I was but a high school student when President Ronald Reagan gave one of the most famous Cold War speeches against the backdrop of the Berlin Wall. For those who may not know the story, the Berlin Wall was erected more than a decade after the conclusion of World War II in Berlin. Essentially the wall divided the city of Berlin into two nations: East Berlin, controlled by the former Soviet Union, and West Berlin, friendly to America, Great Britain, and France. For nearly forty years, the wall divided Germans friends and family – it was guarded, and few could pass through because it was well-guarded. The pain the wall created was incredible. At least one hundred people died or were killed as they attempted to get over the wall.
So with the wall as a backdrop, President Reagan stood outside and declared to a West Berlin crowd in 1987:
"There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace."
He then called upon his Soviet counterpart:
"Secretary-General Gorbachev, if you seek peace – if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe – if you seek liberalization: come here, to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
It would be another two years before the wall came down. All of the city of Berlin was finally reunited, allowing families and friends to see one another freely in October 1990. As big as that event was, it pales in comparison to the impact of the cross of Christ. In effect, Jesus' death was a "Tear Down that Wall" moment.
In the next few minutes, I want to show how the cross of Jesus can unite us like nothing else. Jesus' death not only reconciles God and us, but the death of Jesus also brings harmony to the different races of people.
We continue our "verse by verse" study of the book of Ephesians that Paul wrote in prison. We come to the back end of Ephesians 2 and how God brings all races together in Jesus Christ. By the way, can you think of a place that is any more racist than a prison? Today, you have the Aryan brotherhood in one prison gang, the Mexican mafia in another. Should we imagine it any different in Paul's day? Do you think ancient Roman prisons were a place of racial harmony any more than American prisons? Paul isn't writing this from an ivory tower, but he writes about Christian love from the middle of hot, filthy, poorly ventilated underground prison.
Officer Kim Potter
Now, there's widespread racial tension in our day. Whether it is white and black, Hispanic or Asian, we regularly see our news feeds filled with racial tension. Recently, officer Kim Potter accidentally shot a twenty-year-old unarmed black man named Dante Wright in Minnesota in recent days. Potter resigned this week and is facing manslaughter charges saying she accidentally shot the young man when she thought she was going for her taser. This recent incident happened only ten miles or so from where the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin is ongoing. And who can forget this police officer (Derek Chauvin) putting his knee on the neck of George Floyd last year? The whole incident was sickening as admirable police officers have rightfully condemned Chauvin for his actions during the trial. I hurt for everyone involved in this.
Josh Gibson
In my own life, I remember my grandfather Alvin teaching me about a great baseball player named Josh Gibson. At the time, I was a huge baseball fan of the 1970s Pittsburgh Pirates team. I loved baseball cards, and the stats on the back of the cards would entertain me for hours. My grandfather Alvin would take me to my first baseball game where the New York Mets beat the Pirates 3-1 at the old Three Rivers Stadium. We sat behind Homeplate, and I was able to watch my favorite player at the time, Willie Stargell. It was through my grandfather Alvin, a machinist in the steel mills, that I learned that early black baseball players were not allowed to join in on the major leagues. Gibson was a prolific player in the Negro leagues. He actually played for the Homestead Grays around 1930, the very small town where my grandfather lived and worked outside of Pittsburgh. I was shocked to know that Gibson had hit over 800 career home runs and eighty-four in one year! Josh Gibson was known as the black Babe Ruth. Even to a small child under the age of ten, I didn't understand how the color of his skin prevented his accomplishments from being celebrated as Babe Ruth's.
Look with me at Ephesians 2 as I want to show you the advantage Jesus gives you to fight prejudice of all kinds. Jesus tears down the walls that separate us.
1. The Superiority of Jesus
1.1 The Bible's Solution
The Bible offers a unique solution of how to bring people together. The Bible's solution to racism and prejudice is so different than what you hear in diversity training seminars. At the center of almost all modern pleas to end racism is tolerance. At the center of the Bible's solution is truth. Let me show you the difference.
1.2 Truth in the Middle
Everything in this passage is telling us that Jesus is the answer to bring people together: "But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:13-14).
