Jesus Welcomes The Goyim Series

Sixth Sunday of Easter 2025

I suppose if the church at Antioch were magically transported to the twenty-first century, Paul and Barnabas and some of the other Christian leaders might have been accused of anti-Semitism. That’s nonsense, of course, but it is true that when some Jewish Christians came to Antioch after Paul and Barnabas returned from their first missionary journey, they got into let’s call it a discussion with the missionaries. The question that very reasonably came up was this: are the followers of Jesus also still Jews. If they were, then any Gentile converts would need to follow the Law of Moses, including the dietary restrictions and, for the men, circumcision. Ouch!

At this time the central Church of “the Way” was still in Jerusalem, and the leaders there, like Peter and James, were considered to be authorities on such questions. Paul and Barnabas and some of the other Antiochenes were delegated by that parish to go up to Jerusalem and pose the question to them. Of course, the missionaries stopped in all the parishes in Phoenicia and Samaria to pray and report the tremendous success experienced in places like Lystra. That spread a lot of excitement. The gathering at Jerusalem is often called the first Church Council. We don’t know how long it lasted, but in the end the group was persuaded by Paul and Barnabas to make only small demands of the new Gentile Christians. They were to abstain from any sexual relations outside marriage between one man and one woman, have nothing to do with the pagan idols and from blood or strangled animals that would have still had blood in the meat. They wrote a letter to Antioch and sent it off with Judas Barsabbas and Silas. At Antioch, there was much encouragement and teaching. Note well that the letter to Antioch would have been among the earliest of writings that we now know as Scripture, the Word of God, in the NT. This was an important development in the doctrine of the Church and led to increasing pagan conversion.

As our psalm today clearly teaches, God’s salvation, brought by the Son of God, Jesus the Christ, is for ???? kol ????? goyim, all the nations. And just so God’s intention would be very obvious, the words am, and leom, one of which is an unused word in Scripture are all employed to signify the Gentiles. There would be no exclusion in the kingdom of God. In fact, if you look at the letter written to Antioch, you’ll realize that only porneia, illicit sex, is still prohibited for Christians today.

St. John, in the book of Revelation, describes the holy city Jerusalem as it is in eternity. It comes down from heaven for his inspection. The Jews in the second half of the first century were even more scattered over the world than they were by the Assyrians and Babylonians centuries earlier. For convenience, the reading ignores some of the details of the city, how its gates are pure mother-of-pearl and its foundation is ornamented with twelve kinds of precious stones. Remember, John was astonished by everything he saw in the vision, and did the best he could with the descriptions. That’s what we who believe and act in charity have to look forward to at our own Resurrection. Heaven’s reality defies description.

This is what Jesus promised at the Last Supper. “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” If we do not love Jesus and the Father, we will miss out on all of it. As we look forward to that reality after our falling asleep, we should remember that in just a few days, we celebrate the Christian Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit who teaches us everything and consoles us with the peace of Christ. In that time, let’s all pray that the same Holy Spirit that filled Mary and the apostles in the upper room will fill our families, our nation, and all nations, so that all humans may live in unity for the glory of God.