Ephesians 2:14-18
My father had a number of prejudices, although I think he liked to hang on to them simply to provoke discussion. When I was in seminary one of my roommates came with me to visit my family and when my father discovered that my friend, David, had grown up in France, he said, “I’m boycotting France. The damn French, we bailed them out of two world wars and they’re still not grateful!”
Another friend visited who sold steam power turbines for General Electric. My dad greeted Harry with, “I’m boycotting GE. I bought a GE dryer once and it was a piece of junk!”
These were rather superficial prejudices, but we can grow up with much more profound prejudices against nations or races or religions or sexes. Catholics, Jews, Muslims and Protestants can grow up with strong prejudices against each other’s religion.
I have a brother-in-law from Somalia who grew up hearing fictitious stories of the horrible things Jews in Israel do to Palestinian and Arab babies. Israeli children also hear terrible fictitious stories about what Arabs and Palestinians do. If you grew up in the racism of the US or under the apartheid of South Africa, chances are you grew up with your own racial prejudices. Every country has its prejudices.
In 1760 Oliver Goldsmith, an Irish writer, published an essay, On National Prejudices in which he argued that it is possible to love one’s own country “without hating the natives of other countries.” The inspiration for this essay arose one evening when he was having a political discussion with six other Englishmen.
Amongst a multiplicity of other topics, we took occasion to talk of the different characters of the several nations of Europe; when one of the gentlemen, cocking his hat, and assuming such an air of importance as if he had possessed all the merit of the English nation in his own person, declared that the Dutch were a parcel of avaricious wretches; the French a set of flattering sycophants; that the Germans were drunken sots, and beastly gluttons; and the Spaniards proud, haughty, and surly tyrants; but that in bravery, generosity, clemency, and in every other virtue, the English excelled all the world.
We live in a world of prejudice. Individuals have a difficult time getting along with each other and groups of people have the same problem. We grow up with personal and national prejudices.
These prejudices are as old as the history of man and in the Bible we read about the prejudice that existed between Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles. Because we are so far removed from Palestinian culture, we have a difficult time seeing how separated they were by prejudice. But unless we understand this, we fail to see how powerful the text for this morning is.
Jews were one nation, let by Moses out of Egypt and into Canaan by Joshua, but then over time divisions arose. There was a two hundred and fifty year civil war, and by the time of Jesus, there was a deep-seated, one thousand year old prejudice against the Samaritans.
The history of the Samaritans began with the breakup of King Solomon’s kingdom into the northern kingdom of Israel (with its capital, Samaria) and the southern kingdom of Judah (with its capital, Jerusalem). The northern kingdom set up gold idols to be worshiped as a replacement for the temple in Jerusalem and for two and a half centuries the two kingdoms made alliances and broke them, made peace and then fought against each other.
Finally in 722 BC, Samaria was captured by the Assyrians. Thousands of Jews from the northern kingdom of Israel were deported and the country was repopulated with foreigners. The foreigners intermarried with the Jews who remained, which from the view of the Jews of Judah, made the Jews in the northern kingdom ritually unclean. They were put into the class of lepers and other outcasts.
There were centuries of history that separated the Jews and the Samaritans. In John 4:9 when John recorded the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well and the woman asked Jesus: “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” John felt it necessary to insert an explanation for his readers: “For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.”
When Jesus sent out the twelve disciples to minister in his name, he told them: (Matthew 10:5) “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.”
In Luke 10, when Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, he needed an example of someone who was among the most despised by the religious establishment to be the one who helped the person in need. So Jesus chose a Samaritan for his parable to say that even a Samaritan is the true neighbor when he helps someone in need.
In Luke 17 when Jesus healed ten lepers and only one came back to thank Jesus, what is astounding is that this healed man was a Samaritan. Imagine that?
When Jews crossed over into Samaria on their journey to Jerusalem, upon leaving Samaria they shook the dust off their sandals as judgment against the Samaritans.
