huttonline

Today marks 20 years since the breaking down of the Berlin wall. I was 7 at the time, so don’t really remember much of the happenings of significance, but I do remember being given a small piece of history. My uncle worked for the forces and was stationed in Germany, living in American Sector Berlin and was present when the wall came down. So I now own a small piece of 1960s concrete with a tiny speck of white graffiti, part of the Berlin wall. The problem is – I can’t find it! I’m sure it’s in a box somewhere but having moved house recently and put a lot of things in as yet unpacked boxes, it remains elusive… It would probably fetch a fortune on eBay, but how one would convince buyers that it was genuine Berlin wall concrete is another matter.

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2 uses an illustration that is remarkably similar:

For Christ himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility… that he might create in himself one new man in place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. (v14-16)

The border guards in Berlin were instructed to shoot to kill anyone who tried to cross the wall. Hostility reigned. In Jesus’ day the Jewish temple was remarkably similar, any Gentiles (non-Jews) who crossed the threshold between the outer and inner courtyards did so on pain of death. To the Jews, the temple was holy and Gentiles were not.

It was not just the Gentiles who were on the end of the Jew’s hostility, Jesus was. Proclaiming himself to be the son of God with miracles, he was sentenced to death by the Jewish leaders. The sentence was carried out by the Gentile Romans. Christ died ‘in the flesh’ on the cross and in so doing, ‘killed the hostility’, bringing peace instead.

In so doing, he tore down the ‘dividing wall of hostility’ between Jews and Gentiles – now, they are all included in God’s kingdom, now all can be forgiven and experience God’s blessing. Now there is peace. That’s good news for Jews and good news for Gentiles, like me. We can be reconciled to God in Christ because he died on the cross for us. Rather than living in a state of hostility with God, we can have peace with God – through believing in Jesus.

So as the world remembers the fall of the wall this week, I’ll go find my piece of the wall, and you can find the best peace of all.