gospel to these people. The Sawi viewed Christ’s betrayer Judas as the hero of the gospel story because of his success in deceiving Christ with his friendship only to later betray him. The Sawi would cheer and dance when the story of Judas betrayal kiss was told. The Sawi viewed Christ as simply the naive dupe to be laughed at and made fun of. The Richardson’s struggled to find a way to communicate the real meaning of the gospel story to people whose customs are so far removed from Christian values.

Richardson ask God for help. One day, an enemy tribe attacked the tribe Don was living with. For weeks they fought each other. Finally Don told the leaders of the tribe, that if they did not stop fighting he would leave the tribe. That was a serious threat to them. They liked Carol's medical care and Don's steel implements. Plus, the presence of the white family gave them status. The chief of Don's tribe realized that he had to pay the price of peace.

One day as Don watched the warriors of the warring tribes formed a line opposite each other. The chief of the tribe Don was staying with took his newborn son from the arms of his wife. She sank to the ground wailing in uncontrollable grief. Then the Chief walked down the line of his warriors and each of them put their hands on his little newborn child. With determination and resolve the chief walked across the open space between the two warring tribes. He stood face to face with his enemy and placed his son into the arms of his adversary.

With the baby in his arms, the chief of the enemy tribe walked down the line of his warriors. In full view of the father and the father's tribe, each enemy warrior placed his hands on the baby boy; next the warriors turned and disappeared in the bush with the infant. The baby was gone, never to be returned to its grieving parents.



Richardson soon learned that the Sawi had a unique way of making peace and forestalling violence among warring tribes. If a Sawi father offered his son to another tribe as an offering of peace, then all past grievances would be forgiven and future violence and treachery would be prevented. The Sawi name for this peace offering was the "peace child" The requirement for peace was that each member of the tribes would each lay their hands on the given son and say "We receive this child as a basis for peace." The "peace child" would then live with the enemy tribe for the remainder of his life and there would be peace between the two tribes as long as the child lived. The Sawi viewed betrayal of a "peace child" as the worst possible crime.

God had provided Richardson with the means to break the spiritual barriers of the Sawi people, by explaining to them that Jesus Christ was and is the ultimate "Peace Child" given to us by his Father as an offering of forgiveness and peace and Judas by betraying him had committed the worst possible crime. Richardson used verses like Isaiah 9:6 "For unto us child is born, unto us a son is given" To show that God had freely given his Son. He told the Sawi that if they would accept Christ the Son of God, the ultimate "Peace Child" then all their past and future sins would be forgiven and there could be peace with God as long as the Peace Child lived. And since Christ is alive today and forevermore if you accept him there can always be peace with God.

Since then approximately two-thirds of the Sawi people have, as they say, laid their hands by faith upon "Gods Peace" Child Jesus Christ. Richardson uses this illustration and many others to show how God has placed unique customs and practices into the lives of even the most primitive peoples as a means of conveying to them the story of the gospel. He urges fellow believers and especially missionaries not to dismiss these practices as simply pagan or barbaric beliefs and practices, but rather as catalysts into sharing the gospel story to these people. Just as Paul says in the book of Acts, "(God) in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness." Acts 14:16-17 The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that "God has made everything in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." and elsewhere in Jeremiah "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people" Jer. 31:33

It is amazing the lengths that God has gone to, to write eternity into our hearts so that none may perish. All he ask is that we accept the peace and forgiveness he has offered us by accepting His Son who came into this world to be a ransom for all. All that is required is for us to "lay our hands by faith" upon His "Peace Child" Jesus Christ"

Excerpts taken from Don Richardson's book
"Eternity in Their Hearts"