BREAKING DOWN WALLS
Why do we build walls? Walls in a home provide a barrier to keep out the elements, to ensure privacy, and to hang pictures. Why do we build walls? Fear! For protection. As a defense against hostile forces, to keep people out (Great Wall of China; Hadrian’s Wall)
One of the most infamous walls, the Berlin Wall was built to keep people in. Those who had visited the wall before its destruction in 1989 said that they could feel the built-in suspicion and mutual distrust, the hatred and hostility, and the outright defiance represented by that wall. East German guards would watch with keen eyes both sides of the wall making certain that no one came in or out. Many people were killed trying to escape East Germany. And where their bodies fell, West Germans would erect crosses as a reminder and open defiance of the East German guards.
Do you remember how the world rejoiced when the Berlin Wall was dismantled by exultant Germans in 1989? West Germans were reunited with East Germans to become one Germany after 45 years of painful division. But when the wall came down, I believe the Germans discovered an invisible wall that was even more difficult to tear down.
There were two cultures at odds: one of an oppressed people, the other free-thinking and prosperous. East Germans may have felt like 2nd class citizens, charity cases for the West, while the West felt resentment at having to support their poor brothers. It was a new kind of hostility.
Why do we build walls? All of us have invisible walls that are difficult to deconstruct. If we are honest about who we are, we must admit that we do not allow others to see our true selves. For some people we build higher walls, while for others we keep a waist high fence. We are afraid people will see too much of us. Or we are afraid we will lose something if we allow others to influence us or change us. So, we throw up a wall. We have many walls.
Jesus came to destroy walls. His mission was to remove the barriers that keep us from knowing God, knowing each other, and ultimately living in community. In this part of the letter to the Ephesians, Paul describes how Christ breaks down walls and brings people together in community.
Walls That Separate Us (2:11-12)
A great wall separated the church at Ephesus into two categories: Jew and Gentile. Apparently for Ephesus this division was the reality. There were two interrelated types of division: social and spiritual.
a) Social Division. We read in v. 11 that Gentiles were called a derogatory name by the Jews, the “uncircumcised.” For Jews, circumcision was a badge of honor, a mark of distinction: “We are God’s people, and you are not.” There are two kinds of people to Jews: those who are Jews and those who are not.
Jewish literature from that time indicated that Jews believed God created Gentiles for the sole purpose of fueling the fires of hell. It was even unlawful for a Jew to help a Gentile woman give birth: You’re just helping add another Gentile into the world.
Can you imagine the hostility that would ensue when you bring these two groups together in one church? There’s a lot of deep-seated animosity to get over. It may also explain, though in no way justify, why there is so much anti-Semitism in the world.
It's not just Jew vs. Gentile; many people fear the “other” race. Fear gives birth to anger. In the West there is a growing fear of what immigrants will take away from those who have lived and worked for generations to build.
b) Spiritual Division. An even deeper division existed between Jews and Gentiles before the Gospel came. This was a spiritual division based on genuine ignorance. Paul gives five indicators of spiritual division:
Gentiles were separated from Christ – We may be led to think “Jesus Christ,” when we should read “Messiah.” Israel had the expectation of a coming Messiah or King who would triumph over Israel’s enemies. Gentiles had no “Messiah” to hope in.
Gentiles were not citizens of Israel – God had chosen Israel to be his people, no one else. If you weren’t Jewish, you were excluded from all God’s promises. No blessing for you!
Gentiles were strangers to God’s promises – Strangers or “foreigners” to the covenant promises given to Abraham, Moses, and David.
Gentiles were without hope – They did not have any confidence in a future reality, no vision of a restored world.
Gentiles were without God – This is where we get the word “atheist.” Gentiles had many gods, but not the true God and thus were truly godless.
c) Other walls. There are many other walls that exist in the Church today. There are ethnic walls: Mennonites and non-Mennonites. Academic walls: Bible College or University educated people vs. high school dropouts. Male vs. female. There are walls between husbands and wives; children and parents; wealthy vs. blue collar. There is a wall that separates Churched from unchurched people – “us vs. them.” There exist in the church various walls that divide. These walls do not belong in the Church…
Peace That Destroys Walls (2:13-18)
When do walls become obsolete and unnecessary? When there is peace. What is peace? It is not when armies lay down their weapons. In the last 4000 years there has only been 268 years of peace. There were 8000 treaties signed…and broken. Is it peace when a husband and wife stay together for the sake of the children? Is it peace when friends agree to disagree and then not talk anymore? The walls remain. Hostility persists.
Paul begins to define true peace with a dramatic “But now…” in v. 13. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 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.”
What is true peace? Peace is oneness and harmony. Peace comes to us in a person. Jesus is our peace. Paul does not say Christ’s death reconciles us specifically, but says our reconciliation is made possible through his blood. Paradoxically, the violence of his death makes our peace possible. And it is only when you find peace with God through the cross of Christ that we can begin to know peace with each other. True peace (shalom) is best described in Isaiah 32:16-18
Peace through Christ’s own shed blood is what destroys the walls that divide. I believe Paul uses the imagery of the temple to illustrate. In the Jewish Temple stood the Holy of Holies, the place where God was said to dwell. Only the priests could enter this area. Outside of this was the court of men – Jewish men only. Beyond this was the court of women. Finally, furthest from the presence of God was the court of the Gentiles. No one was allowed to go beyond these sacred walls…in 1871, archaeologists, digging around the temple site in Jerusalem, uncovered the very stone marked with this warning. Written in Hebrew and Greek, it said: "No man of another race is to proceed within the partition and enclosing wall about the sanctuary. Anyone arrested there will have himself to blame for the penalty of death which will be imposed as a consequence."