At the heart of Israel’s disdain for the Samaritans was the fact that they had contact with Gentiles and intermarried with them. That is why they were defiled. So as bad as the Samaritans were, the Gentiles were even worse. The Gentiles are what made the Samaritans bad.
Remember that Matthew, the writer of the gospel, was a tax collector and considered unclean because of his frequent contact with Gentiles. He was a religious outcast because of his association with non-Jews.
As religious Jews, Peter and his fellow disciples were forbidden to have any contact with Gentiles. If a Gentile entered a home, it was considered defiled until the evening. If milk was drawn from a cow by a Gentile or bread or olive oil was made by a Gentile, it was forbidden to eat or drink it.
Add to this the humiliation of having Gentiles, Romans, occupying the land God had given to them and you see how deeply separated Jews were from Gentiles.
Jews were God’s chosen people. Of all the people in the world, God chose Abraham with whom he made a covenant. God instructed his chosen people not to intermarry with other people on the earth. God worked to create his own people, a people holy and dedicated to him. The Egyptians had their many gods. The Philistines had Dagon. But Israel had the creator God of all the world. God chose Israel and Israel believed God belonged to them.
The line could not have been drawn more clearly. The barrier could not have been better constructed.
But then Jesus came and in his death and resurrection the barrier was overcome. Jesus died not just for Jews, but for Jews and Gentiles. The Jewish followers of Jesus had a difficult time understanding this and it took three Pentecost experiences for these prejudices to be overcome. At the first Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Jewish followers of Jesus and Peter preached the first sermon of the church. Then, when persecution broke out, the gospel of Jesus was taken to Samaria and when Peter and John went to investigate, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the despised Samaritans. The third Pentecost occurred when Peter was praying on the roof of a house in Joppa and received a vision that what had been considered unclean was now clean. He went to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, and there the Holy Spirit was poured out once again. Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles were all brought into the family of God by the one Spirit. The barrier of prejudice was overcome.
This brings us to the text this morning that celebrates what God has done to unite us.
Ephesians 2:13–18
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 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, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
What breaks down the barriers that separate us? Why do we work to break down barriers that exist? It is much easier to live with prejudices than overcome them. Why go to the effort to build relationships with people we don’t like? These are the questions that come to mind.
What is it that breaks down the barriers that separate us? Barriers are overcome because of the blood of Christ? Verse 13:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
Don’t ever forget that we were once alienated from God. Paul writes that we were once God’s enemies. We were distanced from God, cut off from the benefits of his kingdom and it is the sacrifice of Jesus for us that brought us near.
We sing and talk a lot about the cross and the blood of Jesus. We wear crosses around our necks. Those from a Catholic background make the sign of the cross when they pray. Why is this such a constant theme for us?
Let’s suppose that when you were younger you were swimming in a river, lake, or ocean and began to drown. Would you ever forget the person who swam out to you and brought you safely to shore? Would you ever stop being thankful? What if you were in a burning building and the person who came into the building to save you died as a result? Would you live your life differently because of what that person had done for you? To the day you die, you would remember the person who had given up life so you could live.
When we say Jesus died on the cross for our sins and his blood was poured out for us so we could have eternal life, we are not talking about some mythical, religious philosophy. This is a historical event. God became flesh and lived among us. Jesus lived and died. Jesus did this for us. Jesus lost his life so we could find ours and then in the stunning, miraculous work of God, Jesus rose from the dead in triumph and promises to do the same for us when we die our physical death.
We who follow Jesus understand that we are doomed to live the few short years allotted to us in this world and then die. That will be our end, eternal death. So we are thankful. We are brought to our knees in deep gratitude to Jesus who rescued us from eternal death and invited us to spend eternity in his kingdom.
We once were lost but now are found. We were far off but have been brought near. In Romans 9:25-26 Paul quotes the prophet Hosea:
I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved.
In the place where they yelled out, “You’re nobody!”
they’re calling you “God’s living children.”
Peter tells us who we are in his letter: (1 Peter 2:9–10)
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
And all of this is our experience because of the blood of Christ that brought us who were far off, near into the family of God.
