SHATTERING WALLS
DR. JIM DIXON
GALATIANS 3:28
JULY 17, 1994
Jericho is little more than a desert oasis; Yet this little town, seventeen miles east of Jerusalem and ten miles north of the Dead Sea, may have a bright future. Yasser Arafat has said that he may establish his residence in Jericho. He has even said he may establish the government of Palestine in Jericho. Jericho is a very old city that was first built in the eighth millennium before Christ. Some archeologists claim that Jericho is the oldest city on the earth. Regardless of Jericho’s future, it will always be supremely remembered for its past. In particular, it will be remembered for one event that happened there long ago. A little over than 3,000 years ago, Joshua led the children of Israel across the River Jordan and into the promised land. A little over 3,000 years ago, Joshua fought the battle at Jericho. You know the story. The children of Israel marched around the city of Jericho once a day for six days. On the seventh day they marched around the city seven times. When the trumpets sounded, the walls of that fortress city came tumbling down. That battle was not won by the children of Israel, not by their power. It was not won by Joshua, not by his power. That battle was won by the power of almighty God. It was God who shattered the walls of the city of Jericho.
The Bible indicates that God wants to shatter a few walls today. This morning as we examine this one verse, Galatians 3:28, we will examine three walls that God wants to shatter by the power of Jesus Christ. The first wall is a racial wall. God wants to shatter the wall of racism. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. That is what Galatians 3:28 states. The Jews and the Greeks hated each other. The Jews referred to the Greeks as Gentiles. The Jews called them unclean and sometimes referred to them as dogs. The Greeks called the Jews barbarians as they called all races outside of their own. The hatred between Jew and Greek manifests the racism that has plagued our world in times past and plagues our world today. God hates racism. In the body of Christ amongst the people of Christ, there is no room for racism. God wants to shatter racial walls.
Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan. A man traveling on the Jerusalem–Jericho Road fell among thieves who stripped him, beat him, and robbed him. They left him half dead by the side of the road. A priest came by, saw the half-dead man but passed by without giving any help. A Levite came by and saw this wounded man. He did the same, passing him by and offering no assistance. The priest and the Levite represented the best of Judaism. Then a Samaritan came and is the hero of the story. It is impossible for us to understand the impact that this story had upon the audience Jesus was addressing, an audience of Jews. The Jewish people hated the Samaritans. Seven hundred and twenty-two years before Christ, Assyria conquered Israel. In the middle portion of Israel in the region of Samaria, many of the Assyrians intermarried with Jewish people, thereby creating a new race, a mixed race called the Samaritans. The Jewish, the pure-blooded Jewish people, referred to the Samaritans as half breeds. They believed that the Samaritans had polluted their blood and their religion. They hated the Samaritans. Racial hatred. Jesus intentionally made the hero of this story the Samaritan, the good Samaritan.
In Israel in the time of Jesus, a good Samaritan was an oxymoron. There was no such thing as a good Samaritan. But Jesus was seeking to shatter the walls of racism. He wants to shatter the walls of racism today.
Twenty-seven years ago, Richard Graves was a high school student from the South, a red-haired kid from Alabama. He went to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp at Black Mountain, North Carolina. Richard hated Black people. He had been raised that way. When he arrived at the Fellowship of Christian Athlete camp, he discovered that his roommate in the Robert E. Lee Hall was Black. He was enraged. He was indignant. He told the people who were running the camp that he did not want to have a Black roommate. He was indignant and made a real stink about it. Two nights later, Richard accepted Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior at that camp. He asked Jesus Christ to come into his heart, to save him from his sin, to sit on the throne of his life, and to be his Lord. On the last night of camp, Richard stood up and wept. He cried in front of 1,000 boys and asked the Black people at that camp to forgive him for his racism. Less than two years later, Richard died. He died in Vietnam. He died by throwing his body on a hand grenade, saving the eighteen men in his unit. Fourteen of those men were Black. He gave his life to save those eighteen men, fourteen of whom were Black.
What happened to Richard Graves? How do you explain this transformation, that a man who was thoroughly racist, who hated Black people, ended up dying for Black people? How do you explain that transformation? You explain it by the power of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ wants to shatter racial walls, and He has the power to do it in your life. He has the power to do it in my life.
