“For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.”

Ephesians 2:14 NASB

In the beginning years of the New Testament church the people of God were facing a challenge they had never before encountered. For thousands of years, Jewish people had fastidiously kept themselves separate from the cultures of the regions where they lived. The Jews saw themselves a completely separated people, with no connection to the pagan culture and people who lived around them. This was so that the Message of Messiah would be safely carried down through the ages to the time when Jesus would come, the Word made flesh, Who would dwell among us.

Yet, Jesus would be the Hope of every Nation, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the whole world. And, indeed, that is exactly who He was, and is.

In the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit was poured out on ALL flesh. Even (gasp) the Gentiles, who until this time were mostly pagans were able to receive the forgiveness of sins and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Many a Jewish leader within this new Christian movement struggled how to move forward with a church made up of both Jews and Gentiles. But move forward they did.

Jesus filled their hearts with His love and taught them a new and more excellent way. The Jewish people learned, led by the Holy Spirit, to open their hearts and their lives to these new disciples, these new brothers and sisters who had NEVER been Jewish, nor would they ever be. It was a new family being born, brought together in the love of God. Jesus became the great Peacemaker.

I love the picture in the gospels when Jesus, risen and in His glorified body comes to the disciples who were behind locked doors. He did not need an open door. He walked through the walls and was with them. Walls, divisions, barriers, these mean nothing to Him. Jesus is still breaking down walls and barriers today, between young and old, between races and ethnicities, between ideologies. The picture of the Kingdom described in Revelation 5:9 says, “You have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”

What a glorious picture! Jesus has broken down the barriers between God and man. He has broken down the walls of enmity that keep us from one another. His way is love. His way is peace.

Jesus. You are the Peacemaker.

~ Debbie Ecker