5In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Ephesians 3:5-6
I am not much of a follower of the British Royal Family. I do not hang on every word or report that the media provides about who is upset with each other and who said what. But I am fascinated by the supposed order of succession. I am intrigued by who is next in line after the queen and then who is next in line after them. Who is the queen’s heir and the next heir apparent? Why does it fall through this line and not another? What happens when one of the heirs rescinds their place and does not want to be heir at all?
With all this talk and discussion about Britain’s heirs. perhaps then we can understand the meaning of the Epiphany of the Lord a little bit more, when the great revelation of God is that Gentiles have become fellow heirs of Israel. Israel was God’s chosen people, a people he nurtured, protected, and established as a nation with a space and time in human history. But the great secret which was hidden in former generations and now revealed by the Spirit is that Gentiles are now also fellow heirs of Israel. Instead of Israel being the heir alone of God’s Kingdom, now Gentiles are included also. Instead of the place of Israel falling to a single people much like the British Monarchy, Gentiles are now fellow heirs of Israel.
But an important point needs to be made, Gentile have become members of the same body, we have not excluded or replaced Israel all together. We are together, we have not succeeded Israel and taken their place. The text says members of the same body together, not alone in a new body. Israel and Gentiles together is what the great plan and revelation of God discloses by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We have no room to conquer, destroy, or persecute those members of the same body. To do so to the Jewish people would be akin to destroying ourselves. To damage the Jews would be to destroy ourselves. To eradicate the Hebrew people, is to work against the God’s work and therefore, the essence of sin and demonic in nature.
But to be members of the same body is also to share in the promises God made to Israel. The promises which the psalmist reminds us of in psalm 72. That God will judge us with righteousness and the poor with justice. That the mountains yield prosperity for the people in righteousness. That God will defend the cause of the poor of the people, and give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor. Righteousness will flourish and peace will prosper. While these were some of the promises, now that the Spirit adopts us as co-heirs, the promises also fall like rain upon us, whom God has chosen. To live under God’s grace in freedom and responsibility: rightly and in perfect communion.
But the realm of these promises and the location of this fellowship and the place of our inheritance lies not in the world, or in ourselves, but rests solely in Christ Jesus. The perfect foundation that cannot be eradicated by sin and death. The perfect realm where no error or weakness can tarnish. The unrivalled kingdom where no cosmic power, no demonic influence, no human scheme can erode or threaten to undo the work of God. In Christ Jesus, God has secured his work and his promises against all enemies, chaos and nothingness that seek to destroy God’s creation. And we can rest secure, not in the ease of our circumstances, the prosperity of our resources, the health of our communities, nor the absence of conflict, but we rest secure solely that we rest in Christ Jesus and therefore under Christ’s protection and rule.
But the means of that protection, lies through the work of the Gospel. The gospel bears the responsibility to carry the human into the realm of Christ. The gospel carries the power to transfer a person, even a Gentile person into the kingdom and oversight of Christ. The gospel carries the burden to find and relocate a community of people from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light. And for this responsibility, and in this power and under this burden, the gospel summons people to participate. People like Paul, but more poignantly a community like us.
Will we answer the gospel’s call? Will we bear the responsibility to share this news? Will we be instruments of this power? Will we bear our burden of the gospel to make disciples and heirs of God? May this Epiphany we bear our co-responsibilities with the gospel, may we be co-channels of God’s power, may we carry the co-burdens of the gospel. May we be the children God has created and redeemed us to be fellow heirs, members of the same body, sharers in the promise, in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, and I would add to God’s glory, Amen.
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