I’m not a big fan of talk shows. But years ago, there was a talk show host, I think it was Arsenio Hall who had a segment, about things that appeared mysterious. He called that segment, Things That Make You Say Hmmm…
This story is one of those stories that make you say, Hmmm…
The media billed it as a major event. At the conclusion of the Super Bowl in 1996, the winner of the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes was to be announced live on national television. Who would the winner be? It was a secret, a mystery.
With cameras rolling the prize patrol knocked on the door of a home and greeted the winners with a giant-size $10 million check. The people who won could hardly believe their good fortune. Their lives would be transformed by the surprise windfall. The mystery had been solved. America now rejoiced with the new millionaires.
But, was the mystery really resolved during those brief minutes on national television. The truth is, the winning numbers had been chosen two years earlier.
What was labeled a mystery to the public was common knowledge to top company officials.
Our text in Ephesians 3 is another one of those things that make you say, Hmmm…
Four times in Ephesians 3:1-13 Paul refers to "mystery" (3:3, 4, 5, 9). What does he mean by mystery? I have always believed that God operates by what the government calls the "sunshine law." That is, He is open, above-board, and fair in all that He does. Now I am told that He is up to something shrouded in mystery. What does this mean?
Confronting the Mystery
There is no mystery as to the identity of the writer of Ephesians. It is Paul.
He writes, literally, I Paul. At the time of this writing he is a prisoner for Jesus in a Roman jail. The only mystery is why Paul waited until the third chapter to refer to himself and then, only briefly. It is likely, Paul wanted nothing, including himself, to diminish his focus on Christ and the church.
So what is the mystery to which Paul refers?
Could it be…
The mystery of life?
I stand in awe and wonder when I remember that a tiny sperm can engage a tiny egg and produce a precious baby that is so unique that no one else in all the world has its set of fingerprints. Is this miracle what Paul was writing about? NO! Then what is the mystery? Is it…
The mystery of death?
There is so much that we do not know about death. What happens after death?
Of course, the body decomposes. What then? Where does the human spirit go? To God? For judgment? For reward? To heaven? To hell?
Much mystery surrounds death. But this is not the mystery Paul is referring to.
Then is it…
The mystery or evil? How does evil work in the world? How does it infiltrate people and perpetuate its sinister purpose? How can we best avoid evil and its grip upon us? All of these questions are important ones that we struggle with.
But Paul is referring to another sort of mystery.
Is it…
The mystery of human suffering?
Why do we suffer? Why must the innocent suffer? Why do evil-doers seemingly not suffer? Will human suffering ever end? Who wouldn't want more insight into this mystery? But again this is not the mystery Paul is referring to.
Is it…
The mystery of family relationship?
On the lighter side, family members sometimes admit the mystery within relationships. The husband remarks: "I've lived with her for forty years and I still don't understand my wife." Maybe the wife would say the same thing.
Parents often don't understand their children, though parents may think they do or claim they do. And how many times have we heard teenagers say, "My parents don't understand me!"
Or possibly, "If I live to be a hundred, I will never understand my parents."
But Paul refers to a greater mystery.
Is it…
The mystery of Christ?
I confess that the historical Jesus has always been a mystery to me. I don't understand how a young Jewish virgin could become pregnant by the Holy Spirit to produce a baby called Jesus. I don't understand it, even though I believe it.
I don't understand how Jesus embodied two distinct natures, deity and humanity, and expressed each fully even as He expressed both fully. I don't understand how Jesus could die on a cross and atone for human sin. But I believe it. I don't understand how Jesus could be raised up from the dead. But I believe it.
However, Paul is speaking of yet another mystery.
Is this mystery…
The mystery of God?
In the Old Testament, God was wrapped in smoke and thunder, symbols of mystery.
But Jesus came to reveal God. In knowing Jesus we know God. Is Paul telling us that God has withheld something about Himself? Is there still the unknown about God?
I read about St. Michael's Church on the Square in Venice, Italy. If you visit that church today, two-thirds of the church is kept very dark. A tour guide explains that the reason for the dim light is not insufficient electricity.