Why do we break down barriers that separate us from others? Since it is much easier to keep to ourselves, associate with people we like and who like us, and avoid those who offend or irritate us, why make the effort to extend ourselves beyond where we feel comfortable?
First of all, “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) We follow the example of our Lord who brought us near. What Jesus did for us, we are supposed to do for others. This is a basic teaching of Jesus. We forgive others because God has forgiven us. When Jesus sacrificed so much to save us, how can we not sacrifice just a little bit to work to love those Jesus has rescued and brought into his family?
Secondly, if we follow the heart of Jesus, that journey will take us across barriers. If we want to follow Jesus, go where he goes, we will break down the barriers that separate us from others because Jesus loves the people we hate. Jesus died for the people who are our enemies. Jesus loves the people we disdain. Jesus loves the people who work against us. Jesus died for the people against whom we have prejudices.
When Corrie Ten Boom forgave the German prison guard who had been part of the death of her sister and father in a concentration camp, she followed the heart of Jesus. When a mother forgives the man who killed her son, she is following the heart of Jesus. When we reconcile with those who have betrayed us, we are following the heart of Jesus. When we swallow our pride and reach out to those who have hurt us, we are following the heart of Jesus.
God called Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh and Jonah ran as fast as he could to go in the complete opposite direction. Jonah hated the Ninevites, and with good reason. They were the enemies of Israel. They were feared and despised for good reason. Jonah hated the Ninevites but God loved them and told Jonah to go preach to them.
We look out at the world and we see people we do not like. Jesus looks out at the world and sees people he loves and wants to have with him in his kingdom. We look at people who rape and murder, who seem to be agents of the devil, but Jesus sees people who still have hope of eternal life if they will only turn, repent, and follow him. His love is far greater than their evil.
We all inherit the prejudices of our nation. When I was growing up, the enemies of the US were Russia and China. In African countries it is likely to be prejudice against someone from another tribe. India and Pakistan are not best friends. Israelis and Palestinians are constantly aggravating and retaliating against each other. There are tensions between Eastern and Western Europeans. Germans don’t like the Turkish immigrants and Turkey does not like the immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa.
Part of our growth as followers of Jesus is to break out of these national prejudices and embrace those he is bringing into his kingdom.
Three years ago, I was at a conference in the Crimea. There were brothers and sisters in Christ from North Africa and the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and parts of Asia. During a break I was walking along the Black Sea and met a man attending the conference who was from Russia. Alexei and I walked along the sea, sharing our circumstances, his son and daughter who were married the previous year, and my two daughters and their families. We sat in a café and had a drink. We talked and I was drawn to him. I would love to have more time to get to know him. He would be a great friend.
Alexei served in the Russian army for a couple years in 1984-1986. In his training he was brainwashed, his word, to believe that Americans were the enemy that needed to be destroyed. I told him that as child in school we used to have drills when we would all get under our desks to protect ourselves if there was a nuclear attack from Russia.
I told him of being in West Berlin in 1970 and in 1989 and going into East Berlin with all the barbed wire and soldiers with machine guns guarding the wall.
Our countries never declared war against each other but we were nevertheless at war, building up military power to protect ourselves from each other. And now we sat in the café, telling stories, laughing at jokes, sharing about our mutual love for Jesus.
Chuck Colson, who led a national and international prison ministry, tells of an experience in Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland, “the Troubles” began in August of 1969 when British troops marched onto the streets of Belfast and Londonderry. Then came Bloody Sunday: Jan. 30, 1972. British soldiers, attempting to break up a civil-rights rally in Londonderry, shot and killed 14 demonstrators, some of them teenagers. The killings set off waves of retaliatory violence. Those who survived each new blast lived in fear of the next attack by Irish Republican Army terrorists. In just three years over a thousand Protestants and Catholics were killed.
Colson came to Maze, a prison in Belfast, and met Liam McCloskey, who for much of his violent young life, had been a member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), a Marxist offshoot of the IRA. Convicted of armed hijacking and robbery, Liam was serving a ten-year sentence at Maze. He took part in a hunger strike in 1981, going without food for 55 days. Lying in a hospital bed, Liam began to pray. There has to be a God, he thought. “Life makes no sense without one. Can I go before God with nothing but a self-centered life of striving after sex, drink, and good times? And what about my involvement in Republicanism?”
