The
Differences that so Easily Beset Us
Romans
10:11-13
The
Hebrew Scriptures tell the story of a Middle Eastern people as they evolved
from Hebrews, to Israelites, to Jews, and as they grew from a single family into
a nation. They were never a large
nation, but their location made them an important one. Surrounded by larger nations, who saw Israel
as ripe for conquest, they maintained an uneasy existence until being overrun
by the Assyrian Empire (the Northern Kingdom of Israel) and Babylon (the
Southern Kingdom of Judea). Eventually
they and their neighbors were conquered by Rome.
The
Hebrew Scriptures tell not so much the history of this people as the story of
their relationship with their God, YHWH.
From the Bible’s perspective, when the nation followed YHWH’s commands
the people prospered. When they turned
their back on YHWH they encountered disaster.
Alone
among the nations of the Middle East they worshiped a single deity. Their neighbors and conquerors served
multiple gods, each responsible for one or more specific functions. Israel served one God who provided for every
need anyone could imagine. There was no
need for other gods; theirs was all-sufficient.
One
of the negative results of the nation’s relationship with YHWH was a sort of
spiritual ego trip. By the first
century, despite their political subservience to Rome, they believed themselves
spiritually superior to all other nations.
They were, they claimed, God’s chosen people, even though their chosenness
didn’t seem to be doing them much good on the political front.
Enter
Jesus, who turned the Jewish world upside down with his claim to be not just
God’s Messiah, the anointed one, but God’s Son, and therefore himself God. The Jewish religious leaders took exception
to his claim. How could God be split in
two? How could God be anything but
one? This was blasphemy! The leadership also objected to Jesus because
his teaching was in direct opposition not only to what they taught, but how
they lived.
And
then came Paul—Saul until his conversion, and until his conversion a
Christian-hating, pagan-hating separatist.
His beliefs permitted no recognition of or association with anyone but
true-believing Jews.
Jesus
brought him a life-changing, attitude-changing experience. Paul went from an exclusionist to an
inclusionist. He found himself saying,
under the guiding hand of Jesus, “For there is no distinction between Jew and
Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on
him.”
He
says this not just once (to the Romans), but again to the Galatians (“There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male
nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”), and once again to the
Colossians (“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all.”)
This
privileged son of Abraham now saw that all who believed in Jesus as the Christ,
the Messiah, were the spiritual descendants of Abraham. There were no distinctions between
believers. Their belief in Jesus Christ
obliterated all other distinctions—those of race, religious background,
socioeconomic status, and gender.
Unfortunately,
too many Christians today try to reinstitute those differences. Some want to elevate one gender over
another. Some want to make distinctions
by social class, or race, or political beliefs.
They need to hear the words of Kate Sheppard, who said, “All that
separates, whether of race, class, creed, or sex, is inhuman, and must be
overcome.”
Jesus
Christ, who came to show us what it means to be truly human, couldn’t have said
it better.
No comments:
Post a Comment