Breaking Down the Barriers

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Ephesians 2:11-22

In Ephesians 1, Paul prays that the Christians would know God’s power. The first demonstration of God’s power is seen in the resurrection of Jesus. The second demonstration of God’s power is seen in our resurrection from sin by God’s grace (2:1–10). In parallel construction, Paul now describes the third demonstration of God’s power.

2:1-3 “You were dead” – Our story begins in slavery to “the ruler of the power of the air” and to “the desires of flesh and senses.” We were dead in this state, existing as“ children of wrath.” 2:11-12 “You were Gentile aliens” Our story begins in isolation, hopeless and living as strangers outside the “commonwealth of Israel.” It is a state of division and separation among God’s people.
2:4-6 “But God …” – God did not leave us in our death and enslavement. Instead, out of his great love and mercy he gave us life through Christ and restored our relationship. He seated us with him in the heavenly places. 2:13-18 “But now in Christ Jesus” Through his cross/blood, Jesus has brought us back into fellowship, demolishing the dividing walls that once separated us. He has reconciled “both groups to God in one body,” making peace where there was once hostility.
2:7-10 “So that …” – As a result of God’s saving work (which is not of our doing!) we have been recreated for the good works God prepared for us. 2:19-22 “So then …” – As a result of Christ’s sacrificial work, we are – all together – members of God’s house- hold rather than strangers and aliens from one another. Reconciled, we grow into a holy temple, a dwelling place for God.

 

Do good fences make good neighbors? People are good about making fences, borders, walls. Robert Frost tells us in “Mending Fences” that there is something within our hearts that causes us to make fences. We do so in the name of privacy and protection. We are afraid of the other. Governments may try to reconcile people by enacting laws, force busing, mandate integration, DEI regulations; however, the prejudices that separate are still there.  (e.g., When the walls came down in Eastern Europe or the walls that came down between the  Shiites and Sunnis; or when fences are erected between Palestinians and Jews… old hatreds and wounds raise their ugly heads).

And sometimes in churches too.

But it doesn’t have to be so.

What does it mean to be a citizen of God’s Kingdom? God established a nation that would be God’s people and God would be their God. God entered covenant agreement with them placing them above all nations, a treasured possession, a people holy to the Lord. (Deut. 26:16-19). All other nations were excluded, did not have access, and were foreigners and aliens. Treated with respect but excluded. As a sign on the temple warning Gentiles to stay out states: “Let no foreigners venture to enter the enclosure around the Temple. Whoever shall be caught will be the cause of his own death which will follow.” It was forbidden to help a Gentile mother give birth for that brought another Gentile in the world.

The Gentiles suffered five disadvantages: Stones being laid to build the walls of exclusion.

  • Separate from Christ; cut off, no access, no benefit, severing the umbilical cord.
  • Cut off from the commonwealth of Israel.
  • Strangers from the covenant of promise; even proselytes had to say, “Your Father Abraham.”
  • Without hope; a real sense of despair and futility.
  • Without God.

Questions:

  1. Where do you see and experience the alienation and separation that Paul describes in these verses?
  2. What does alienation look like in your experience (in your home, your church, your wider community)?
  3. How has the church fostered separation?

BUT the wall was broken down. Stone by stone, Jesus tore down the wall. The war is over and the hostilities have ended. Christ established peace.

Listen: 2:19, 20, 21, 22, and 3:6. Since the wall has been broken, in Christ there is a new commonwealth which you are included. You are now part of the family of God. Believers together constitute the temple of God, the place of God’s dwelling. Our identity lies with Israel as the people of God. This is community. As community we are now one nation, one family, and one temple. And God dwells in community. No one is a stranger here … in the breaking of the bread.

Jesus breaks down the barriers, stone by stone, in order to create community. God is the one who has placed us together in this church. We do not have the right to exclude anyone our Lord has included.

Paul paints a beautiful picture of the beloved community reconciled as one body through the cross. In one sense, this miraculous work of God is already a reality. As Paul describes in 2:13-18, Christ’s death has already accomplished the reconciliation between all God’s children. In the last movement of the story, however, Paul acknowledges that we still need to live into this new reality. We have a new status (citizens with the saints and members of God’s household) and we stand firmly on the foundation laid by Christ’s work, but we still have work to do.

Paul mixes metaphors to make his point.

  1. The temple metaphor: we are being “built together” into a dwelling place for God.
  2. The tree/body metaphor: we are joined together and grow. Paul combines these metaphors in one hard-to-imagine image: we are joined together and grow (organic metaphor) into a holy temple in the Lord (architectural metaphor).

Paul mixes these metaphors in the same way in his letter to the Colossians when he prays that they may be “rooted and built up in Christ” (Col. 2:7). Whatever the reason for Paul’s attraction to this mixed metaphor (and it’s worth thinking about!), it implies one thing clearly: we are still growing and being built into the holy temple. Even if the ultimate work of reconciliation has already been accomplished, we still have good works of reconciliation left for us to do.

Questions:

  1. Where do you catch glimpses of the peace that Christ has made through his blood?
  2. What does it look like in your experience that peace (in your home, your church, your wider community)?
  3. Where do you still long for the peace of reconciliation?
  4. How is the church the first and foremost peacemaker?