Rather, the reason is traced to a theological belief. This belief is that God is mystery. The darkened church reflects this belief about God. His is mystery, able to be seen only dimly.
I am apprehensive about people who boast that they always know the mind of God, as if they were one of His lieutenants or angels. As one scholar put it, "The God who has been comprehended…is always an idol."
It's time to reveal the mystery. Paul reveals it in verse 6.
Revealing The Mystery
Paul stated that in former generations, the mystery had not been made known. But now the mystery has been revealed to the apostles and prophets (3:5).
What is the mystery?
It is…
Gentiles have become joint heirs with the Jews. The Jews despised the Gentiles and called them dogs. The Gentiles scorned the Jews as stubborn and hateful. Many Jews felt that the Gentiles deserved only to be Israel's slaves. Other Jewish views were not even that charitable toward Gentiles.
Popular Jewish teachings about Israel's history and heritage excluded Gentiles.
Hebrews, not Gentiles, had been liberated from Egyptian slavery. Hebrews, not Gentiles, had participated in the formation of the covenant at the foot of Mount Sinai. God gave the gift of Torah, the Law, to Hebrews, not Gentiles. The prize of the Promised Land went to Hebrews, not Gentiles. The majestic Temple in Jerusalem was the religious center for Jews, not Gentiles. All of the religious promises in the Old Testament were considered to be for Hebrews, not for Gentiles.
However, Jesus atoning death on the cross turns this narrow view upside-down.
Gentiles are now seen to be joint heirs with the Jews in God's unfolding purpose for the world.
We've heard this teaching so often that we're not startled by it. But it startled the narrow Jewish world of Paul's day. This idea, this revealed mystery, was simply unthinkable.
But the mystery was true. The Gentiles would share equally in God's provision for them in the future.
Forbes Magazine announces the top 400 wealthiest people in America. One man seems to stand out year after year. Bill Gates III, founder and major stockholder of Microsoft Corp. His assets are more than $10 billion. He built a $50 million house in Seattle, located on the waterfront. Incidentally, he's a college drop-out.
Just imagine how you would feel if Bill Gates called you and invited you to work for him. He has made many workers millionaires. You would probably be ecstatic.
Now imagine that Bill Gates, out of the goodness of his heart, gave you 10,000 shares of his stock. Check the local stock market reports yourself. Those shares would probably be worth over a million dollars. We would hear the shout from anywhere in the county.
Finally, imagine that you were adopted into his family, as a son or daughter, thus making you an heir to his vast fortune. How would you feel?
This is exactly the feeling Paul is attempting to convey to the Gentiles. When they trusted God through Christ, they became joint heirs with the Jews. They were heirs to the riches God offered. They must have shouted for joy.
Gentiles have also become members of the body, the church. Very likely, some Jews said, "Well, the Gentiles will be included equally, but at least that inclusion is relegated to a distant future. In the meanwhile, we don't have to tolerate them."
Wrong!
Paul said that the moment the Gentiles believed in Jesus, they became joint members of the one body called church. Paul does not say that the Gentiles became members of a similar body, or a lesser body, or a greater body. Rather, they became joint members of the same body with the Jews. Radical? Yes! Biblical? Absolutely!
How can I convey to you the radical nature of what God has done in forming one new humanity?
Try this.
Imagine that your daughter is a student a UT. You also graduated from there. In fact, the last five generations of your family have graduated from UT. They have been big donors, especially to athletics, where they have funded several football scholarships. You yourself are a rabid football fan. You can be rational and objective about all manner of lesser subjects, like politics and religion, but football at UT is another matter.
Spring break comes, and you give permission to your daughter to go with her friends to Padre Island for fun in the sun. After all, he's smart, level-headed, and trustworthy. So she goes to Padre Island. While there, she meets a nice boy on the beach. She likes him. After returning to class she continues to correspond with him. The relationship develops. One day your daughter asks you and your wife whether she can invite the boy to your home for Thanksgiving weekend.
You agree.