On Day 55, Liam’s mother arrived and tearfully told him that when he entered a coma, she would have him fed intravenously. She pleaded with him to end the strike immediately so that his starvation-induced blindness would not become permanent. He reluctantly agreed. As he recovered, Liam continued to think about God and the truths he had discovered on his hunger strike. He realized he could not walk the way of Republicanism and the way of Jesus at the same time; he had to choose.
“I took the way of Jesus,” Liam told Colson. “I began to realize that God loved me and I loved God.” He resigned from the INLA and determined to become a force for reconciliation.
His first effort was to join Protestant prisoners in the prison dining room, breaking the self-imposed segregation between Catholics and Protestants. There, Liam met Jimmy Gibson, a Protestant paramilitary member serving time for attempted murder. Jimmy couldn’t wait to go after Catholic paramilitaries when he got out of prison. Partly because of his inner turmoil, and partly through Liam’s influence, Jimmy instead gave his life to Jesus and joined a Bible study with those who had once been his sworn enemies.
When Colson returned to Belfast in 1983 he arranged for Liam and Jimmy to be furloughed from prison to speak at a meeting with him. Their presence, more than anything else, evidenced the reconciling power of the gospel. That evening, each told how he had come to know Christ. Liam concluded by putting his thin arm around Jimmy’s muscular shoulders.
“My hope is to believe that God is changing the hearts of men like myself and Jimmy,” Liam said. “That’s the only hope I have for peace in Northern Ireland. Before, if I had seen Jimmy on the street, I would have shot him. Now he’s my brother in Christ. I would die for him.”
The people at the meeting rose to their feet, in tears and cheering. It was a moment of hope, a joyful wedge thrust into forty years of religious hate and bitterness.
We move past our national prejudices; we forgive and seek reconciliation because Jesus saved us to be brought into his family. We do not get to choose our brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus chooses them. And when we fail to forgive, fail to seek reconciliation, we work against the heart of Jesus for those he died to save.
There are so many stories that could be told. In 1947, Elias Chacour and his family were kicked off of land in Palestine that had been farmed by his grandparents, and great-grandparents, and back for hundreds of years. Although the Israeli Supreme Court ruled it illegal, a Zionist investor took over their farm and he and his brother were hired to work on the land they had once owned. How did Chacour react? He has lived a life dedicated to reconciliation between Arabs and Israelis.
I could tell you of stories of Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and stories of Koreans and Japanese. I could tell you of stories of racists who found sweet fellowship with those they had hated. Phillip Yancey, whose books many of you have read, talks about growing up in a racist environment and how God changed his heart.
When Jesus died and was put in the tomb, the devil thought he had won but he underestimated the creative power of God that broke the power of death and raised Jesus to life. That same creative power is at work among us, healing wounds, breaking down the barriers that separate us from each other.
The devil is at work in the world, defending his territory, seeking to divide and destroy what God has created. Jesus is at work to rescue those who are destined for destruction. We have to choose whose side we will be on.
Paul writes that Jesus himself is our peace. Is he your peace? Jesus made the two one and destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. His desire was to create in himself one people out of the two people and thereby make peace.
Are you working with Jesus? In this season of the World Cup it is good to cheer for your country, if it is among the 32 teams who qualified for the competition. But this World Cup will fade away and thirty years from now you may have difficulty remembering who won the World Cup in 2014. But the relationships you create and rebuild in this year will last for eternity.
What prejudices do you hold? Who is it you do not like? Who is it who has offended you? Who is it who has hurt you? I am not saying you need to be best friends with everyone in the Body of Christ, but you have to work to make sure there are no hard feelings, no unresolved hurts. Forgive as you have been forgiven. Follow the heart of Jesus and destroy the barriers that separate you from the brothers and sisters Jesus chose for you. And then be at peace.