Jesus has brought those races that were far off, near to God (verse 13). How? Through the blood of Christ (verse 13). And then Jesus is our very peace (verse 14). But it doesn't stop there.
"by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility" (Ephesians 2:15-16).
Jesus abolished the usual divisions. Where there were two, now there was one (verse 15). Jesus is the One who reconciles us to God and to one another (verse 16). Again, it doesn't stop there.
"And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:17-18).
Jesus offers peace to those who are far from God, gentiles like me and my race (verse 17). Jesus also preached peace who were near to God, Jews who had all the advantages because of God's choice of them (verse 17). Jesus gives us access to the Spirit and to the Father (verse 18).
Put it together, and you'll notice:
Jesus is our peace (v. 14a)
He makes peace (v. 15c)
He proclaims peace (v. 17b)
But again, it doesn't stop there.
"built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:20-22).
Jesus is the foundation, the cornerstone for all of unified humanity is built on (verse 20). All unified races will be built together in Jesus Christ (verse 22). Jesus is superior in every way. Jesus alone can unify humanity through the blood of the cross.
1.3 Putting Someone Else Down
In nearly all forms of diversity training in our day, truth is ruled out from the beginning. In truth's place, we are told to be respectful of one another's differences, be compassionate to one another, and endorse any idea that doesn't put anyone else down. The last portion is the critical difference. We are told to endorse any idea that doesn't "put anyone else down." While we don't intentionally seek to put people down, the truth is the truth. Truth by, its very nature is offensive at times. Because truth can be offensive, the truth is nearly completely ruled out in American society. Therefore, Jesus' claim to be the authority of Heaven and earth is relegated to the basement of ideas. Because any and all claims to truth are arrogant (we are told), we have a new ideology in our day.
When tolerance rules the day and the airwaves, the victim is always right. The victim is the place of greatest might and strength in our culture. Anyone who feels "put down" when another person speaks is given the microphone to vent how their rights have been maligned and marginalized. Anyone who claims to have discovered the truth is intolerant.
I don't say any this to antagonize anyone or to pick a fight. I say this because prejudice is a sin. Racism is a sin. And it needs to be ended. And the Bible's solution to racism is profound and ignored in our day. When the Bible's solution is ignored, another "solution" is offered in its place that does have the inherit power to fend off all forms of prejudice in us.
1.4 Jackie Robinson and Branch Ricky
Let me show you the power of Jesus for just a moment and how Christ can transform our racial tendencies. Most of you know the name, Jackie Robinson. Robinson was the first African American to break into Major League Baseball. Robinson broke baseball's color barrier on April 15, 1947, when he donned a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. He put on that now-iconic No. 42 across his back at the old Ebbets Field. Jackie went on to be a Hall of Famer player, and his No. 42 was retired by all major league teams. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was, by any measure, a very special human being. In becoming the first black man to play in the major leagues, Robinson encountered racism in its vilest manifestations – racial taunts and slurs, insults on the playing field and off, character assassination, and death threats.
The Christian faith played a big role in the man who masterminded integration, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The man who chose Robinson for his role was Dodgers General Manager, Branch Rickey. Robinson and Branch Rickey changed race relations in the United States. This General Manager was a "Bible-thumping Methodist" who refused to attend Sunday games. And he believed it was God's will that he integrate baseball, viewing it as an opportunity to intervene morally for the sake of the nation. Rickey specifically chose Robinson because of his faith and moral character. The general manager considered other players, but he knew integrating professional sports would take more than raw athletic ability. He knew the attacks would be ferocious, and the media would fuel the fire. And if the selected player sought retaliation or lashed out, the effort would be set back a decade.
So in their first meeting together, Rickey read aloud from a book entitled Life of Christ, and he chose to discuss a section of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Inside the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' teaching His followers: "But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matthew 5:39b). During his first two years as a player, Jackie often prayed, asking God for the strength to continue resisting the temptation to fight back or to say something he would regret. At the center of one of the most important civil rights stories in America lies two men of passionate Christian faith.
