エフェソの信徒への手紙2:14-18  Ephesians 2:14-18,

実に、キリストはわたしたちの平和であります。二つのものを一つにし、御自分の肉において敵意という隔ての壁を取り壊し、規則と戒律ずくめの律法を廃棄されました。　（エフェソ2:14-15）

新約聖書の時代にユダヤ人と異邦人はしばしば互いに「敵意」をもっていました。ユダヤ人は、異邦人は偶像を礼拝する汚れた人々であると考えていました。異邦人、特にローマ人は、ユダヤ人にローマの習慣を押し付けて支配しようとしました。こうして敵意が高まり、西暦66年にユダヤ人とローマ帝国との間に戦争が始まりました。この戦争は、70年にエルサレムの都が破壊され、74年にマサダという要塞に立てこもった反乱軍が自害して滅びるまで続きました。このような「敵意」がユダヤ人と異邦人の「隔ての壁」であったことは事実ですが、新約聖書の時代のエルサレムには目に見える「隔ての壁」もありました。それは、エルサレム神殿の境内で異邦人が入ることのできる外庭と、その内側にあってユダヤ人だけが入ることのできる内庭を隔てている仕切りでした。その仕切りには「内庭に入る異邦人は死刑に処する」という意味の警告の碑文がついていました。このことは、異邦人はユダヤ人ほどにはまことの神様に近づくことはできないということを象徴的に示していました。

このような決定的な違いをユダヤ人と異邦人の間にもたらしたものは何だったのでしょうか？それは、神様からユダヤ人に与えられた律法でしょう。（中略）律法の中には律法全体の基本法である十戒がありました。十戒は神の民が守るべき倫理を教えており、すべての時代にわたって有効なものです。ところが、律法の中にはさまざまな儀式的な掟もありました。たとえば、男性が生まれて八日目に受けなければならない割礼の儀式を定めた掟とか、神様を礼拝するときに動物のいけにえをささげることを定めた掟とか、食べることのできる清い生き物と食べることのできない汚れた生き物を定めた掟などです。パウロが「規則と戒律ずくめの律法」と呼んでいるのは、このような儀式的な掟のことでしょう。

パウロは、イエス・キリストが、十字架で死んでくださったことによって「敵意という隔ての壁を取り壊し、規則と戒律ずくめの律法を廃棄されました」と述べています。キリストの十字架上の死は、人類の罪を償う贖罪の死という意味がありました。ですから、キリストが自分の代わりに死んでくださったということを信じるならば、ユダヤ人であっても異邦人であっても、罪を赦されて命の源であるまことの神様に近づくことができるようになります。ユダヤ人であっても異邦人であっても、同じようにまことの神様とつながって、神の民となることができるのです。ですから、キリストの十字架上の死によって、ユダヤ人と異邦人を隔てる壁は不要になりました。そして、ユダヤ人と異邦人の違いをもたらしていた儀式的な律法は廃棄されました。

（3月9日の説教より）

If you read the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament, you will see that in the early days of the Christian church, those who believed in Jesus Christ were often persecuted by the Jews. The Jews are those who believe in the God of the Old Testament and keep the laws of the Old Testament. Although there were some Jews in the New Testament era who believed in Jesus Christ, such as the twelve apostles and the apostle Paul, there were many who stubbornly refused to believe in Jesus Christ. The Jews who did not believe in Christ killed Stephen, a deacon of the church in Jerusalem, the first church in the world, and carried out a large-scale persecution against the church in Jerusalem. Then, as Paul, who had converted, went around preaching Christ, they persecuted Paul and the Christians in the cities of Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Thessalonica, and Corinth. Furthermore, the Jews in Jerusalem tried to kill Paul after he returned to Jerusalem from his missionary journeys. Paul, who was nearly killed, was protected by a Roman centurion and escorted to Caesarea, where the Roman governor Felix was.

