For he himself is our peace, who has made
the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of
hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its
commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new
humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and
in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which
he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away
and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by
one Spirit. (Ephesians 2:14-18)
One of the complaints you’ve no doubt heard about
our society is that it’s too polarized. There’s too much “us” and “them.” And I’ve
already pointed out that there is no escaping this fact. There are those who
are in Christ, and there are those who are of the world. There’s no getting
around that fact, but the goal isn’t to reject those who are in the world, but
to draw them into Christ.
But the issue Paul is describing here is
different. He doesn’t ignore the historical and cultural differences between the
Christians formerly known as Gentiles and the Christians formerly known as Jews,
but he tells us how to get past those differences. It’s a well-known method. Suppose
you see an older brother tormenting a younger brother, as older brothers
sometimes do. He complains about having the younger brother around. Later, he
sees younger brother being bullied by someone other than himself. What does he
do? Chances are that he comes to his brother’s defense.
Or, consider what happened on September 11 and
12, 2001. As I was driving home from work before lunch on the 11th,
I heard a list of churches that were going to have prayer services that night.
My new church was among them, that’s why I remember. Flags appeared. People
came together. World War II was no different. Once we entered the war, America
came together.
Divisions are healed when differences are put
aside or accepted as the result of our wanting something bigger and external or
our wanting to defeat something bigger and external. That external something
must be important to both sides (obviously, in the same direction.) In the case
that Paul is describing, Christ is the bigger external thing, and even there,
the unity is not automatic and instantaneous. If it were, Paul wouldn’t need to
discuss it. We need to be reminded of our focus.
Small wonder that the World does the opposite. We
may hear that we’re all on this together, but seconds later, it’s “workers of
the world, unite!” against our common enemy, everyone who is not a worker, and “dark-skinned
people of the world unite!” against the light-skinned people, and “women of the
world unite!” against men. The same call goes out to those who consider themselves
LGBTQ, and even those who call themselves “neuro-diverse.” There is no end to
the call for unity …among even tiny splinters of society, but the unity itself
is divisive.
The difference between the two sources of unity? One
unifies toward. The other unifies away or against. Christ calls us to Himself.
The World calls us to join together to fight a common enemy. Christ is eternal.
The conflicts around which the World seeks to unify us must continue because
the moment the various united groups don’t have an enemy to attack, they will
return to fighting with one another.
Christians fall into this, too – when we forget
that our uniting force is Jesus Christ.
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