A Methodist pastor led Jackie to faith in Christ. Jackie went on to even teach Sunday school. And when he played football on Saturdays, his bruised body yearned to sleep in on Sundays. Yet, his special relationship with the pastor made Jackie show up on Sundays for worship. Jackie's Christian faith gave him an emotional and spiritual poise that he had never known.
1.5 The Blood of Jesus
Jesus' blood has the ability to unite us as nothing else can. Nothing.
"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:13-14).
The blood of Jesus is shorthand for the death of Jesus on the cross.
Nothing offers you the resources to end prejudice and racism like the blood of Jesus Christ. The American flag cannot unite us as the cross of Jesus – nor can any other nation's flag, for that matter. The Republican party and the Democratic party cannot "hold a candle" to the cross of Christ. Over and over again, we're told that sports can unite us in our day. I love sports, but no sport cannot unite us like the cross of Jesus.
1. The Superiority of Jesus
2. A Society of Togetherness
The cross wasn't designed to simply transform individuals only. The cross of Jesus was designed to transform us, not you only but us!
2.1 A New Us
Hear the Word of the Lord: "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:13-14).
God empowers us to love one another where we normally couldn't stand one another. The Bible doesn't just want to make a new YOU. The Bible also wants to make a new US! The Bible doesn't just want to make a new you. The Bible also wants to make a new society, a new community, and a new church. The church is God's people, a colony from Heaven where love knows no bounds. The cross isn't just designed to fix me; the cross was designed to fix us. The cross was also designed to unite us as one people under the banner of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus was shed not to divide us but to unite us.
2.2 Jews and Gentiles
Now, the Bible discusses the reconciliation of Jews and gentiles: "Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—" (Ephesians 2:11).
Whenever you see the word "Gentiles," it is not one race of people, but it is anyone who is not a Jewish person. The Bible often describes all of humanity in two categories: Jews and everyone else. God choose the Jewish people to bring healing to the entire world. Jesus was Jewish, and nearly all of the Bible writers were Jewish as well. Even Paul, the author of Ephesians, was Jewish. God had done the majority of His work through the Jewish race. Yet, God's design was the nation of Israel would serve all of the human race in showing them the truth about God (Genesis 12:3).
The gospel destroys divisions between human beings that can't be eradicated any other way. And Christ brings them together in the case study that Paul uses, the Jews and the Gentiles. Christ and the gospel unite diverse kinds of people who otherwise could never get along in any other way.
2.3 Different Forms of Prejudice
Now your form of prejudice may be against a different class of people – rich or poor. You may inwardly be disgusted by the opposite gender. Or you may have a distaste for a different generation – for example, millennials or old people. Prejudice goes by many different forms, my friends.
2.4 My Prejudice
Let me talk about my prejudice for a moment and my racism. I really struggle to detect my prejudice until you put me in a place where I am around people that I don't naturally think like. Over the past decade, I have made several trips overseas where I was a guest in a different country. I was around believers in Christ, much like myself. Yet, I found I hated their music during worship times. I really wanted to stay outside of the worship area until the preaching was starting. And I thought to myself, "Scott, this is exactly what senior adults do in your church back home in the United States. You cannot sit out the building until the music is done." So I forced myself to sit down to worship alongside brothers and sisters in Christ. I realized my prejudice when I was confronted by a different style in music that was associated with a different ethnic people. But it wasn't just music.
I didn't care for the idea of having to take off my shoes when I went into a house in Asia. I thought, "Who came up with this stupid idea? Take off my shoes!" I am a 6'4" man, and I didn't want to be bothered taking off my shoes after a long, hot day. And then they took tea breaks in the middle of the day! I thought to myself, "How lazy is this. No wonder they haven't accomplished as much as my country. We are always stopping to drink tea in the middle of the day!"
But it's not just me that has this problem. You have the same problem as I do. Every single person, no matter their race, age, or class, struggles with this problem. One of the most accurate descriptions of our selfish tendencies is this: "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15).
