LET THE WALLS FALL DOWN

"For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility." (Ephesians 2:14 ESV)

The politics of division separated Germany on August 13, 1961, when the residents of Berlin woke to a barbed-wire barrier between the communist East and the noncommunist West.  The Cold War had begun.  Soldiers quickly fortified the barrier, creating a concrete wall twelve feet high and over a hundred miles long.  Loved ones were torn apart, and more than two million people attempted to escape East Germany by climbing, vaulting, tunneling, or crashing through checkpoints.  Unsuccessful attempts resulted in more than four hundred deaths.  In 1989, restrictions between the two Berlins were lifted.  The Berlin Wall came down, announcing the end of the Cold War.  Celebrations around the world culminated with Germany's reunification as one country on October 3, 1990.  Though now free, a city and a nation had been divided by disagreement, laws, and treaties, culminating in a literal wall of separation.  Laws lead to walls.

In the same way, laws and legalism kept the nation of Israel and other nations divided by a wall of prejudice.  But two thousand years ago, a babe in a manager heralded the end of the Cold War between the Jews and Gentiles.  Jesus tore down the spiritual wall of separation.  Let the walls fall down!

-- Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose in Pathway to God's Treasure: Ephesians


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