In Robert Frost's Poem "Mending Wall," the poet says, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." We can identify with that statement, can't we? We detest walls. Walls divide. Walls hide. Walls even kill. Remember the Berlin Wall that split families, a city, and a country?
But don't we sometimes disagree with that statement? "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." Put that statement beside this familiar proverb: "Good fences make good neighbors."
We sometimes like walls. Fences…walls…define our space. They set our boundaries.
They provide us privacy. In a home, walls mark off where we eat, where we sleep, and where we watch television. (Although for some of us that is the same place on Sunday afternoons.)
Walls also defend us. They protect us from unwarranted intruders. Imagine a bathroom or bedroom without walls. Walls guard our common treasures lest a thief break in to steal. How would a bank, museum or jewelry store be secure without walls? So, the poem states, "at spring mending-time," he and the neighbor work together to rebuild the gaps in the wall that separates their property.
What is the poet's conclusion about walls? Is he for or against them? Frost declares:
"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I am walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense..."
So how should the church feel about walls? How does Jesus feel about walls?
Paul provides a supreme statement in Ephesians 2:11-22. READ
First, notice....
The Wall
We live in a wall-weary world. But so did the apostle Paul. In verses 11-12 he describes graphically the wall that existed between the Jew and the Gentile.
That wall was…
A wall of defamation
The Jews considered that the rite of circumcision marked them as the people of God. Circumcision was their badge of belonging. This belief was so thoroughly ingrained in Jewish culture that Jews referred to Gentiles as "the uncircumcision." This title denoted scorn. The Jews viewed the Gentiles as rank pagans, utterly unacceptable to God. The Jews considered the Gentiles to be unclean. Jews must avoid these people, these Gentiles, at all costs.
William Barclay notes that it was not lawful for a Jew to help a Gentile woman in childbirth.Such help would result in bringing another Gentile into the world.
Further, if a Jew married a Gentile, then family and friends would conduct the funeral of that Jew, as if he had died. The Jews considered such contact of a Jew with a Gentile to be the equivalent of death. Also, even to set food into a Gentile house made a Jew unclean.
That wall was also ....
A wall of despair
Paul described the Gentiles without Christ as having no hope of salvation (2:12). They continued in their sins. They journeyed a one-way street to eternal destruction. As a result, Paul described them as being gripped by despair.
The wall was ...
A wall of deprivation
Paul continued: "you were ... strangers to the covenants of promise" (2:12). The word for strangers describes a people who are not of our group. They are "strange, hard to fathom, surprising, unsettling, sinister." The "stranger" tends to be viewed as an enemy. In fact, many cultures have only one word for both stranger and enemy.
Remember how it was in the old western movies. A stranger comes riding into town on his horse. His arrival startles the sleepy western town. The women and children scurry like rats in the face of fire. Men take their rifles, look through windows, and try to guess why the stranger is in town. The basic underlying assumption is that the stranger must be an enemy, for he is someone whom they do not know. Such a wall of prejudice precluded a true assessment of the stranger's identity.
The wall was ....
A wall of death
Paul further described the Gentiles as: "... having no hope and without God in the world" (2:12). The Gentiles were without hope, present and future. They were without God. They were like the patient who is told by his or her doctor, "I am sorry. There is nothing more that we can do."
Maybe you have experienced the feeling of being on the outside looking in. You know what it is like to be rejected by your family, or your friends, or possibly even your church. Remember the feeling of great devastation and rejection.
The wall erected between Jew and Gentile must have produced similar feelings of strong rejection. This wall was a massive wall of rank prejudice that kept the Gentiles out of the fellowship.
The Wall-Breaker
How does Jesus feel about walls?
Is He pleased or angered by the countless barriers that people put up to keep other people out? Paul declared Jesus to be the wall-breaker. Jesus' mission on earth was to tear down the walls that separate and divide people.
Notice how He did it.
Took the initiative
Jesus took the initiative. Paul said, "But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (2:13). The verse mentions Christ at both the beginning and the end of the verse. This is Paul's way of saying that Jesus, not us, initiated the wall-breaking.
The truth is: we love walls. That is, we love walls when we're on what we consider to be the right side of them. We love to shut out certain people. We love to remain in our smug cocoon.
Breaking down the dividing wall of hostility
Jesus broke down the dividing wall of hostility. Through His death on the cross, Jesus dealt the lethal blow to the sin and prejudice that erect walls that divide people.
We preach and teach that Jesus' atoning death was because of sin. Too often, however, we don't define sin in specific terms. To get specific, we must not forget that sin includes the bigotry and prejudice that seeks to silence people who are different from us.
But Jesus tore down the wall. He was a one-man wrecking crew.
Religion has always maintained its exclusive walls. For example, the Temple consisted of four main courtyards: the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of Women, the Court of Israel, and the Court of Priests. Walls separated each of these distinct areas. These walls were designed to restrict or limit certain people to a particular area. In fact, a sign was posted in the Gentile Courtyard with a strong warning:
No foreigner (literally "one of any other kind, whether race, nation, or class") may enter within the fence and enclosure surrounding the Sanctuary area. Whoever is caught so doing will have only himself to blame for the death which inevitably follows.
A problem arises.