2.5 Curved Back on Ourselves
We have an innate problem called sin, where our whole nature is curved back in toward ourselves. The human heart is profoundly self-centered. We are self-centered. Martin Luther describes this aspect of human nature as The Inward Curve. He said the human heart is curved in on itself. We are self-centered. Luther said (and I paraphrase), "Our nature is so "curved in" that we take everything around us for ourselves. We'll even use God for our own sake." The human heart uses everything but serves no one. That's the truth about every human being – every human being, categorically every single one of us.
1. The Superiority of Jesus
2. The Society of Togetherness
3. The Humility of the Cross
Essentially, if you understand the cross, any two people should be able to get along. If you're not getting along (two people who say they believe), you're not thinking about the cross. The cross is screaming to you that you are a spiritually and moral mess, but God loves you enough to send His Son to die for you. The cross is screaming grace down through the centuries
Now, racism and prejudice are essentially pride in ourselves. It's pride in our accomplishments, in my family, and in my tribe. How do you get rid of this kind of prejudice against other classes of people and generations of people? You must humble yourself.
And the cross is uniquely designed to humble you as nothing else can.
3.1 Hank Aaron and the Plates
Whenever I think about racism, I usually get around to remembering a story from Hank Aaron, the famous baseball player for the Atlanta Braves. When Hank Aaron was just 17 years old, he signed with a team in the Negro Leagues, the Indianapolis Clowns. He was with the team on a road trip in Washington, D.C., when he got one of his first lessons in the ugliness of racism in a league where only the ball was white. "We had breakfast while we were waiting for the rain to stop, and I can still envision sitting with the Clowns in a restaurant behind Griffith Stadium and hearing them break all the plates in the kitchen after we finished eating," Aaron once said. "What a horrible sound. Even as a kid, the irony of it hit me: here we were in the capital in the land of freedom and equality, and they had to destroy the plates that had touched the forks that had been in the mouths of black men. If dogs had eaten off those plates, they'd have [simply] washed them."
3.2 The Cross Humbles You
As terrible as this experience is for those who experience it, the cross says to you, "Outside of divine grace, God shatters the very plates that you have touched." You are a moral and spiritual mess. God is infinitely holy and cannot come in contact with you. And just like those plates being smashed, when you really see the cross of Jesus, it shatters you. The cross is God saying, "You're so ugly spiritually and morally, the only way to fix you is to send my Son to die on the cross." Nothing short of the death of Jesus fixes you on the inside. More education cannot fix you. More diversity training cannot fix you. Only Jesus can fix the problem of the heart. The cross insults you by saying, "You are so ugly spiritually and morally, the Son of God had to die to fix you. Jesus had to die because you're just that sinful." The cross of Jesus shatters you.
This is grace, and grace is written all over the cross of Jesus. When you really see God's grace, it shatters you like the plates in Hank Aaron's story. Grace says, "My money didn't come because I'm smarter or better. It came because God graced me." Grace says, "My education didn't come because I'm smarter or more inclined to work hard. It came because God graced me." Grace says, "I didn't pick my race or my nationality. God choose to put it here now. All of my life came because God graced me." Grace says, "I'm not a victim. Jesus died for me. Jesus is the real victim, and who am I that He would choose to love me? Who am I that He would choose to die for me? Yes, God has graced me."
You must humble yourself to receive His grace. And the cross is necessary if you're ever going to overcome your racism and your prejudice.
3.3 Matthew Henry
I don't know if you've ever heard of Matthew Henry. He wrote a great commentary that's it has been around for years. He lived in the late 1600s. His father was a fine Christian man, his name was Philip Henry, and he became a great minister of God. When his father and his mother were dating … His mother was from a very prominent family, and his father was not from a very prominent family. When they were falling in love, Matthew Henry's mother was approached by her parents, and they said essentially, "We're very concerned about this, Philip Henry. He's not in the social register. None of our friends know his family. We don't know where he's from." She looked at them and said, "I don't know where he is from; I only know where he is going." At this point, she made a radically biblical statement when she says, "I know where he is going. You know where he is going? He is going to the throne of God, my King.
Grace makes you altogether new – it creates a new identity.
Jesus is a "Tear Down the Walls" Savior.