After that, Christians spent a long period of time enduring persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire. However, in 313 AD, freedom of Christian belief was recognised, and in 392 AD Christianity was declared the state religion of the Roman Empire, and the belief in the polytheistic gods of Greece and Rome was banned. As Christians became the majority in Europe, they in turn began to persecute the Jews. The idea spread that Jews were the hateful people who had killed Jesus Christ by crucifying him. Thus, the persecution of Jews continued from ancient times through the Middle Ages and into the modern era. There is so much to say about this tragic history of persecution that it is impossible to summarise it here. Then, in the 20th century, the most massive persecution against the Jewish people ever took place. This was because Nazi Germany claimed that the problems of German society, the economy, politics and culture were the fault of the Jews, and regarded the Jews as the most inferior and dangerous race. Nazi Germany, which temporarily controlled most of Europe, detained Jews living in various parts of the country and sent them to concentration camps, where it massacred around 6 million Jews.

Among the Jews who were killed was a girl known as the author of The Diary of a Young Girl, commonly referred to as The Diary of Anne Frank. Anne Frank was born on 12 June 1929 in Hamburg, Germany, as the second daughter of Otto Frank, a banker, and Edith, her mother. Anne had an elder sister, Margot, who was three years older than her. As the persecution against Jews in Germany intensified, Anne’s father Otto first moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands in June 1933 to start a business. Then, in December of the same year, her mother and elder sister, who were staying with their grandmother, also moved to Amsterdam, and Anne followed in February of the following year. It looked as though the family’s life was now stable.

However, the German army invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, and the Dutch army surrendered less than a week later, and the Netherlands was occupied by Germany. Then, in 1941, persecution against the Jews gradually began to take place in the Netherlands. In 1942, feeling that his life was in danger, Otto, the father, began to prepare to hide himself by setting up a hiding place in the building where the company he was running was located. Then, on 6 July 1942, the four members of the family entered the hiding place, and later, the three members of the family of Hermann van Pels and the dentist Fritz Pfeffer joined them, so that a total of eight people were living in the hiding place. Anne kept a diary in the hope of writing a book after the war by using it as a source of material. The diary begins on 12 June 1942, before the family entered the hiding place, and continues until 1 August 1944, three days before the family was taken away. On 4 August, the hiding place was discovered by the Nazi SS and Dutch police, and the family was taken away and sent to a concentration camp. Anne’s mother Edith died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, and Anne and her elder sister Margot died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the ages of 15 and 18 respectively. Anne’s father Otto returned to Amsterdam alive and re-typed Anne’s diary, which he distributed to a small number of people. Eventually, Anne’s diary became famous, and was first published in Dutch, then in German and French, and later in English. The Japanese version was published in 1952.

In the diary entry for 11 April 1944, Anne wrote as follows.

Who has inflicted this on us? Who has set us apart from all the rest? Who has put us through such suffering? It’s God who has made us the way we are, but it’s also God who will lift us up again. In the eyes of the world, we’re doomed, but if, after all this suffering, there are still Jews left, the Jewish people will be held up as an example. Who knows, maybe our religion will teach the world and all the people in it about goodness, and that’s the reason, the only reason, we have to suffer. We can never be just Dutch, or just English, or whatever, we will always be Jews as well. And we’ll have to keep on being Jews, but then, we’ll want to be.

Be brave! Let’s remember our duty and perform it without complaint. There will be a way out. God has never deserted our people. Through the ages Jews have had to suffer, but through the ages they’ve gone on living, and the centuries of suffering have only made them stronger. The weak shall fall and the strong shall survive and not be defeated!

 

There is no whining in the words of this diary, such as “Why was I born as a Jew?” or ‘I wish I hadn’t been born as a Jew.” On the contrary, it is full of an incredibly powerful faith and sense of mission as God’s chosen people. I think that Anne Frank, a Jew, has a much better understanding of what it means to be a people of God than so-called Christians who are willing to persecute Jews in order to curry favour with the Nazi state. Although Jews are not a familiar presence in Japan, it is an important question that we should consider carefully: why does God make people called Jews exist in the history of this world?

The word “Jew” does not appear in today’s Bible passage. However, the theme of today’s Bible passage is “what is the relationship between Jews and non-Jews?” First, in verses 14-16, Paul writes as follows.

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

The words “us both” and “two” in this passage refer to Jews and non-Jews, or Gentiles. In verse 11, which is a little earlier in today’s passage, Paul says, “At one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.” The people of “what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands” are the Jews. Then, in verse 13, Paul says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” This means that you, the Gentiles, have become close to the true God by believing in the cross of Christ, and you have also become close to the Jewish people, who are God’s people.

