Eph. 2: 14a

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.

Jews on one side and Gentiles on the other, with a thick wall between, built painstakingly over the centuries. It was a wall marking hostility between the two. The Jews were dealing with almost two thousand years of separation from all other people on the earth. The Old Testament repeats a refrain that marked Jewish life, “Be separate, do not allow the evil in any other culture to penetrate yours.” The Jewish theme, commanded by God, was to be separate. History does prove that when the Jews interacted and intermarried with people who had other gods, their allegiance to Yahweh was compromised. God was not against other cultures, he was against their religions that focused on worshiping gods of their own creatiion.

That cleavage between the covenant people and all others was built into the Jewish consciousness and was reinforced by ritual, behavior and social protocols.

Can the Jews ever consider Gentiles their equals? That seems impossible. Paul admits that it is a mystery how this might be achieved. We recall that Jesus announced, at the Last Supper, that he is making a Covenant based on his atoning blood. This Covenant made possible a spiritual unity in the Kingdom of God, because all who wish to be citizens are cleansed in the same blood, and are reborn from above by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is, therefore, a Kingdom marked by mutual love between all, without regard to culture, philosophy or language. In light of the Jewish refrain of separation from Gentiles, how can this be possible?

We come to the declaration of God's provision for that here in verse 14. “(Jesus) himself is our peace.” Had God commanded Jews and Gentiles to love one another, how could they possibly do that? Never. So God devised a plan whereby that love could flow – by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.

As each of us, Jew or Gentile, comes to Jesus, each is accepted because of common need – we are dead in sin. We have nothing to plead, certainly not any cultural achievements or superiority. All that is scraped off us as we enter the low door at the foot of the cross. As we participate in the blood, the death, etc., of Jesus, we find that all those who come to God as dead, helpless sinners are my brothers and sisters, no matter where they come from.

The key is Jesus himself. Jesus did not just promise us peace, Jesus himself IS our peace.