How should non-Jewish people be included in following the Jewish Messiah? Acts 11
In the study of human genetics, scientists have mapped out a kind of family tree for humanity. They can actually trace all of humanity back to one female they call Mitochondrial Eve. … This probably isn’t the Eve of the Bible. Mitochondrial Eve was probably a part of a group of humans. But genetically, every human being on the planet has her as their ancestor. … In that sense, we all share her as our common mother, and in her we are all related.
This scientific discovery reflects the Biblical teaching that all of humanity has common ancestry in Adam and Eve. In that common ancestry we all share in the reality of being bearers of the image of God (Gen. 1:27, Acts 17:26). And in that common ancestry we all inherit the damage done to that image by sin (Gen. 3:17, 1 Cor. 15:22). … The mission of God is to rescue us from the mess we have gotten ourselves into, and it is a mission of love and salvation for all of humanity, not just one ethnic group.
God does, however, select one family- Abraham’s family. And that might seem like God is prioritizing one ethnic group over others, but when we look at the blessing God puts on Abraham, we see that his family is blessed to be a blessing to all the families of the world (gen 12:2-3). God’s focus on Abraham’s family was a way of ultimately blessing all of humanity. … The mission of God is to save and bless all humanity, and choosing Abraham’s family was part of that plan. …
Humanity has a tendency to divide into groups, which are then opposed to each other as they compete for resources or power. … This is the sad story of fallen humanity. We are constantly finding ways to break apart and divide ourselves. We gain an upper hand (we invent a new technology, for example) and we use that advantage to help our group against the other groups. … In Acts we see a tension between God’s mission towards all of humanity, and the human tendency towards maintaining boundaries against other groups of people.
In the first century, Judaism generally wasn’t very interested in helping others convert to Judaism. However, there was a small number who were active in encouraging Gentiles to convert, and as a result there were some gentiles who had become very attracted to Judaism. … Gentiles who had started worshipping the Jewish God, but who hadn’t fully converted to Judaism were called God-fearers or God-worshippers. Many Gentiles were content to not fully convert. They remained Gentiles, but they worshipped God. This meant they followed fewer laws (7 rather than the 613 devout Jews were obligated to follow). Male God-fearers also wouldn’t have to be circumcised, which would be required to fully convert to Judaism.
But, without fully converting to Judaism their participation would also be limited in some ways. For example, they would only be allowed in certain parts of the Temple (the part of the temple Jesus cleared the money changers out of was the court of the Gentiles), and even eating at the same table with devout Jewish people seemed to not be allowed. This wasn’t about them being snobby. Table-fellowship had to do with everyone at the table having a certain ritual purity according to the Jewish Law- it was a part of the kosher rules about eating.
That was the context as the disciples of Jesus went out from Israel sharing the news about Jesus. Initially, it seemed like they went to the Jewish people who were scattered around the ancient world. When the disciples of Jesus came to the Gentiles, they were going to have to figure out how Gentiles would be included. Would the old rules be followed, which keep the Gentiles at arm’s length?
In becoming a follower of the Jewish Messiah, it would make sense that you should have some connection to Judaism. The followers of Jesus believed that they were part of the continuation of the covenant of Abraham, where God promised that Abraham and Sarah’s children would be a blessing to all the families of the earth. The mark of the covenant of Abraham was circumcision. So, it made all kinds of sense that the followers of the Jewish messiah, the climax of the covenant of Abraham, would receive this mark as a part of their becoming disciples. That also implied following the Law of the covenant of Moses- which Jesus modeled his life on. … So “how Jewish do you have to be to be a disciple of Jesus?” it would make sense to say, “Very Jewish. He is the Jewish Messiah, after all.”
But to fully convert to Judaism meant that you were no longer a Gentile. The Bible regularly talks about the nations, the peoples, the Gentiles, coming to worship God. Do they come to God by becoming Jewish, or are they called to God even as they remain the nations, as Gentiles, as their own people group? … The question for the church was do you have to become Jewish before becoming a Christian?
