Author Rita Snowden tells this famous story from World War I. On the Western Front in France, there was a group of soldiers who brought the body of a dead comrade to a French cemetery to have him buried. The priest came out to them, and said gently that He is required to ask if their fallen friend had been a baptized member of the Roman Catholic Church. Not knowing that about him, they said that they didn’t know. The priest then apologetically said that he could not permit their friend to be buried in the church cemetery because of this. So, the soldiers sadly took their friend and buried him just outside the fence. He was to be separated from the rest in the cemetery. In Ephesians 2, Paul talks about a similar situation that involved separation.
The Church at Ephesus was a congregation made up of Jews and Gentiles. A Gentile was any person who was not ethnically Jewish. This would be us. At the beginning of our text, Paul calls us to remember what things used to be like before Christ had come. For us to appreciate what Jesus has done and what we are in Him, we need to know what we were and would have been. Paul does just that. He calls the congregation, and specifically the Gentiles, to remember what they were. He has them remember what things were like.
The Apostle begins by bringing up the hostility between the two groups. The Gentiles were called “the uncircumcision” by the Jews. This may seem like an innocent descriptor to us, but it in those times, it was not. It is was a term of disgust and derision. It would be equivalent to a racial slur or bad word. But the hostility between the two groups went beyond name calling. They didn’t get along at all. The Jews said that Gentiles were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell! They said that God only loved them, and that they were His favorites. If a Jew married a Gentile, the funeral of that Jew would be carried out. They were considered dead! If one went into a Gentile house, one would then become unclean. Not exactly a group of people who get along, or think highly of each other.
But there is more to remember. Paul tells them to remember the separation between Jews and Gentiles. Paul says that the Gentiles were separated from Christ, and he elaborates what that means. He says that they were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. The Gentiles were not part of God’s special covenant people. They were excluded from the privileges and way of life of God’s chosen people under His covenant.
Worse than that, he says they were strangers to the covenants of promise. Notice Paul’s emphasis here. His says “promise” and not “Law.” The covenant that God repeatedly confirmed throughout the Old Testament is defined by grace and promise! It is not defined by “Law” or what a person must do. God’s people had received these promises. They had received the promises of a coming Messiah Who would save them from their sins. But the Gentiles didn’t know them. Sad to say, they were strangers to them.
Since they didn’t have these promises, it follows that the Gentiles had no hope and were without God in the world. Because the Gentiles were strangers to God’s people, possessors of the promises of grace, they were truly without hope and without God. Could you imagine your life without Him? Can you picture a life without hope? True hope?
Hope was one of the reasons that I became a pastor. When my sister Kaitlin was hospitalized for six straight months, that was unbelievably hard on my family. We all struggled with it. The ups, the downs, the pain, and the heartache of it all. Seeing her in a coma for a few months. Seeing her in immense pain and suffering. Seeing her bed bound and a shell of her former self. She was full of chest tubes and breathing equipment. She kept destating when I tried to hold her last. It broke my family. The only way I got through that was the hope that I had in Jesus. The hope that He does all things well and for our good. The hope that He could heal her even when science and doctors said “no.” The hope that if she didn’t make it, that because of Jesus, she would be home with Him in Heaven and made better. The hope that He was with me, even though it might have seemed like He was not. Hope got me through that and was influential in my becoming a pastor. Can you truly deal with sicknesses and diseases like Alzheimers, tumors, or depressions without hope? Can you face death without Jesus? How would you handle tragedy without a Savior who conquers sin, death, and the grave? Is there true hope without Christ? Is life better without Him? Absolutely not. This would have been us without Christ’s coming as Gentiles. No Jesus equals no hope, and no God. What a bleak life.
The last thing that Paul has them remember is the division between Jews and Gentiles. In verse 14, Paul mentions the dividing wall of hostility. In the temple, there was a wall called the Soreg, which surrounded it entirely. It was 4.5 feet high, and 15 feet away from the outer steps. This was put up to prevent the Gentiles from coming into the temple. The reason Paul is in prison is because he was accused of breaking this with an Ephesian! In 1871, there was a warning sign found in Greek that dates to before Christ that reads: “No foreigner may enter within the barrier and enclosure round the temple. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.” In other words, if you come in, you are taking your life in your hands. Not very welcoming, is it? But who could forget the ultimate dividing wall, the Law, with all its rules and regulation? The Jews and Gentiles were divided. The were separated. They were hostile. This would have been us. Before Christ, you were separated from Him, alienated, strangers to grace, hopeless, and without God. We would have been buried outside the wall. This would have been us! Remember that!
But Paul calls us to remember what You are NOW in Jesus Christ. The next day the soldiers came back to see if the grave was alright, and to their surprise, they couldn’t find it. They searched and searched, but could not find it. How hard is it to find fresh dirt outside of a wall? As they were about to leave, the priest came out to talk with them. He told them that his heart was troubled from their conversation the day before. So he woke up early, and with his own hands, moved the wall to include their fallen friend. Jesus has done something similar. Jesus didn’t just move the move, He removed it entirely! It is destroyed!
For you are no longer separated, but, rather, you are being built upon Christ. We have been brought near by the blood of Jesus that covers us and our sins completely. The sins that separate are covered and removed. They are no longer a barrier. That wall is torn down. And we haven’t been just brought near, we are being built on Him into a holy and living temple. We are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and on Him, the chief cornerstone, that stands still and is unshaking. Jesus doesn’t cast us aside, but uses and keeps us. We are built on Him!
You are no longer aliens and strangers, but are fellow citizens and members of God’s household because of Him. We have been made one body through the reconciliation by His one body. In Christ, we have been reconciled with God and one another through the life and death of Jesus. He has taken Jew and Gentile, two hostile groups, and made them one, in Him! He has made a new man, a new people, between the two! He has destroyed the hostility, torn down the dividing wall, and fulfilled the Law in our place. He has taken hostility and made peace through His cross and empty tomb. We have peace with God, and peace with others.
As citizens and members of His household, those promises of the past are made ours! We are not strangers to the promises of grace. He gives them in water, word, bread, and wine. We are not strangers or aliens to His Kingdom, but have entered into it through baptism and the His Word.
You are no longer hopeless and without God in this world. We have access to God in the one Spirit, and we call Him “Father.” In the Old Testament, God is called “Father” only eight times. In the New Testament? He is called “Father” over 200 times! New Testament Christians love calling God “Father”. He is as accessible as a Father! He is a good Father. He is kind, caring, watchful, full of grace and peace. He is not mad, malicious, or menancing towards us. With God as our Father, we always have hope, no matter the circumstances!
And you are no longer defined in the flesh, but outward appearance or ethnicity. You are defined in Christ. You are a citizen, child, member of the family, loved, sealed, adopted, and chosen, and redeemed. We are defined in Him! And isn’t this the message that our world needs to hear? Those struggling with perfectionism, high expectations, or self-worth issues? Those in the LGBTQ community? Those who feel unloved, lonely, or not liked? You are defined in Him.
So smile, rejoice. You were homeless, hopeless and hell-bound, but Paul says that in Jesus, you are members of God’s household, hopeful, and heading towards heaven. Thank God He has sent us Jesus Christ.
