Cutting down the barbed wire fence
This week's Bibletastic message comes from Ephesians 2:11-18:
Mankind was created in a loving play environment with one warning label on one toy: "Do not ingest." Mankind disobeyed and was thrown out. Thousands of years passed of them screwing things up. Eventually a few people listened better than the others. God picked them, and they interbred, producing a dynasty of people who were more tuned into God than their neighbors. These were the Hebrews. God then selectively bred a few of them into their own subtribe, the Levites, to be priests. Then, they spent another couple thousand years developing their pedigree, while denying God to their neighbors. By the time Jesus came, they'd developed all sorts of problems. Meanwhile, the rest of mankind, who God also wanted to know, were totally shut out by a system of walls and racist laws.
If you weren't Jewish, and you were born in Jesus' time, you were basically born into an inverse version of Nazi theology. You had the master race, the Jews, and you had the rest of mankind, the dirty goyim, who were marginalized. They weren't allowed into the main temple. People weren't allowed to intermarry. If you were a good Jew, you wouldn't even allow the dirty Gentiles into your house. If you touched them in the market, you'd wash your hands. If you were a Gentile, you could still sort of worship the Jewish God, but you couldn't worship him past the outer wall. Past that point was "Jews only. Gentiles verboten."
Naturally this wasn't a great setup for a God who wants to include everyone. The whole, "keep it to yourselves" thing worked great when mankind was still pretty young, but it was time for people to worship together. There is no master race. There are no factions in God's kingdom. We're all one people, united, under God.
Before Christ died and was resurrected, we were all divided against each other. Gentiles were divided from Jews. Jews were divided from Levites. It was a caste system. If you were a Gentile, you couldn't enter the temple building. If you were a Jew, you couldn't enter the inner room unless you descended from Levi. Inheritance went along family lines. If you were Greek, you couldn't earn your way into being a Jew, no matter how much gold you had. The same went for ordinary Jews who wanted to become Levites. There were physical walls and there were social walls, and nobody could cross them. (As an aside, these ancient attitudes explain a lot of the modern Israeli political decisions that seem crazy to us.)
The problem is, even as people were divided from each other, we were also divided from relationship with God. Just as you couldn't change your genes to become Jewish if you were born Greek or Ethiopian, you couldn't just change your spiritual nature to become worthy of hanging out with God. You couldn't earn a place with him any more than you could earn your way into being a Levite. It was impossible. Anybody who has suffered racism knows what a frustrating situation that can be. You can always change what you do, but you can't change how you were born.
When the Temple was smashed after Jesus' crucifixion, it was a sign that everything had changed. No longer were we divided from God's companionship because of what we were born into. No longer could we be kept from worshiping him, and declaring him to be our God. We aren't foreigners anymore. Jews and Gentiles no longer have to rob and mistrust each other. Everyone is one family. There's a reason why Peter was strongly rebuked for shrinking back from Gentile companionship. You can't be made acceptable to God, equal in his eyes with his own Son, and then go around saying that some people are more equal than others. You're just like the guy who was forgiven the big debt and then tried to enforce the small one. You're missing the point.
Be thankful that you don't have to delegate your relationship with God to a special class of pampered wealthy priests. You don't have to delegate God's missionary work to some career bureaucracy. You can take part in God's work directly. You can be touched by God without being declared unclean. He's not going to go make a show of washing his hands afterwards. Be thankful for the level playing field. Don't let it go to waste.
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.The history of mankind up until Christ's resurrection can be summed up as follows:For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Mankind was created in a loving play environment with one warning label on one toy: "Do not ingest." Mankind disobeyed and was thrown out. Thousands of years passed of them screwing things up. Eventually a few people listened better than the others. God picked them, and they interbred, producing a dynasty of people who were more tuned into God than their neighbors. These were the Hebrews. God then selectively bred a few of them into their own subtribe, the Levites, to be priests. Then, they spent another couple thousand years developing their pedigree, while denying God to their neighbors. By the time Jesus came, they'd developed all sorts of problems. Meanwhile, the rest of mankind, who God also wanted to know, were totally shut out by a system of walls and racist laws.
If you weren't Jewish, and you were born in Jesus' time, you were basically born into an inverse version of Nazi theology. You had the master race, the Jews, and you had the rest of mankind, the dirty goyim, who were marginalized. They weren't allowed into the main temple. People weren't allowed to intermarry. If you were a good Jew, you wouldn't even allow the dirty Gentiles into your house. If you touched them in the market, you'd wash your hands. If you were a Gentile, you could still sort of worship the Jewish God, but you couldn't worship him past the outer wall. Past that point was "Jews only. Gentiles verboten."
Naturally this wasn't a great setup for a God who wants to include everyone. The whole, "keep it to yourselves" thing worked great when mankind was still pretty young, but it was time for people to worship together. There is no master race. There are no factions in God's kingdom. We're all one people, united, under God.
Before Christ died and was resurrected, we were all divided against each other. Gentiles were divided from Jews. Jews were divided from Levites. It was a caste system. If you were a Gentile, you couldn't enter the temple building. If you were a Jew, you couldn't enter the inner room unless you descended from Levi. Inheritance went along family lines. If you were Greek, you couldn't earn your way into being a Jew, no matter how much gold you had. The same went for ordinary Jews who wanted to become Levites. There were physical walls and there were social walls, and nobody could cross them. (As an aside, these ancient attitudes explain a lot of the modern Israeli political decisions that seem crazy to us.)
The problem is, even as people were divided from each other, we were also divided from relationship with God. Just as you couldn't change your genes to become Jewish if you were born Greek or Ethiopian, you couldn't just change your spiritual nature to become worthy of hanging out with God. You couldn't earn a place with him any more than you could earn your way into being a Levite. It was impossible. Anybody who has suffered racism knows what a frustrating situation that can be. You can always change what you do, but you can't change how you were born.
When the Temple was smashed after Jesus' crucifixion, it was a sign that everything had changed. No longer were we divided from God's companionship because of what we were born into. No longer could we be kept from worshiping him, and declaring him to be our God. We aren't foreigners anymore. Jews and Gentiles no longer have to rob and mistrust each other. Everyone is one family. There's a reason why Peter was strongly rebuked for shrinking back from Gentile companionship. You can't be made acceptable to God, equal in his eyes with his own Son, and then go around saying that some people are more equal than others. You're just like the guy who was forgiven the big debt and then tried to enforce the small one. You're missing the point.
Be thankful that you don't have to delegate your relationship with God to a special class of pampered wealthy priests. You don't have to delegate God's missionary work to some career bureaucracy. You can take part in God's work directly. You can be touched by God without being declared unclean. He's not going to go make a show of washing his hands afterwards. Be thankful for the level playing field. Don't let it go to waste.
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