In our reading from Acts, Peter has to answer accusations regarding eating with Gentiles (which was against the kosher eating tradition). Peter answers saying he saw a vision having to do with ritual purity that came with a voice saying, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” As Peter is wondering what this means he is invited to a Gentile’s home (who is considered ritually unclean, though he is a God-fearer). Technically, Peter shouldn’t be entering his home if he wants to maintain ritual purity. … When he speaks to these Gentiles about Jesus, the Holy Spirit descends on them and they start speaking in tongues, just as happened to Jesus’ Jewish followers on Pentecost. To Peter, this is evidence that these Gentiles are acceptable to God as they are, without converting to Judaism and following all the Laws and without receiving circumcision. They could follow Jesus as Gentiles without having to become Jewish. They can come to Jesus as Gentiles.
This is also Paul’s position, which we see especially in his letter to the Galatians. He tells them in very strong terms to not get circumcised and to not practice the Law-keeping of traditional Judaism. He goes so far as to say, “if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing” (Gal 5:2).
For Peter, the evidence of God’s approval of these Gentiles was so strong he was convinced that Gentiles did not need the mark of circumcision and conversion to Judaism. If the Holy Spirit accepted them and seemed pleased to fill them, then who can contradict the witness of the Holy Spirit? How can they call them unclean if, in this act, God is calling them clean? … The Holy Spirit seemed to be saying that they could come to Jesus as Gentiles. The wisdom of the early church saw that the important sign of circumcision, along with many of the purity laws, did not have to apply to those who were non-Jewish followers of Jesus. Though, what would later be considered the moral law would be retained. … They were in a new age. God was doing something new.
In the city of Antioch, the sociologist and historian Rodney Stark notes that there were 18 different ethnic groups living in the city that were intensely antagonistic towards each other, and who had almost no social integration (The Rise of Christianity). In the church these barriers were overcome as people from various nations became followers of Christ, and in so doing saw one another as brothers and sisters. People who were formerly opposed to each other because of ethnic divisions now came to love each other and serve Christ alongside each other. … The human family was beginning to be restored to its one-ness. The divisions were being broken down.
One lesson that we can draw from this is that God desires us to be drawn together and unified, but this doesn’t mean we all become the same. The Gentiles didn’t have to become Jewish, they could still remain diverse in being Gentiles, but they were still unified in Christ. So we should be careful about where we put up divisions between one another. What if we are putting up a barrier that God doesn’t want, that might even work against God’s mission to draw all of humanity to Himself. … For example, as Christianity has gone around the world it has picked up the cultural style of the people. Christianity in 1st century Israel looked stylistically different than in Greece, or Rome, or Ethiopia. As Christianity went to the British Isles it took on a Celtic style. For Christianity to be adopted in certain countries, there were certain cultural and stylistic changes that were made, without changing the central aspects of what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. …
I believe that a major mistake was made as Christianity came to North America, for example. The cultural style of the indigenous cultures should have been able to connect with Christianity, and consequently manifest a style that reflected their particular kind of Gentile-ness. Instead, the Christianity that was brought to Canada often retained a kind of rigid European style, which didn’t necessarily fit with indigenous communities very well. It was inflexible regarding some stylistic elements when it shouldn’t have been.
So the question for us is “are we putting up barriers between people and Jesus that are unnecessary? Maybe they are even working against God’s mission to draw humanity together under Him as their Father, as one family.” Maybe we hold too tightly to our denomination. Or to our worship style. Maybe we divide people on the basis of money, gender, or education, or ethnicity, or occupation. … What the Church realized is what Paul wrote in Galatians 3 (Gal 3:28) “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” That was a revolutionary idea in the ancient world. I suspect it is still a revolutionary idea if we truly grasp its full meaning and use it to guide us. AMEN
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