No Temple walls actually fell during the lifetime of Jesus. So how do we understand Paul's teaching? In AD 61-63, when Ephesians was written, the Herodian Temple in Jerusalem was finally completed. Construction had required more than eighty years. Likely, word spread across the Roman Empire that the Temple was finished. The Jewish people must have rejoiced. In the imperial city, however a lone missionary dared to dispute the meaning of the news. He asserted that the whole cultic system was indeed "finished," but not in the way that the people imagined.
Rendering the law inoperative for creating righteousness
Jesus rendered the law inoperative for creating righteousness. Paul said that Jesus "abolished the law" (2:15). But didn't Jesus say, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill" (Matt. 5:17).
Paul is saying that Jesus as rendered inoperative the endless string of precepts and dogmas that the Jewish leaders called the law. The law never was able to save. It was at best a tutor to point us forward. Only through the death and resurrection of Jesus can we be justified, made right, with God.
Creating one new humanity
Jesus created one new humanity. Through His death on the cross, Jesus put to death the enmity and hostility that divided the world. He reconciled the warring parties. Now they can lay down their smoking guns.
God has created something new. The Greek word for new here means something new for the first time. It is unique, one of a kind, as distinguished from another Greek word that means new only in point of time. The new thing is one new humanity in Christ. This new humanity is not a Jewish Church or a Gentile Church. It is only one church. It is called Christian.
We must be careful with this creation of God, this new humanity. Nothing should diminish the oneness of God's new creation, the church.
Providing access to the Father
Jesus provided access to the Father for both Jews and Gentiles. Paul declared, "for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father" (2:18).
Too often we think of Jesus' death as effecting personal salvation only. Paul declares that access to the Father is not individual pursuit, but a joint calling. People are brought together in the death of Jesus. We have joint access to the Father as a result of Jesus' death. We are His new humanity.
And we are one.
What are the implications of all that Jesus has done?
What kind of church does it produce?
The Wall-less Church
Paul's transitional phrase in verse 19, "So then," signals that he is about to describe the results of Jesus' wall-breaking (2:19). Jesus the wall-breaker produces a wall-less church. What should this wall-less church be like?
A church of inclusion and equality
Paul said, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints" (2:19). This verse is the only place in the New Testament where the word translated "fellow citizens" occurs. The word suggests acceptance and equality in all ways. Earlier, strangers and aliens were considered outsiders, even outlaws. Now, because of Jesus' redemptive work, they receive a royal welcome into the church.
This church without walls is marked by openness, acceptance, and equality.
Someone once stated, "When you lock up your church, you lock out more than you lock in."
There are no first-class and second-class Christians in the wall-less church.
Each enjoys the same standing, privileges, and benefits as the other.
A church of intimacy and affirmation
Paul continued, "You are ... also members of the household of God" (2:19). As the church, we are the family of God. He is our heavenly Father. We are brothers and sisters to one another. As a healthy, functional family, we care about one another. We seek to know one another in a Christian bond of intimacy. We affirm and encourage one another.
We are not a dysfunctional family, abusing one another and refusing to relate to one another. Our health as a church is modeled after the founder. Jesus himself.
He is the head of the church, and we seek to honor Him in all that we do.
A church of growth and mission
The church has no walls. But it has a foundation built on the apostles, prophets, and Jesus Himself, who is the cornerstone.
The church has no walls to restrict its growth.
People are looking for a church where they can be received and loved for who they are, not for what some might wish them to be. This kind of church grows.
My firm conviction is that the church itself is the greatest deterrent to growth. The walls we erect prevent people from experiencing the Christian life.
The church that is in tune with its Lord has no walls to impede its mission in the world. Too often, Christians spend their time, energy, and resources simply maintaining the walls. In the process, the church's mission to the world is forfeited.
Jesus is the cornerstone of this church without walls. Paul Simmons, former professor of Christian Ethics at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, stated in one of our Baptist publications,
"All Christians comprise the church, but only Jesus defines what the church is to be. The name on the cornerstone gives meaning to and explains the history and purpose of the building itself. To understand the structure, one goes to the cornerstone. The building has no meaning or identity without Jesus Christ."
Think About This
The story is told that years ago in Ireland a certain castle was one of the architectural gems of the Emerald Isles. It was called Castle Wray.
The structure fell into disrepair and finally was uninhabited. As often happens, peasants from nearby began to scavenge stones from it. The stones had been cut and shaped with great craft, and so they were excellent building materials. Too, the peasants did not have to dig up the stones. So, little by little, the Castle Wray was dismantled.
One day Lord Londonbury, the sole surviving heir of this Irish Castle, visited it. He saw that the castle was being scavenged for its stones. So he summoned his agent and ordered him to build a six-foot-high stone wall around the castle.
Then he left, feeling that the castle would be safe from trespassers.
Three or four years later, the owner returned. He found a six-foot wall, just as he had ordered. But there was no castle. The castle had vanished. It had disappeared into thin air. The owner summoned his agent and asked why the agent had not carried out his order. The agent insisted that he had indeed carried out the owner's order. He had built the wall. The owner asked, "Then where is the castle?" The agent replied, "Ah, is it for me, my Lord, to be going all over Ireland picking up stone when the finest stone in Ireland was right here in the castle?"
He had torn down the castle in order to build the wall.
As a church, we have certain options. We can spend our time, energy, and resources building the wall…and forfeit the church. Or we can invest our time, energy, and resources building the church and forfeit the wall. Wall or church …which will it be?
