For he is our peace;
in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing
wall, that is, the hostility between us.
He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he
might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making
peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross,
thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who
were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have
access in one Spirit to the Father. So
then you are no longer strangers and aliens… (Ephesians 2:14-19)
If Paul wrote this, he probably did so from prison in Rome,
near the end of his earthly life and ministry.
It is addressed to a church he knew well in a thriving Roman colony
called Ephesus. Paul had spent a couple
of years there, at first among his fellow Jews, then with Jewish Christians, as
their community widened to take in other nationalities and faiths living in
this centre of trade, drawn to Christ.
We can imagine a Christian community of Jewish, Greek, Roman and other
believers, meeting in homes, rich and poor, slave and free, educated and
illiterate, male and female… Normally
they would be content to keep to their own kind – but now Christ creates a new
community across these boundaries. It is
not that differences are suddenly unimportant, let alone cancelled out. It is that the differences begin to be
understood, appreciated and celebrated.
Paul writes: He is our peace. To Jews, as you know, this is shalom, the pre-eminent Hebrew word
which embraces health and well-being, not only the absence of conflict. Unity, peace and understanding are essential
to shalom. And as Paul speaks plainly, he, Jesus, is our
shalom. How is that?
Jesus, says Paul, has broken down
the dividing wall, that is, the hostility…
Not abolished the differences – Jews still live differently from Greeks
or Romans. The problem was never that we
are different -- the wall was constructed of hostility, the determined memory
of ancient injuries, it was teaching children to hate, it was reacting with
violence to any offence, or by speech which labels and dehumanises other people
and creates enemies… To live with Jesus
and his people is to live without walls of hostility.
Then secondly, Paul writes about one new humanity[1]. Well, it is a distant vision. At a time of history such as ours, when
frightened people are withdrawing back behind frontiers, going to war
pointlessly, refusing care to desperate refugees, following demagogues and
tyrants, taking leave of God and faith… it seems wistful at least to talk about
one new humanity, making peace, he writes, reconciling differences. Nevertheless it is a vision we keep. It is there in our hearts and in our
prayer. It influences and guides the
ways we live, and certainly how we pray.
As Paul writes: For through him
(Jesus) we both (Jew and Gentile) have access in one Spirit to the Father.
[1]
Paul actually writes one new man (ἑν καινος ανθρωπος… hen kainos anthropos). Modern translators needed to make it generic
and include women.
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