Then you ask the fateful question: "Who is this young man?" Your lovely daughter, whom you have always thought to be level-headed, smart, and trustworthy, replies that this supposedly-fine young man is the football coach of OU. o put it in as kind a manner as possible, red-blooded, loyal football fans like you consider that OU's football team and everyone connected with it to be lowdown, cheating snakes who are also limited in intelligence. That's what you think on your good days. You sometimes think even worse about them, especially if they've just won the Texas/OU game that year.
How would you, the parent, feel if this daughter, this daughter you once considered so level-headed, smart and trustworthy, continued to date the young man? Then what if she married him?
This…and more, much more…is what the Jews felt on learning that the Gentiles had become joint members of the one body called church. There is probably not a word for the kind of nausea they felt at that point to think that such a thing could happen. But it did.
God does not call us to postpone fellowship until some distant date for the distribution of His inheritance. Rather, He calls us today to accept one another in the family of faith called church that He has created.
Gentiles have become joint sharers…partakers…of the gospel promise (3:6). This thought is a flashback to 1:12-13 and 2:12 and the covenant of promise that excluded the Gentiles. It refers to the "seal of the promised Holy Spirit" (1:13), provided to Christians, including Gentile Christians. Thus, the endowment of the Spirit on the Gentiles provides them joy and guarantees them freedom.
These three affirmations we have just considered share something significant. The Gentiles are joint heirs, joint members of the body, and joint sharers of the promise. The Greek word describing this corporate union is just one word in each case, and each word begins with a form of the same preposition…with. These expressions correspond to 2:5-6, where the preposition [with] describes the redemptive work of Christ. What's the significance? Our relationship with Christ determines our relationship with others.
Being made alive with Christ, being raised up with Him, being made to sit with Him in the heavenly places (2:5-6) creates a community whereby we are heirs with each other, members with each other, and sharers with each other (3:6). Thus, personal union with Christ creates corporate union with Christ.
The vertical and horizontal dimensions of the Christian experience cannot be separated. They are inseparably linked to Jesus' atoning death on the cross. Faith where you claim to have a spiritual experience, while choosing to live apart from or cut off from the church, would be unthinkable to Paul.
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer states, "Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ." He further states that Christian community is not something we create ourselves but what Christ has created and in which we are called to participate. He writes: "Not what a man [person] is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood [community] is what that man [person] is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us."
So what is God's mystery?
It is this: in the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has atoned for sin and created a community of faith called church out of a divided humanity, a divided humanity that was epitomized by the division between Jew and Gentile.
As one New Testament scholar puts it: "Paul makes it very clear that God's unveiled secret (mystery) has to do not merely with an alliance of Jew and Gentile, or perhaps a friendly agreement to live together in peace, or even an outward combination of partnership, but, on the contrary ..... a perfect spiritual union of formerly clashing elements into one new organism, even a new humanity."
Why is it called a mystery?
Because Jews and Gentiles in Paul's day had not seen and grasped this truth. Too, it's still a mystery. Why? Because most of us have not caught a vision of what God did in Jesus' death on the cross.
A person may marvel at the death and resurrection of Jesus and conclude, "Wow! He did it. He is someone special." So, he or she applauds.
Some move to the second level.
They say,"He did it for me. I believe in the atoning death of Jesus for my sins."
Most stop right there!
But, the mystery is greater than this. There is one more step to see fully what God has done. It is this: In the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has created himself one new humanity, whereby warring parties must lay down their weapons and embrace one another as brothers and sisters.
Now consider an action we need to take about this mystery.
Proclaiming the Mystery
All the verses in Ephesians (and Colossians) that refer to mystery also indicate that it is now "revealed," "known," "understood," or "spoken out." In all cases, the mystery is disclosed. This fact is why this mystery is not to be confused with the popular mystery cults of antiquity. One thing these pagan mystery religions emphasized was a vow of silence. But, this mystery is designed to be proclaimed.
Who is the proclaimer?
Paul declared in verse 10 that it is to be the church: "...in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places." The mystery of God is not a riddle to be solved but a message to be proclaimed. How can we do it?
We proclaim the mystery by what the church is. Before we speak a single word, who we are defines us. The church, just like people and businesses, has a reputation. It is known by what it stands for. The reputation can be positive or negative, good or bad.
