Bringing peace to the world

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 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, and in this 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.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Ephesians 2:13-22).

We live in a world that is rife with conflict and division. Our conflicts with countries in the Middle East are merely the most dramatic example of how division, fear and hatred divide our world.

You don’t have to serve in a branch of the military to see division and conflict played out. Within our own country, Democrats and Republicans disagree with each other so strongly that a recent session of congress devolved into childish name-calling. In fact, Washington has become infamous for it’s inability to get anything done due to the constant political squabbling that goes on there.

Let’s move a little closer to home. Consider the anger and resentment that arises at school board meetings. People who have been neighbors for most of their lives often treat each other shamefully when they do not agree on how our schools should be run, or how education should be paid for.

But conflict in our lives is even more personal than that. How many among your family and friends struggle with rebellious children, domineering parents, or abusive spouses? How many people in your life are divorced or have considered divorce? How many people in your life are living in families where sarcasm and insults have replaced hugs and words of love?

Our lives are awash in a sea of anger and conflict.

In today’s Epistle lesson, Paul speaks of conflict and how it is brought to an end. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul speaks about the conflict between Jew and Gentile that existed in the church at that time. In the Old Testament, God had selected the Israelites to be the nation that would represent Him to the rest of the world. The Israelites were to be noticeably different than every other culture, so God gave them specific instructions on how to eat, how to do business, and most importantly how to worship. These regulations demonstrated to the world that the Israelites were unique, and that their uniqueness came from their relationship with the Sovereign Lord. These rules were also designed to help the Israelites maintain their unique identity as God’s people, as they went about the task of preaching salvation to the world.

By the time of the New Testament the nation of Israel no longer existed, as the land had been conquered first by the Babylonians, then by Alexander the Great, and finally by the Roman Empire. The descendants of the children of Israel now called themselves Jews, and still thought of themselves as God’s chosen people. But the Jews had lost the desire to be God’s ambassadors to the world; instead, they put the label of ‘Gentile’ on every non-Jew and avoided contact with them. Indeed, the Jews believed that they would be tainted by contact with Gentiles, going so far as to refuse to enter a Gentile’s house. The Jews despised all Gentiles as barbaric people who wallowed in sin, having no idea who God was or what He expected. As for the Gentiles, as a group they didn’t give the Jews much thought. The Jews were just religious fanatics who pretty much kept to themselves, and that suited the Gentiles just fine.

But things changed with Jesus’ arrival as a man born of God and a Jewish woman. You see, as much conflict as there is in the world, it all really has its origin in a much greater conflict—the conflict between man and God. When God created Adam the first man, Adam was God’s friend. But when Adam disobeyed God, he cursed himself and all his human descendants with sin, with the inherited desire to ignore God’s moral instructions and do whatever feels good at the time. This created a barrier of hostility between man and God. For his part, God hates the selfishness that sinful man loves to wallow in. For their part, humans resent God for placing moral limits on their freedom to act as they wish. The result is a wall of anger that prevents a relationship of love and trust between mankind and God.

This barrier is reflected everywhere in human experience. Couples divorce because selfishness makes compromise unattainable. Parents and children fight because parents assume that they are always right, and children hate being told what to do. School board members and congressmen squabble and waste time because no one can admit that someone else’s idea might be better than their own. Countries wage war because the other side has a different culture, different priorities and values, and don’t agree with us on how the world should be governed.

Sin made a complete mess of the world. Our God, the God of love, looked at all this hatred and division and fighting and felt sorrow that things had come to this. But our God’s love was so great that He did not just turn His back on us and ignore us, nor did He destroy us completely and start over. No, our loving God sent His only Son to be born as one of us, to bring peace where there was only conflict, hope where there was only despair.

Jesus was born a Jew—He came first to the people who God had chosen long ago to be His ambassadors to the world. But instead of welcoming Jesus and following Him, the religious establishment persecuted Him, slandered him, and arranged for Him to be executed as a criminal. The Jews were content with the way things were--they believed that God was happy with them as they were, although in reality they were self-righteous and uncaring of the souls of the world just outside their doors. The Jews were comfortable, and Jesus was frightening because He challenged that smug comfort.

