Hostility among Humankind
One of the commentaries being made about our nation is that we are "deeply divided." We are deeply divided about the war on terrorism, homeland security, the economy, health care, prescription drug coverage, social security, education, environment, energy prices, litigation, immigration, abortion, stem cell research, marriage, and homosexuality.
Some commentators have suggested that this division is greater than at any other time in our nation’s history and that in many sectors, things have escalated into vitriolic hate. An article in a major news magazine questioned whether this division really exists, or whether it is mostly a fabrication of our sensationalistic media. Democrats and Republicans both believe that if their respective leaders were in power, these divisions would evaporate or would have never come to fruition in the first place.
But what we all know is that conflict permeates every aspect of human existence. Children are angry at their parents. Parents are angry at their children. Every day families are pummeled with domestic violence, separations, abuse, and divorce. Employees are enraged with their employers. Siblings are fighting over their family's estate. Neighbors refuse to speak to one another. Courts are filled with lawsuits. Cardinal fans are as boisterous and obnoxious as ever. Division isn’t a symptom of our political season. It is a symptom of our sinful nature. Human relationships are marred with differences. Tension, division, and hostility each represent everyday realities.
I saw an advertisement seeking apprentices willing to learn the masonry trade. Masonry is all about building walls, one brick at a time. The truth is that we don’t need to become apprentices in masonry. Many of us have been building walls of division and hostility in our relationships for years, even decades.
I can remember the brutal conflicts my brothers and I got into with my younger sister. Knowing that my parents would always take her side as the baby girl, she quickly learned how to manipulate my parents in order to get her way or to exact revenge. She would hurl matchbox cars at us. She would filet our skin with her sharp fingernails. She would wake my parents up in the middle of the night if she heard a radio in our room or heard us whispering. Every morning when we most wanted to sleep in, she would get up at 6 AM with our parents and bang on her piano. There were times she would tell bold-faced lies and laugh while we were punished. For therapy, I would write about her in my creative writing class.
But you all know the nature of these things. You knowhow we construct walls of hostility. They are built one stone at a time, brick by brick, day after day, and year after year. Your husband forgot your anniversary, again. A coworker gossiped about you. Your parents pushed you too hard. Your son keeps lying to you. A neighbor damaged your property. A friend embarrassed you. Someone harmed you. Walls aren’t typically built in a day. They are built over a lifetime. And once they are built, they are virtually impossible to destroy with human strength alone.
Are we more divided today than at any other period in history? No. But we are just as much in need for reconciliation as we have ever been.
Hostility with God
One other area in which a wall of hostility exists extends far beyond human relationships. We can be just as divided in our relationship with God as we can be divided against our fellow man. In Colossians 1:21 (NIV) Paul points out, "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior."
Our behavior had a wall-building effect on our relationship with God. Every sinful thought and every sinful action became another brick in the wall separating us from God, pushing us farther and farther way from God. In Ephesians 2:1-4 (NIV) Paul says of us, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath."
Our sins not only destroy the quality of our lives because we were dead in our transgressions and sins, but they also lead us away from God. Our sins make us objects of wrath. So sin has created a very real and undeniable horizontal divide between all men. And sin has created a very real divide between man and God.
In Ephesians 2:11 (NIV) Paul references one of the most enduring divisions of all time. He refers to the division between Jews and Gentiles. Paul's words barely have any meaning to us. "Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called 'uncircumcised' by those who call themselves 'the circumcision' (that done in the body by the hands of men)".
By God’s design, circumcision distinguished Jews from all other peoples. The act of removing the foreskin was a God-chosen, deeply personal, visual reminder to the Jew of his covenant with God. For the Jew, the foreskin was a mark of terrible shame. It was to be treated with contempt.
But the Jews took things a step further. They despised uncircumcised Gentiles! Not only did they thank God for not making them Gentiles, they taught, "Kill the best of the Gentiles." They also developed a contemptible label for their uncircumcised neighbors. They called them the "un-circumcision" or the circumcised part (foreskin). To this day these seeds of resentment and hostility persist. Historically the Jews have been building a wall of separation since Old Testament times. How would the vitriolic hatred between Jews and Gentiles, or between anyother groups, ever be healed?
In Ephesians 2:12 (NIV) Paul references yet another enduring division among Gentiles. Paul writes, "remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world."
Not only was the Gentiles' relationship with Jews nonexistent, but they were out of relationship with God as well. They were separated from Christ. They had no part as God’s chosen people. God’s covenant was foreign to them. They had no basis for hope, neither in this life or the next. They had lost connection with God. This description of course, has much greater relevance for us today because it describes where all of us were before we made peace with God through Jesus Christ.
