“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” Ephesians 2:14-16 [NIV]
Paul is talking here about reconciling Jews and gentiles; Christ has made the two peoples one. At the time of writing this letter, the temple had a five foot high stone wall all the way around it, with signs on it, roughly translated as “Gentiles will be executed if they trespass into the temple”. This is possibly the image Paul had in mind when he wrote this passage and it would have been a familiar image to those who had travelled to Jerusalem.
Christ has broken down the barrier, this wall of hostility. Through Christ they both have access to God the Father. But it is more than just “Jesus has made peace”, that is, brokering some agreement between peoples to play nicely and share. We often want to start peace-making by clearing up the results of conflict, agreeing fair division, or more often, ‘peace’ is the victor getting the spoils of war.
God does not start there; he starts with the personal. He says peace is a person, what we read is “he himself is our peace”. Shalom is brought about by grace, a restored relationship between people as a result of a common restored relationship to God through Christ. Only when we have that restored (vertical) relationship, can we start addressing the conflict around us and become a peacemaker (horizontal relationships), “through the cross”.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God “
Matt 5:9 [NIV].
Father – teach us to be peacemakers.
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