No More Hate

Except in extreme cases (Nazi Germany) we really don’t have to develop a curriculum for hate.  We teach it by example.  We start by creating a toxic culture.  In this climate we breathe in hostility while breathing out anger.  We fixate on distinctions among people and these become glaring differences that separate.  We tend to be tribal.  We organize into groups and then draw lines and circles.  We include some.  We exclude others.  All based on these differences that seem all-important.

I learned to hate by listening and watching.  What I heard and what I witnessed shaped my identity.  My tribe became white, Protestant and south side.  I vividly remember a white, Protestant friend from the south side running down the stairs of his home where I was playing that day shouting with a disgusting joy and applauding enthusiastically that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot and killed.  I remember conversations between my parents about Catholic privilege in our small town.  Seems that the Catholics were conspiring to take over.  I didn’t understand.  Some of my best friends were Catholics and we went to school together.  We played sports together.  We got in trouble together.   But according to my parents we were different and the implication was that at the very least I needed to be cautious around them.  Apparently, “they” wanted me to fail, and so “we” needed to defend ourselves against their evil schemes.  There was an us against them pattern being formed in my thinking.

All this hatred seems so silly and wrong now.  But only because I’m in Christ.   Without Christ I’d be a hater.   And that’s Paul’s point in Ephesians 2:11-22.  In Christ and in the Church there’s no room for hate.  But because it exists in the world and sometimes worms its way into the Church Paul addresses the issue as it existed historically and in his present circumstances.  And he insists that it not be allowed to persist in the present among believers in Christ.  In Ephesians it’s Jew and Gentiles hating.  It was an awful reality in the ancient world.  But hatred has always been (Genesis 4) and it continues to be a plague on humanity.  The world without Christ is a war zone.  Animosity between tribes is a big part of what defines this world, but that hatred can’t exist in Christ and in His Church.  And it doesn’t send down roots and flourish where Jesus Christ is the difference maker and the peacemaker.

In this passage of the Bible Paul shows us the challenge to peace and obstacles are massive and deeply entrenched.  Two groups are filled with bitter hatred toward one another and the hostility is based on race and religious privilege.

To the Jews the Gentiles are…

Generally speaking,

·        Far from God.  They’re clearly not connected to God.  Their lifestyles demonstrate the obvious differences.

·        These outsiders were dirty, despised and treated with disdain by the Jews.  Deplorables.  The Jews keep their distance considering that separation to be essential to their religious purity.   

More specifically,

·        No circumcision. 

·        No growing up celebrating Passover.

·        No anticipating a Messianic King like David.  Instead these defiled looked to Caesar.

·        No Law.  And so, things like the Gentile diet are despicable.  Their religious rituals are abhorrent. 

·        Not familiar with any of God’s covenants. 

·        Without the knowledge of the One True God.  Artemis, their local god,  was admittedly impressive but a poor substitute for the Holy God of Israel. 

In reality the Jews are…

Superficial religionists.  Their circumcision is by human hands on a particular part of the body but not really what God is looking for.  He wants a circumcision of the heart.  These “chosen” are close to the things of God but not really connected personally and intimately and so they might as well be a million miles away.  They’re insiders in one sense but because they look down on those who are different God considers them outsiders.  They’re surrounded by the gifts of God but missing His point.  When God called Abraham, He told him he and the nation He would form from His family would be a blessing to the nations.  Israel became tribal and a nation of separatists instead of being the light of the world and drawing the nations to the Light as God had intended.

Before Christ rules hatred is the prevailing condition.  Even the Apostles Peter and Paul had to be convinced by God that no one is outside the limits of His love.  And they learned that in Christ there’s peace and reconciliation in our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with our fellow human beings.  The far are brought near.  The excluded are included.  There’s peace between warring parties in Jesus. 

Here's how He made peace possible.  He disarms and defuses hatred by shedding His own blood.  As Paul shows us so clearly in Romans 1-3, we’re all in a sinful condition.  In the flesh (our sinful nature) we can’t draw near to God without a sacrifice.  A perfect sacrifice.  Because we don’t have that sacrifice God, in His magnificent and matchless grace, provided it.  Because without the shedding of blood there’s no remission of sin.  No forgiveness.  Without forgiveness there’s only distance and exclusion for all of us, without exception.  God provided the propitiation.  The sacrifice to satisfy His righteous wrath against sin.  Jesus is that sacrifice.  Jesus makes reconciliation possible.  With God and among people.

God doesn’t require Gentiles to become Jews.  Both groups are brought near by faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus removes obstacles and obsolete distinctions.  He fulfills the purpose of the Law for both Jews who could never keep it and Gentiles who never had it.  In Jesus there’s a new humanity.  A new society.  A family, community and a building being built.  There’s a foundation.  That’s the apostles and prophets and their teaching about Christ and the Spirit.  There’s a cornerstone to ensure the building is aligned with the loving purposes of God.  And we’re the building materials being constructed into a holy temple.  A place where the Father, Son and Spirit hang out and everyone recognizes that God is present in our midst.  And this is the place where live thrives and hate dies.