Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 (NRSV)
I ask, then, has God
rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of
Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected
his people whom he foreknew.
29 for the gifts and the calling of God are
irrevocable. 30 Just as you were once disobedient to God but have
now received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they have
now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now
receive mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that
he may be merciful to all.
Romans 11:1-32
have the theme that Jewish apostasy is not final. Paul discusses the
faithfulness of God as a mystery. I begin with a prayer.
Lord Jesus , I pray for your family, the Jews. Preserve
them from the prejudice and persecution of the church, the mosque and the
secular governments of the world. Forgive humanity our sins against your people
in the past. In particular, however, enable the church to honor them today by
advocating for them, to stand by and with them, and to fight fiercely against
all forms of sin against them. Help me as a person of faith in Christ to give
thanks that Israel taught us to look for and to expect a messiah. Help me, in
every aspect of my life, to be faithful to your love, not only believing in you
as the Messiah, but also following you as my Lord and Savior. Amen.
If we step back,
we can see that Paul is wrestling with his version of the saving plan of God. We
might even call it a philosophy of history from the perspective of the
significance of the coming of Christ. The issue is that the Jewish people have
received the promises and calling of God. How can Paul now say that Gentiles
can now claim such promises and calling? He will respond by sketching out the
historical dealings of God with humanity. If we go back to the argument in
Romans 1-8, Paul says that Christ is the “end of the Law.” He is saying that
the Law had its place in the saving plan of God for humanity, but that Christ
has now fulfilled that purpose. The saving plan of God continues in calling
people to faith in Christ rather than obedience to the Law. Yet, this occurs in
a way that fulfills the purpose of the Law. In Romans 9-11, Paul is working on
the role of Israel in the formation of the people of God. The political
organization of Israel, whether as a tribal federation or as sacral kingship,
was the form the covenant people of God took as the focus of the saving plan of
God for humanity. Yet, the prophetic notion of the remnant within Israel (I
Kings 19:10-14, Deuteronomy 29:4, Isaiah 29:10, Psalm 69:22-23) is a reminder
that Israel has always contained the faithful and the faithless. The same is
true today. Paul and the disciples are prominent examples of a remnant from the
Jewish faith that has embraced Christ as fulfilling the saving purpose of God. However,
this means the historical form of the people of God needs to shift from the
political organization of the nation of Israel to the formation of the church
as the Body of Christ. Bringing people into this community is now the center of
the formation of the people of God who are to be a light to the nations. The
church fulfills the saving purpose of God in such a way that it does not
replace Israel but fulfills the purpose of Israel in the world as the people of
God. This means the church must always humbly acknowledge its indebtedness to
Israel and therefore its Jewish roots. The rejection of the gospel by the
Jewish people means that the people of God presently divide along the lines of
Judaism and Christianity. Even though Israel has rejected the saving purpose of
God in Christ, God has not rejected Israel. For God to do so would mean that
Christians, newly incorporated into Israel and the people of God, should have
some anxiety about whether God will abandon them for some new people! Thus, God
remains faithful to the people of the old covenant. Sadly, the history of the
church is that it has claimed as an exclusive quality the election of God only
for itself.[1]
In the process, the church needs to admit its complicity in the spread of
anti-Semitism. However, their destiny is to find their unity in Christ. The faith
and hope of the church includes the preservation and redemption of Israel. The hope
of Israel in this world is the intimate concern the church has for it.[2] It
ought to pain us that when Jews see the cross or think of the church, they do
so with fear. The church needs to admit that while it must have a respectful
relation with all religions, it must have a special relationship with Judaism. We
will never understand truly Jesus or the early church if we reject the
Jewishness of its origin. In the process, the faithfulness of the love of God
to Israel will become visible to all. Thus, the providence of God is such that
God incorporates the faithlessness and stubbornness of Israel into the saving
plan of God for humanity. God is in fact at work in all things, even in the
Jewish people largely rejecting the gospel, for the good of those who love God.
God has considered human sin in the saving plan for the redemption of humanity.[3] Since
the way God created resulted in the formation of independent creatures, human
sin became the cost.[4] Such
a view of saving history ought at least to raise the issue of whether Judaism
and the church are the remnant God has for a people from within the human race
that God intends to save in the end. Such a philosophy keeps in tension the
purpose (choice, election, predestination) of God and respect for the freedom
and dignity of those whom God created. The action of God is prior to all human
action, since God is the source of our being. If God is to exercise
providential care for humanity and its destiny, then obviously, God is at work
in all things, bringing good out of evil, and moving humanity toward its
destiny in Christ. Another way to say this is that God is present everywhere at
the same time. Yet, God is at work in all things in a way that shows respect
for the freedom and dignity of those whom God has created. God chooses to
respect the freedom and dignity of those whom God has made within the limits
determined by God so that the saving purpose of God for humanity will reach its
divinely appointed end. We know that end because of Christ, in whom God is
acting to reconcile and redeem humanity.
Since we began
with a prayer, I invite you to conclude with a prayer. In a moving intercessory
prayer for Jewish people, Henri Nouwen displays a very Christian view of our
relationship with and our prayers for the Jews:
Give them peace and freedom after the
many centuries of persecution and oppression; give them a safe home in Israel .
. . give their children the “Shalom” in its full sense of physical, mental, and
spiritual well-being.
I pray especially that you give to the
Jews the generosity of heart to keep forgiving us Christians for the cruelties
and atrocities to which we have subjected them.[5]
No comments:
Post a Comment