And so Jesus was executed by crucifixion. But His death was all part of God’s plan of rescue to free humanity from anger and conflict and separation from God. Jesus’ purpose in coming to live and die among us was to end the need for laws and regulations to define a child of God. By living the perfect life that Adam had failed to live, Jesus became a New Adam for us; just as Adam cursed all his biological descendants through His failure to obey God, Jesus blesses all His children of faith through His perfect obedience to God’s Law. Because Jesus kept the Law in its entirety on our behalf, the burden of living under it has been lifted from our shoulders; this is why Paul writes that He abolished the law with its commandments and regulations. And by suffering and dying on the cross, Jesus took upon Himself our death sentence for our treasonous rebellion against God’s leadership. Because our sin has already been punished by means of Jesus’ death, we no longer have any reason to fear God’s presence in our lives. At the moment of Jesus’ death, the Gospel writers tell us the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). That curtain was hung in the Temple to prevent sinful mankind from looking into the Most Holy Place, the place in the Temple reserved for God alone; the fact that the curtain was ripped open at the moment of the Savior’s death visibly proves that the barrier between man and God had been removed, as we are told in Hebrews chapter 10: we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body.

Through His perfect life, atoning death, and triumphant resurrection, Jesus has ended the power of sin to separate us from God. The barrier that sin erects between us and God has been torn down by Jesus’ blood, which makes it possible for us to receive forgiveness for our sins; Paul writes in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7). Forgiveness is the only way to end conflict; no fight is ever truly over until forgiveness is requested and given. True peace only comes through the reconciliation made possible by forgiveness; that is why Paul tells us that Jesus Himself is our peace. Only through being forgiven by Jesus can we know peace with God.

That peace, that ending of hostilities, washes over into our human relationships as well. In Ephesians, Paul tells the members of the church that Jesus’ gifts of forgiveness and peace make it possible to end the hostilities between Jews and Gentiles. I wrote earlier that most Gentiles didn’t give the Jews much thought; but as Gentiles came to believe in Jesus and joined the new Christian Church, many Jewish Christians looked down on them as ‘second-class’ Christians. Many Jews retained their snobbery against Gentiles even after both had become Christian, and this created resentment. But Paul shows that this cannot continue. Jews used to be different from everyone else because of the rules of living given by God through Moses; but when Jesus satisfied God’s Law for everyone through His perfect life, both Jew and Gentile were freed of the past to be united together in a new kind of society—a society of Christians called the Church. This is what Paul meant when he wrote "[Jesus] himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 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, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility... For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Paul is speaking of one new kind of man—a Christian—arising out of the unity of both Jew and Gentile.

Peace between people is possible and God-pleasing, but true, lasting peace can only come through true forgiveness. This is why Jesus emphasized, forgive and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37). This is why Jesus taught us to pray, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us (Matthew 6:12). Revenge doesn’t end hostility. Intimidation doesn’t end hostility. Only forgiveness can bring real peace.

Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God (Matthew 5:9). To make peace, one must be willing to offer forgiveness. The person who forgives others acts like Christ, he imitates the Son of God—and so he will be called a son of God. How many wars would take place if leaders on both sides would admit to each other that they have made foolish decisions and ask for forgiveness? How well would congress work if all senators and representatives asked God jointly in prayer to guide their decision-making? How would school board meetings go if every harsh word or heated opinion was immediately apologized for? How many divorces would be avoided if every husband and wife owned up to their own shortcomings and together asked Jesus for forgiveness and the leadership of the Holy Spirit in their lives?

You and I live in a world of anger and barriers and conflict. You and I have been given the unity and peace that the world cannot fully understand or appreciate—the unity and peace that comes from being reconciled to God and each other through the forgiveness made possible by Christ. You can have peace right now in your life with every Christian in the world—all it takes is a willingness to forgive as you have been forgiven. But what about peace with those who do not hold Jesus in their hearts as the only way to be reconciled to God? Is true peace possible with agnostics or atheists? Mormons or Jews? Muslims or Hindus? Yes, peace is possible, but only when they too have been added to Jesus’ fellowship of believers; until He lives in their hearts, they remain divided from God by the hostility of sin, and we cannot expect peace where Christ does not rule in love. So if peace is what you want, my friend, be a peacemaker—introduce the forgiveness of Christ to someone who does not yet know the peace of God, which transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7).