The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance.*I wonder why we spend so much grief and angst rebuilding those walls, not just between Jews and non-Jews, but between humans of every make and model.
[The Messiah] repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.*Seems for the most part we haven't gotten the memo.
What if, just for these days between now and Christmas, we imagined ourselves as Zachariah prophesied at the birth of his son, John (the Baptist):
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he came and set his people free...a clean rescue from the enemy camp, so we can worship him without a care in the world, made holy before him as long as we live.**If we let the wall fall and ask God to be our rescuer through his choice--Jesus--then we are made holy before him as long as we live.
Staggering. I'm anything but holy. But I do take time to imagine all things God, so for now, until Christmas, I am going to proclaim that because of Jesus, I am made to start over as a new kind of human being. May holy be a garment I try on as I worship the onset of the Messiah.
Wall-building will have to be interrupted. Oh, that it could stop forever.
Jesus, you came into our messy world to show "us the way, one foot at a time, down the path of peace."**
New peace with you (God), peace within me, peace extended to one another. Crazy peace.
Don't miss that we are made to become holy. That is a gift that keeps on giving...for real.
*Ephesians 2
**Luke 1
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