Beloved: A Meditation on Romas 11

And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, 

being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, 

and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, 

thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.

Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, 

and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: 

on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, 

if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, 

shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.

For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, 

and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: 

how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, 

be graffed into their own olive tree?

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, 

lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; 

that blindness in part is happened to Israel, 

until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, 

There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, 

and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes:

 but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

For as ye in times past have not believed God, 

yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

Even so have these also now not believed, 

that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, 

that he might have mercy upon all.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! 

how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.

Given the rise of racism and nazism in our recent times, it is worth dwelling a bit longer upon St. Paul’s words from chapter 11of Romans, which is our appointed epistle reading for this week.  Paul is culminating this section of his letter to the church at Rome by elucidating a few points which the people needed to remember, lest they become arrogant in their ignorance.  Of central significance to Paul has been the doctrine of Justification by grace through faith in Christ alone— that all the world has been shown to be under the wages of sin and death, and that only through Jesus is the world forgiven and reconciled to God the Father.  Paul makes clear that this reconciliation was prophesied centuries before Jesus came in His incarnation, and that as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the only begotten Son of God, only Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross could exchange our eternal condemnation with His eternal life.  Jesus, fully a human Jew according to His human nature received from His blessed mother Mary, and fully God according to His divine nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit, was and is singularly able to reconcile the fallen world to its Creator.

In the practical life of the Church, however, this produced a tension.  While many Jews became Christians in the first century, receiving the grace of their Jewish Savior by faith as a fulfillment of the centuries of Prophets who foretold His coming, many Jewish leaders rejected Jesus and persecuted the Church as they had Him.  Similarly to the way the Sanhedrin handed Jesus over to Pontius Pilot with false charges and vitriol demanding His death, these Jewish leaders also wound up the Jewish and pagan crowds to murder and persecute those who believed in Jesus.  Naturally this created a tension between Christians (who were devoted to peace and compassion, and by Jesus’ command refused to try and impose His Kingdom on the world by violence and compulsion, since faith, hope, and love can never be compelled in the first place,) and the Jewish leaders who cooperated with the pagans to either directly or indirectly murder and imprison Christians whenever they could.  

In parts of the Church, this tension began to produce hostility of mind between Christians and Jews.  Many of the early Church Fathers refused even to read the Old Testament Scriptures in their native Hebrew, since they distrusted the Jews to have manipulated them after the time of Christ, and preferred old Greek translations which pre-dated the 1st century (and which also were in the more native language of the converted pagans, as was the Greek New Testament).  When Christians finally found general favor in the Roman Empire after several hundred years of brutal persecution, some Christian leaders fell into turning the tables on their Jewish neighbors, using secular power to get vengeance on their previous persecutors.  This was, of course, still contrary to the teaching of Jesus, and as evidenced in all times of history down to our present today, power and wealth has a tremendous propensity for corruption and evil in the hands of fallen men.  The Word of Christ never changed, but people and empires often did.  And so, even in our time, there are people with power and hatred attempting to persecute and murder each other, some who even claim the name of Christ, whose Word they so obviously ignore.

But what of the Jews?  St. Paul is clear that even if the ones who did not and do not yet believe in Jesus are enemies of the Church concerning the Gospel, they are still beloved of God for the sake of the promises made to their Fathers.  Just as God so loved the entire world that He sent His Son to save every tribe and nation under heaven, even so He loves the Jewish people, too— just as much as He loves Germans, Finns, Ethiopians, Nigerians, Polynesians, Peruvians, Koreans, Mongolians, and every other people of the world.  Since all the world is enslaved by the evil one through their fall into sin and death, God’s love for the whole world goes out to all for conversion of heart, for repentance and faith in the Savior He sent to redeem and liberate them.  The Jews indeed are a peculiar people, because through them God breathed out His Word which we have recorded by the Old Testament Prophets, and through them His Word Incarnate came to suffer and die for the sins of the whole world.  Through the Jews the world continues to receive the testimonies of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and all those of ancient times who heard His voice, believed and lived in Him.  Through the Jews the world received the Messiah, the Son of David, Son of Mary, and yet the very Son of God.  Through the Jews the world receives the testimony of the Apostles written down in the New Testament, and the histories of the first several centuries after Jesus’ Ascension.  And as mysterious as it sounds, somehow, at the end of the age, St. Paul tells us the remainder of the Jewish nation will be reconciled to Christ, which will result in the final Day of resurrection and judgment for the world.

So how ought we now live, in light of this knowledge?  In repentance, faith, and humility before God.  For if God was and is willing to let the ancient Jewish people through whom His Law and Gospel have come into the world be broken off from His fellowship through their unbelief, that the world of Gentiles and pagans might be grafted into Him by grace through faith in Jesus, then we must remember the goodness and severity of God:  upon those who reject Him in unbelief, severity in their own condemnation, but upon all who turn from evil and trust in His Word, compassion and restoration in Jesus.  And so today, as in Paul’s day, the Church is called not to coerce or condemn, nor to seek retribution or oppression of any people, but rather in love and compassion to call all people to their Savior.  Jesus did not give His people torches and clubs to beat and murder in His Name— rather, He gave them the Word of His forgiveness, life, and salvation to heal the nations, and to salve every fevered and wounded soul.

This Word of Life is the Word by which the people of God are sustained in every age, and so too in our own.  Today, may the Word of God call you to humble faith and repentance in Jesus, to love of your neighbor no matter their tribe or race, that our eyes may see the reconciliation of the world, and the turning of death into eternal life.  Amen.