Maybe We are Both Veiled
How God may be creating a pathway toward unity by causing Jews and Gentiles to need one another.
In the New Testament Paul points out that Jewish people have experienced a partial hardening (Romans 11:25) and that when they read the Torah a veil comes over their minds and hearts (2 Corinthians 3:14-16) making it difficult for them to see Jesus as the Messiah and turn toward him.
But he says something else that is far less known.
As Paul reaches the climax of his letter to the Romans about how the Gospel impacts the relationship between Jews and non-Jews he writes a very interesting list.
Read this carefully:
“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong
the adoption,
the glory,
the covenants,
the giving of the law,
the worship,
and the promises. To them belong
the patriarchs,
and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.”
I’ve discovered a strange connection between this list of things that belong to the Jews “according to the flesh” and my own story.
These eight things were all things that were largely a mystery to my own mind and heart until I built relationships with ethnically Jewish people.
I don’t think by “belong” it means someone can gain no understanding about these areas without drawing from this connection but I do wonder, since the Jews are the source of these things, whether a deeper understanding is withheld outside of drawing these nutrients from being connected to the root structure of our faith—Jews according to the flesh.
A quick example of each:
Adoption: I did not understand that my standing with God came from my adoption of the family of Abraham
Glory: I did not understand the nature of glory until I saw the weightiness in the reverence they had in worship.
Covenants: I did not understand the importance or centrality of the covenants as a framework for how God acts in the world.
Giving of the Torah: I did not understand how we must root our conceptions of justice back to torahic commands.
The Worship: I did not understand the rhythmic nature of worship seasons like Shabbat and the 7 torahic festivals.
The Promises: I did not understand the nature of our relationship with God as being about the outworking of specific promises we can trust him to fulfill.
The Patriarchs: Most important for my own story I did not understand how the model of the patriarchs had the power to reveal God’s design for the family.
Christ according to the Flesh: I did not understand the importance of the Jewishness of Jesus in understanding so many of the things he did and taught.
These sudden understandings that came as I learned from Jewish people or those who were taught by Jewish people gave rise to a thesis about the nature of understanding and revelation:
Has God given a certain depth of revelations to specific groups of people?
Is he being like a good father who wants his family to come together by saying to his kids: I’m going to give each of you different gifts and you can choose to enjoy only your own gifts but if you want all that I have to give you’ll have to decide to learn from one another?
After all we’re told that someday “ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’” (Zechariah 8:23)
Maybe this theme goes beyond the relationship between Jews and Gentiles and implicates different camps within the church.
Most Christians stay locked in their very narrow denominational tradition but I’ve spent the last 20 years becoming a bit of a traveler between groups and I’ve learned very different things that seem to belong to different groups.
Here’s a sample list.
Presbyterians: Justification
Eastern Orthodox: Christus Victor
Vineyard: Intimate Worship
Baptists: Missionary Zeal
Pentecostals: Filling of the Spirit
I could go on but in each case, I spent a season outside of my tradition and learned things that seemed to belong to them. It was like within my tradition, a veil remained waiting for a connection to another traidtion for that veil to be removed.
Is it possible you’re struggling with a veil that could easily come down if you built a relationship with someone outside of your tradition?
Could this be how our wise father will one day bring unity to his diverse family?