Branch Rickey was a great Christian man, famous in the world of baseball. He led, for a period of time, the St. Louis Cardinals and then the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1947 when Branch Rickey was the president and manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he recruited Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to play ball in the major leagues. When Branch Rickey recruited Jackie Robinson, he told him it was going to be tough. “You’re going to take abuse. You’re going to be ridiculed. You’re going to receive more verbal punishment than you ever imagined possible, but I will back you all the way. You need to be determined to make it work.” Jackie Robinson played second base for the Brooklyn Dodgers and was determined to make it work. One day he was having a particularly bad game. He muffed a few grounders and struck out at the plate. When he overthrew first base, the crowd began to boo. The chorus of boos filled the stadium. They did not like this man. He was Black, the only Black player in the major leagues. The boos echoed throughout the stadium.
Then something wonderful happened. A man named Pee Wee Reese, who played shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers, a White man from the south, came out of the dugout, went up to Jackie Robinson, and put his arms around him. He embraced Jackie Robinson. The crowd did not know what to do. They stopped their booing. They were moved. Jackie Robinson later said that the moment Pee Wee Reese put his arms around and embraced him at that stadium was a turning point in his life and career.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in Him as your Lord? Have you taken Him as your Savior? If you have, God wants you to find ways to embrace other races in front of the whole world. God, by the power of His Son, wants to shatter racism in your life and mine. We have an opportunity. On September 25 at McNichols Sports Arena there is going to be a great Christian event called Denver Link. A lot of Black people will be there. There are going to be a lot of Hispanic people there. There are going to be some Asian people there. Hopefully, there will be a lot of White people there. It will be an opportunity to come together in the name of Jesus Christ to worship and to shatter racial walls. I hope you set that date aside.
I love our church. I have said in times past this is a very White church. I wish that were not so. I wish that we had more Hispanics, more Blacks, more people of other races in this sanctuary each Sunday morning. I hope it has nothing to do with racism. I assume it has to do with where our church is located. In some ways I wish our church was a little more like the Heritage Christian Center where there is a mixture of races. I believe Christ wants that. Christ loves all people—red, yellow, black, and white. He wants us to do the same.
Secondly, God, by the power of Christ, wants to shatter economic and socioeconomic walls. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. In the biblical world at the time of Christ, there were sixty million slaves in the Roman Empire. The entire Roman economic system was predicated on the existence, the reality of slavery. There was tremendous socioeconomic diversity and tremendous socioeconomic prejudice. Jesus Christ wants to shatter socioeconomic walls. This does not mean that the Bible teaches socialism or communism. God does not expect all people to have the same socioeconomic level. But if socioeconomic walls are to be shattered, we, as Christians, need to value all people equally regardless of their socioeconomic status.
The Apostle James writes, “Show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘Have a seat here, please,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘Stand there’ or ‘Sit at my feet,’ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:1-4). “Show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” (James 2:1). Value all people the same. If socioeconomic walls are to be shattered, we must as Christians be sensitive to the socioeconomic needs of people.
That is why Jesus Christ told the story of the rich man and Lazarus. You remember that story. Jesus told us that the rich man went straight to hell when he died. Why did he go to hell? It was not because he was rich. It was because he had a poor man named Lazarus living at his very gates, and the rich man did not care. We do not know why Lazarus was poor. We do not know whether he was lazy or whether he was crippled or whether he was oppressed. We just know he was poor, and he was at this rich man’s very gate. This rich man, however, did not care. There is poverty at the gates all over America. Do we care? Are we sensitive to the needs of people?
Some of you have heard of William Booth. William Booth was a 19th century evangelist, a great man of Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit, he caught a glimpse of the late 20th century. William Booth prophesied that in the 20th century Christian preachers would preach religion without the Holy Spirit. They would preach Christianity without Christ. They would preach forgiveness without regeneration. They would preach morality without God. They would preach heaven without hell. His prophecy has proven all too accurate as we see some of these things in our time. William Booth’s greatest nightmare was the preaching of Christ without compassion. How can you separate Jesus Christ from compassion?
In 1865, William Booth first went into the inner city of London. He saw the slums. He saw people starving and sleeping in the gutters. He began to cry and weep. It was the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He cried all the way home. When he got home, he told his wife, Catherine, what he saw. He said, “I’ve been to hell. I’ve been to hell.” But he did not just curse the darkness. He lit a candle. He founded the Salvation Army, which continues to minister in the inner cities across America, seeking to break down socioeconomic walls in the name of Jesus Christ.