In the New Testament era, Jews and Gentiles often held “hostility” towards each other. The Jews thought that Gentiles were unclean people who worshipped idols. The Gentiles, especially the Romans, tried to impose Roman customs on the Jews and rule over them. Thus, hostility increased, and in 66 AD, a war broke out between the Jews and the Roman Empire. This war continued until 70 AD, when the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, and until 74 AD, when the rebels who had barricaded themselves in the fortress of Masada committed suicide and perished. While it is true that this “hostility” was “the dividing wall” between the Jews and the Gentiles, there was also a visible “dividing wall” in the temple of Jerusalem during the time of the New Testament. This was a wall that separated the outer court, where Gentiles were allowed to enter, from the inner court, which was only open to Jews. The wall was inscribed with a warning that read “any Gentile entering the inner court will be put to death.” This was a symbolic indication that Gentiles could not approach the true God as closely as the Jews.

What was it that caused such a decisive difference between the Jews and the Gentiles? It was probably the law given to the Jews by God. The Jews believe that the 39 books of the Old Testament are the word of God. In particular, the five books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are referred to as the Torah, which forms the core of the 39 books. Within the Torah, the Ten Commandments are the basic law of the entire Torah. The Ten Commandments teach the ethics that God’s people should follow, and are valid for all ages. However, there were also various ceremonial laws within the Torah. For example, there were rules that stipulated the ritual of circumcision that a man was to undergo on the eighth day after his birth, rules that stipulated the offering of animal sacrifices when worshipping God, and rules that stipulated which creatures were clean and could be eaten and which were unclean and could not be eaten. “The law of commandments expressed in ordinances” that Paul refers to in verse 15 is probably referring to these kinds of ceremonial laws.

Paul says that Jesus Christ “has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances” by dying on the cross. Christ’s death on the cross was a sacrificial death that atoned for the sins of human beings. Therefore, if we believe that Christ died in our place, then whether we are Jews or Gentiles, we can be forgiven of our sins and approach the true God, who is the source of life. Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, we can connect with the true God in the same way and become God’s people. Therefore, the dividing wall that separated Jews and Gentiles became unnecessary due to Christ’s death on the cross. And the ceremonial laws that caused the difference between Jews and Gentiles were abolished.

Furthermore, Paul says that Christ “create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.” What does it mean to “create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace” and to “reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross”? This means that Jews and Gentiles become “one new man” by believing in Jesus Christ together, and become members of the church, which is the body of Christ, and belong to “one body.” And in this way, “peace” between the two sides and “reconciliation” with God are established.

In verses 17-18, Paul says that Jews and Gentiles are saved together through Jesus Christ as follows.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

“You who were far off” would be the Gentiles who were members of the Ephesian church, and “those who were near” would be the Jews. Christ himself preached the gospel to the Gentiles during his earthly life before his death on the cross, on only a limited number of occasions such as when he saved the daughter of the woman from Tyre (Mark 7:24-31). However, in Matthew 28:19 at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, it is written that Christ sent his disciples to the Gentiles, saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” This would mean that Christ “preached peace” through his disciples. And “we both” refers to both Gentiles and Jews. It means that both Gentiles and Jews can become God’s people by believing in Christ and have access in the Holy Spirit to God the Father.

There is something we need to be careful about when reading today’s passage. Today’s passage is not trying to say that only those who belong to the Christian church are God’s people, and that Jews who do not belong to the Christian church are no longer God’s people. If we read today’s passage in that way, it would justify the persecution against Jews by Christians. It is said that such an interpretation of today’s passage was at the root of the tragic persecution against the Jews from ancient times to the present day. What today’s passage is trying to say is that both Jews and Gentiles can become God’s people by believing in Jesus Christ. In other words, both Jews and Gentiles are invited to believe in Christ and be saved.

In chapter 11 of his letter to the Romans, Paul compares the Gentiles to a wild olive shoot, and the Jews who have not yet believed in Jesus Christ to branches that have been cut off from the olive tree in the orchard. And he compares the fact that the Gentiles came to believe in Christ to a wild olive shoot’s being grafted into the olive tree in the orchard. Furthermore, in Romans 11:24 Paul says, “How much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree,” expressing his belief in the possibility of the Jews’ believing in Jesus Christ. In this way, we can see that the Jewish people are a people who have existed throughout world history in order to demonstrate the faith of the Old Testament, which has become the foundation of Christianity.