There are tens of thousands of people right here in Springfield, and perhaps dozens here this morning, that haven’t made peace with God. Around the country people are worried about the flu vaccine shortage. Our sin should be of much greater concern. There are those who have not sought God’s remedy for their sin problem, which is the blood of Jesus Christ.
There are those who do not know the promise of God. His promise is that whoever believes shall not perish, but have eternal life. There are those who have no basis of hope when they stand before God on judgment day. Their hope is that maybe they have been good enough to be saved. Or that maybe they will be reincarnated. Or that maybe their good intentions will save them. Or maybe their parents' faith will cover their lack of faith. Or that maybe God will make an exception in their case. This is what it means to be separated from Christ, without hope, and without God in the world! It means that you are totally on your own to remedy your own sin.
But notice the powerful shift of thought that Paul makes in Ephesians 2:13-18 (NIV)."But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit."
What is so incredible about these verses is the hope that they give to all people. In Christ, the past doesn’t determine the future. What could possibly reconcile the Jew and Gentile and destroy their hostilities toward one another? What could possible reconcile a lost sinner to a holy God? What could remove the enmity, or the hatred and anger man feels toward God?
Let’s make this personal. What could possibly heal the divisions that exist in our world? How about the divisions in our community? In your workplace? In your neighborhood? In your extended family? Under your own roof? Between you and your spouse? Between you and your own children? Between you and your God? Do you really think some man, or some formula, or something done in man’s power could achieve the reconciliation of all men to one another and to a holy God? Horizontal reconciliation between men is hard enough. But what could possibly provide vertical reconciliation between sinful man and a holy God? These are impossible tasks for man and impossible for any politician or leader or individual, religious or not, to achieve.
Reconciliation through Christ
Actually, there is one man who can bring about the horizontal reconciliation of the world and vertical reconciliation between man and God. That man is our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. "But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ."
Jesus, the innocent man, shed his blood for our acts of hostility. These were acts committed against our fellow man and against our Father in heaven. Through Jesus we’ve been brought near to God, and nearer to one another. Again, not by any acts of our own, but through the sacrificial actions of Jesus Christ. Christ himself is our peace. Christ has destroyed the barrier. Christ has obliterated the dividing wall of hostility. Christ has taken the law, with all its commandments and regulations that stood against us, and nailed it to the cross. Christ alone has the power to create in himself one new man out of two. Christ alone has the power to establish peace between men and with God, to put all hostility to death, and to bring about true, lasting reconciliation. Christ alone has the wisdom to preach a message of peace to those who are far away from God and to those who are near to God. Christ alone has the authority to open up a way to give us access to a holy God.
This is why, separated from Christ we have no hope, no God, and no peace. Apart from Christ there is no remedy for sin and its consequences. Christ is our salvation. In Ephesians 2:19-22 (NIV) Paul concludes, "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."
In these final verses Paul speaks of God’s people as one giant building consisting of people who are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens and members of God’s household. The unifying dynamic in this building, this household, is our Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ the whole building is joined together and is rising to become a holy temple in Jesus Christ. We are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Holy Spirit.
Christ can do something in our relationship with God and one another that we cannot do. His sacrifice turns God’s wrath away from us and makes us objects of grace and mercy. His sacrifice ends the cycle of violence and hostility. There is nothing worse that our sins can do to God than cause the death of his only Son. God has forgiven us of this sin. His sacrifice brings confidence in a relationship plagued with doubt and distrust.
Through Christ, we know God’s heart. We know God’s love. We know his forgiveness. Christ's sacrifice gives us a compelling reason to forgive one another. Forgiven people forgive other people. Forgiven people reconcile life’s relationships. We forgive as we have been forgiven. He has set an example for us that we might follow in his steps. Christ’s sacrifice destroys the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. It shatters power of sin.
Many people have pointed out the beauty of the cross as a symbol of reconciliation. Its horizontal beam represents the reconciliation that comes between people as they allow the sacrifice of Christ to transform their relationships. Its vertical beam represents the reconciliation that comes between man and God, as they trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior.
The first step to finding peace in life’s relationships and peace with God the Father is faith. It's trusting that what Christ has done on that cross makes a difference in your eternity. It's confessing all the sin that created enmity between you and God, and between you and other people. It's repenting of those sins and saying, "No more walls. No more hostility. No more sin." It's pledging your life in the waters of baptism to live with a clear conscience before God.