Communion Message: “Another Wall Has Come Down”, Pastor Bob Leroe, Cliftondale Congregational Church, Saugus, Massachusetts
When I was a child growing up in Germany, my parents took me to Berlin. We drove through all sectors of the city. But then a year later, there was troubling news in the Stars and Stripes newspaper—a wall was being erected to separate the Communist sector from the West. New phrases were being talked about: the “iron curtain,” and the “cold war”. My parents took me again to Berlin, but this time it was a different city. A shroud seemed to hang over it, and our visit seemed like an extended funeral. I asked my Mom if it was OK to not smile for the photos she took. Memorial markers showed where people lost their lives attempting to escape to freedom. There were many desperate and tragic struggles to breach that wall.
I also visited Berlin as an adult, with my children. We were among the last to use East German currency in hotel cafe; we saw first hand the shoddy Eastern part of the city as compared to the prosperous western part of the divided city…but we also saw the celebration of a wall being torn down. A German handed me a hammer and chisel and I gave the wall a few good whacks! Trabben-Trabbants, East German cars, or “Trabbies” as we called them, freely moved into the Western sector, with the DDR stickers scratched out, a symbol of the old regime, the Deutsche Demokratishe Republik (If you want to double the value of a Trabbie, you just fill the tank with gas!). After being a part of history, we got on the train and returned to Frankfurt with a bag of pieces of the Berlin Wall and unforgettable images etched in our memories of an event that seemed impossibly unlikely to ever occur.
Imagine coming to the Lord’s Supper only to find a wall erected in the sanctuary between the pews and the Communion Table. Paul reminds believers that once there was a wall keeping them from the presence of God. That wall was there because God is holy. Sin separates us from God; sin always leads to separation.
Archeologists have uncovered an inscription from the outer wall of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem, the Temple which was destroyed by the Roman army in 70 AD. It carries a stern warning from the High Priest: “No foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.”
The Jewish Temple was full of partitions. There was the inner Court of the Priests and the Temple Proper containing the Holy Place and the “Holy of Holies” where the Ark of the Covenant stood. Access was limited to these sacred places to select Jewish priests, and only the High Priest was allowed, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, to enter the Holy of Holies. There were other divisions: the Women’s Court, and the outer Court of the Gentiles, granting limited access to the sacred places within.
When I was in Israel I prayed at the “Wailing Wall”, a.k.a. the “Western Wall”, the only part of the Temple that remains standing. Jewish worshippers pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the restoration of the Temple. Even here there is a division, separate sections reserved for male and female worshippers. Men are required to wear head coverings and women must be dressed modestly and wear shawls. The Temple is the only place on earth where sacrifice may be offered to God. The absence of a Temple today is likely God’s way of saying that sacrifice is no longer necessary. Jesus our Messiah is Himself our sacrifice for sin. He provides an eternal atonement.
Walls divide people-—they keep us from our objectives. People say they’ve “hit a wall” when their goals are blocked. When I was in high school I carried a briefcase and got into the habit of putting it on top of my desk, then opening it to get at my pens and notebooks and textbooks. This annoyed one of my teachers, Mr MacDonald, who didn’t like seeing me behind this barrier. He used to yell at me, “Leroe, put down that wall!”
Seeing first hand the end of the Cold War in Berlin was an awesome experience. Yet I had no illusions that the dramatic events sweeping Europe would bring a lasting peace to our world—this cannot occur until the problem of sin is overcome. Sin produces enmity and strife against God and among nations. Legislation, economic policies, social reforms, and armed force cannot produce a lasting peace—only the power of God can. When nations learn to live at peace with God, they will be able to live in peace with one another.
Christ came to remove all barriers. In vs. 14 we’re told, “He Himself is our peace, Who has made us all one people. He has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the Law with its commandments and regulations…”, and moving to vs 18, “For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”
Paul is describing the strife between Jewish and Gentile believers. As the Church became more and more non-Jewish, antagonism increased against the Jewish heritage of Christianity. Yet Paul is saying that a new person has been created, making all believers one in Christ. We are reconciled through the Cross.
Those who are apart from Christ are in a bleak condition; the wall they’ve built by sin and rebellion keeps them from God, and is insurmountable unless they turn to the One Who can tear down the barrier. Verses 12 describes the condition of unbelievers:
Old Position (2:12)
“separate from Christ”
“excluded from citizenship”
“foreigners"
“without God and without hope”
Our New Position “but now in Christ” (2:13)
“fellow citizens” (2:19) “no longer foreigners and aliens” (2:19)
“God’s people, members of His household” (2:19)
“called to one hope” (4:4)
Sin keeps us from God, and this separation results in death and judgment. Christ did not come to judge the world—the world was already under the sentence of death. He came to bring us to God—to declare us righteous and make us acceptable to God.
People try to scale this wall of separation by good, but God calls self-effort futile. We vainly attempt to clothe ourselves with holiness but we end up with “filthy rags” (Isaiah). Others try to convince themselves that there is no wall—they deny the reality of sin. Yet the wall still stands and will remain unless Christ becomes the vital force of our lives.
There is no wall keeping us from receiving the Bread and Cup this morning, although partaking in this Supper without faith is meaningless. Until the Cross, Jesus had never known (experientially) alienation from the Father. He enjoyed unbroken fellowship as God-the-Son. The predetermined work of Christ was to remove our punishment, as our Substitute, so that we might be qualified to enjoy communion with our Creator. If sin is keeping any away from the Lord’s Supper, Christ has dealt sin a death-blow by His death. He has broken down the wall.
This past week the churches of Saugus met together to observe the National Day of Prayer. The Pope is noted as saying, “What unites us in Christ is greater than that which divides us.” Our unity comes from our common faith in the Person and work of Christ. We have differences, but we are part of one body, the fellowship of all believers.
At the moment when our Lord yielded up His life on the cross, Matthew records that “the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” This curtain separated the inner Holy Place of the Temple from its most sacred space. The barrier was destroyed, along with the legal barrier that separated Jews from Gentiles—we are all saved the same way, through the sacrifice of Christ. We have access to God. In Galatians Paul says, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, for you are all Christians—you are one in Christ Jesus” (3:28). The author of Hebrews says that we may boldly enter the presence of God through our Savior (4:16). Christ brings us into the Holy of Holies.
Just prior to the fall of the Berlin wall and the reunification of Germany, President Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate and shouted, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” When I left Germany my chapel congregation gave me a cross made from the inner supporting metal wires of the Berlin Wall. The cross is attached to a wooden plaque which reads, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free”, Gal 5:1. Now in Berlin it’s nearly impossible to see where the Wall was. And Christ demolished the wall that separates us from God and each other by His sacrificial death. We are no longer foreigners, aliens, but citizens of God’s Kingdom and members of His household. We move from despair to hope in Christ.
Unless we take the remedy of the cross, we remain under the sentence of death and face eternal separation. To flee God’s wrath, we look to His love. Our sins are either punished in Christ or they will be punished in us. We can remain behind the wall of sin and separation, or turn to the only One Who can tear down that wall. The Lord’s Supper celebrates the destruction of that wall. When we turn to Christ, the wall of separation comes crashing down. As we receive the Bread and Cup we rejoice with relief and security, knowing that “nothing can separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