Another view of the “dividing wall of hostility” was how the Jews understood the Law of Moses. The law kept Jews distinct from Gentiles through circumcision, Sabbath, and food laws. These fostered a lot of hostility between Jews and Gentiles in the Roman world. Jews looked down on the “unclean Gentiles” for their failure to keep God’s standards and Gentiles despised Jews for their peculiar practices.
Christ, Paul wrote, has now set aside those peculiar practices and has made one new humanity out of the two. These peculiar practices no longer keep you from God.
The walls that kept us from God are gone, but what about the walls that keep us apart from each other? These walls are created by hostility and hatred and distrust. How can we dismantle the walls of hostility? Paul said that Jesus abolished in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations…and through the cross he put to death their hostility. What that means is quite profound. You see, the strength of any hostility is demand. What creates hostility? A self-righteous demand upon someone. When we demand that others conform to our standard of what’s proper, or Christian, or correct, we create hostility.
The Jews hated the Gentiles because they thought they were better than the Gentiles. They had the Law and therefore they thought they had God in their back pocket. It was this feeling of superiority that created the divide and the hurt. The Gentiles could see through this self-righteous hypocrisy and in turn hated the Jews and their law. Jesus’ solution then, was to abolish the law and show them both how much they needed the grace of God. Jesus accomplished this on the cross.
This is the solution to the hostilities in our own world. We can break down the walls that divide us from our spouse, or our children, or our parents or friends…by stop being so self-righteous. Stop demanding that someone change for you without admitting that you need to change too, that we are all under grace. When we do that, we end the hostility. But if we pretend that everyone else is wrong, that we don’t need to change, hostility and resentment remain. Remove the demands and hostility ends.
Walls That Unite Us (2:19-22)
Now that Jesus has dismantled our walls, Jesus wants to build some new ones. These are walls that unite us into one building, as Paul now tells us, a temple where God dwells. There are three important images given to us in these verses, each one increases the intimacy of the previous.
First, Paul says that we are now citizens in God’s kingdom. Remember that he said we were excluded from citizenship in Israel. If a Gentile were permitted into the community of Israel, it would only be as a second-class citizen. Canada has limited immigration this week making it harder to enter the country. Becoming an American is even harder. But through the cross of Christ, we don’t need to be permanent residents or get a green card to qualify. We are now fellow citizens with God’s people.
The next image is sweeter yet. Through the cross of Christ, we are now members of God’s household. We are related by blood. You know that feeling when you first marry into a family, and you feel that initial awkwardness? You don’t get the inside jokes that the family has told for years. You don’t understand why mother-in-law refuses help in the kitchen. You are not really “in” the family yet. In Christ, you are family! The ties are intimate! You are related to each other in this family – you are in that “book” – you know the one I mean. You’ve been added to the genealogy of God’s family.
But then, the pinnacle of intimacy with God is revealed. You and I, each one of us, is a brick in the new wall. You and I are being built (note the ongoing tense) into the temple in which God lives. In the past, the Jews greatly valued the temple in Jerusalem as the place God lived. When they were being attacked by enemies, they would look back and say, “It’s okay, we have the temple,” meaning God’s presence was with them. But you know that the dwelling of God was originally the Tabernacle, a tent that was mobile and went wherever the people went? God never really wanted a static building in one place where people had to come to him. God wanted to be with his people. Through the cross of Christ, God has begun to build a new dwelling place, a temple in which each of us is a stone. In plain English, we are the place God now lives. You don’t need to go to Jerusalem to find God; God lives in his people. You and me! Where the people call Jesus Lord, that’s where God lives!
The Great Wall of China was breached not by force but by bribery. Hadrian’s Wall was overwhelmed by Celtic hordes. The Berlin Wall was dismantled by ideas of freedom and liberty.
Your walls cannot be broken by bribery or force or mere ideas. Your walls can only be broken by the person of Jesus Christ.
But here’s another truth to dwell upon. Eight in ten Canadians say that you don’t need to go to church to be a good Christian. Seventy percent of Christians say that their private beliefs are more important than the church. But that’s not what we heard Paul say this morning. Your faith is personal but it’s not private. We are part of a greater kingdom. We are made a family through Christ Jesus. We are the place where God lives. We can’t do that alone. We were never meant to do that alone. Through the cross of Christ, the walls that separate you from other people has been broken down.
You have heard phrases like, “If you were the only person on earth, Jesus would have died for you.” The intention of this saying is to personalize Christ’s death for you. It is supposed to inspire you to respond to God’s love. But it’s wrong! Ephesians 2 shows us this is not true at all. First, you are not the only person on earth. Second, yes, Jesus died for you, but not just for you. Jesus made it possible for there to be peace between you and God AND between you and all those who call Jesus, “Lord.”
We are fellow citizens TOGETHER in God’s kingdom.
We are members TOGETHER of God’s family.
And TOGETHER, we are the place where God is found. He dwells in us as his holy temple. And there are no walls to divide us where God dwells.
AMEN
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