Tear Down This Wall!

History is full of images and stories about walls: the Great Wall of China or the Iron Curtain. Walls keep people in, out and apart. Perhaps the hardest walls to bring down are not made of brick or wire or surveillance cameras - they are raised in the mind and heart. Paul has been writing on the enmity between the Gentiles and the Jews and Christ's power to reconcile them. He has more to teach on this point, drawing on the image of a wall that separates the two groups. That wall needed to come down in order to replace the two hostile groups with one reconciled people. This text explains how Jesus made peace between enemies: i.) the old wall came down (vv.14-15); ii.) the two groups came togehter (vv.15-16); the new man comes to God (vv.17-18).