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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REMOVING THE GREAT DIVIDE

When Mahatma Gandhi was a student, he became intrigued with the Bible.  Reading the Gospels touched his heart, so he considered becoming a convert.  Christianity seemed to offer real solutions to the caste system that divided India's population.  One Sunday he attended a church to seek the way of salvation.  An usher refused him a seat and said, "Go and worship with your own people."  Tragically, he left and never came back.  Gandhi said, "If Christians have caste differences also, I might as well remain a Hindu."

Ancient Israel suffered from a similar form of prejudice, a caste system of its own.  Religious Jews treated the Gentiles with scorn.  Gentiles were regarded as unclean -- diseased.  Any association with a Gentile was unlawful for a Jew. Israel mistakenly believed that Gentiles would not be included in God's family or inherit any of God's blessings.

Jesus changed all that!  He broke down the social barriers that separated Jews and Gentiles, and His life removed the great divide.  God invites both Jews and Gentiles into His house to worship together as one family… These two groups (and all believers) must learn how to share the wealth of God's great treasures.

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 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." (Ephesians 2:13-14 NRSV)."

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


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