Markus Barth sees the purpose of the church as this: "To let God's light shine ... this is the servant task described it the church." He adds, "The church is God's display, picture window, legal 'proof' (2:17), lighthouse (5:8), for the benefit of the world." The church extends Christ's prophetic ministry.
Who we are is our most powerful form of persuasion for the unredeemed world. Do we really believe with all our heart and soul that Jesus' death on the cross has created one new humanity called church? Do we believe it enough to dare to invite our worst enemy, who has believed in Jesus, to become a member of the Christian family?
Are we modeling what God's family is about? Or do we simply give lip service only? In which case, the world will not give us the time of day.
God still is looking for a church that dares to live out its theology, properly understood. He still is looking for a church that dares to be one unified family in Christ.
We also proclaim the mystery
By what the church says. The message of the church must be believed. Then the message must be spoken. Barth warns, referring to the church, "If she failed to proclaim with words what she is given to know, or if she condoned division and sin, she would belie her essence and function, and she would grieve 'the Holy Spirit of God' from which she lives."
How do we proclaim the mystery with words? We preach and teach it, to be sure. But we must make the mystery of God a part of our daily vocabulary and lifestyle. We must dare to share the message as compassionately as we would give bread to a dying person.
We further share the message of the mystery…
By what the church does
We must match Christian profession and proclamation with practice. What should be the practice of the church? Our ministry is no less than the ministry of Jesus. We are called to reach out to the poor, the lame, the blind, the hungry, the sick, the incarcerated, the outcast, the ostracized, the ignorant, the rejected. Isn't that what Jesus did?
Think About This
There is a small Baptist church that got into trouble by putting their understanding of the powerful ideas of this text into practice.
It happened like this.
A man who had escaped with his life from El Salvador lived in their town. The immigration authorities knew about him and wanted to send him back to El Salvador. It was illegal for him to be in the US. But if he went back, he would surely be killed. So, in desperation, he turned to this Baptist congregation for help. What should they do?
It was not an easy choice.
The members of the church were ordinary, law-abiding people. Deciding what they believed Christ wanted them to do in this situation was not easy. Finally, they decided on kindness. They took this man into their congregation, embraced him in love, and told the immigration officials, "Our church is a sanctuary, and you must not enter it to send this man to his death."
At that point the FBI sent an informer to infiltrate the congregation. The church found out about this, but they did not know who the informer was. All they knew was that one of the people present on Sunday morning…singing the hymns, praying the prayers, and listening to the sermon…was not a worshipper but a spy.
On the one hand, the congregation was surprised, even shocked. As one member put it, "There's nothing very confidential about our church…The bulletin tells you whose birthdays and anniversaries are coming up and whose memory is invoked by the flowers on the communion table…Some of our members feel that the last place they would tell somebody a secret would be at church…not because somebody might spill the beans but because in all probability people already know."
On the other hand, some of the members became worried, a bit edgy, cautious about strangers at church. Is he the informer? Is she the one?
But one Sunday morning, the pastor of the church led the congregation in the morning prayer. He prayed for the sick and the shut-ins. Then he said, "And Lord, we ask that you would bestow a special blessing on our informer."
One of the members said, "I'm glad our preacher did that.
In fact, we all secretly hope that our informer does not get tired and quit. If he stays around long enough, he'll learn that when we say that our church is a 'sanctuary' we don't just mean for Salvadoran refugees. Churches are sanctuaries for…lost and confused people of all kinds, even secret agents. They, too, are welcome to come and pray, listen to the Gospel…and belt out 'Beulah Land' with us. Who knows they might even end up getting saved. It wouldn't be the first time."
We may agree or disagree with how this little church handled the situation. However, what its actions say about the life of the church as a whole is the important message.
It's this:
Christ creates community that transcends differences created by human culture.
All who believe in Jesus, regardless of their race, nationality, or other human characteristic, constitute the new humanity in Christ. They are the church, the body of Christ. Furthermore, we who have been accepted by Christ and now belong to this church, this new humanity, need to reach out in love to all hurting people.
In Christian love and as part of this new humanity, we need to cross the cultural barriers that often keep people apart. That's the mystery that has been revealed to us and that we ourselves are to make known.