You have all heard the word ghetto. Originally the word ghetto referred to a section of a city that was reserved for Jews, the Jewish quarter. People living in the ghetto were separated from the rest of society. They were denied many of the privileges of the masses. They were normally impoverished. Today the word ghetto can refer to any impoverished section. Ghettos are tragic. There is a sense in which, if you really believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you are called to be ghetto blasters. I do not mean to make light of this. There is a sense in which all of us who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are called to be ghetto blasters.
At this church, at Cherry Hills Community Church, we seek to give you opportunities to be ghettos blasters. We seek to give you opportunities to break down socioeconomic walls. Our tutoring program is an example of that. We literally need hundreds of you to go into the inner city to tutor inner-city children. You can pick them up at their home or at school and take them to one of our inner-city churches with which we are linked. You can teach them about Jesus Christ, tell them about the love of Christ, show them the love of Christ as you work with them on their homework that they might receive a better education, that they might grow up and have the dignity of employment. You can break down socioeconomic walls, and you can do it in the name of Christ with the love of Christ if you are willing. If you are willing to labor in this effort, we invite you to talk to Gene Kissinger. Call the church, and ask for Gene. He’ll tell you what you can do.
Finally, God, by the power of Christ, wants to shatter gender walls. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female. God wants to shatter gender walls. You may have heard of the ancient race of women called the Amazons. When we were in Ephesus not too long ago, our church group was split into two groups. Our tour guide in Ephesus was a young woman. She told us that the city of Ephesus had originally been built by the Amazons. She treated this as a historical fact, and she seemed to take great pride in it. Most historians doubt that the Amazon race ever existed.
According to mythology, the Amazons were a race of women who lived in Anatolia, which is modern day western Turkey where the ruins of Ephesus reside. According to mythology, these Amazon women joined the Trojans in their battle against the Greeks at the Trojan War. According to mythology, this race of warrior women hated men. They had nothing to do with men. They killed all their male offspring and reared only the females. They created a society of women ruled by a powerful queen. Every once in a while they would capture a male for the sake of procreation and then discard him.
They probably never existed, but today psychologists claim that the Amazon myth is a manifestation of the subconscious hostility that exists between men and women, a manifestation of the battle of the sexes. God does not want there to be a battle of the sexes, certainly not in the community of Christ. By the power of Christ, God wants to shatter gender walls.
Some of you may have read John Gray’s book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. It is one of today’s best sellers. This Ph.D. claims that men and women are extremely different. He states that men are focused on power and achievement and women are primarily focused on beauty and relationship. The book acknowledges that these are generalizations but states that they tend to be true. Dr. Gray does not try to explain why men and women are different.
There are many theories out there. Some say it has to do with the left brain and the right brain. Some say it has to do with being bipolar or monopolar in the brain. Some say it has to do with chemistry, with genetics, with the environment. But clearly men and women are different. The Bible indicates that God has designed men and women differently. To some extent God has designed different roles for men and women.
The traditional Christian view is that God meant for men to have the role of breadwinner and women, particularly if they have children, God meant to have the role of nurturer or homemaker. You can find some biblical support for these roles in scripture, but God never intended for these roles to be straitjackets. He intended for these roles to be pathways to blessing and fulfillment. God never intended that these roles be gender exclusive as though men could not be involved in nurturing their children or women could not be involved in breadwinning. When you go to the pages of scripture, it is clear that in terms of nurturing children oftentimes men are told, instructed, exhorted, commanded to nurture their children. In Proverbs 31 it is clear that women are, by the plan of God, properly involved at times in breadwinning.
The important thing, biblically, is that men and women learn to honor each other. In the midst of our differences and in the midst of our roles, we are to honor each other equal before God. We are created in the image of God. The Bible affirms, “male and female created He them” (Genesis 1:27). Male and female are created in the image of God. And in Jesus Christ, those of us who belong to Christ are co-heirs of the grace of Christ with an equal inheritance in heaven. The Bible says to Christian husbands, “Live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor upon the woman” (1 Peter 3:7). Wives are exhorted to honor their husbands. The Bible says to all of us, “Outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:10).
In the time of Christ, in the time of Paul, every morning, when the average Jewish man woke up, he said his morning benedictions. There were three of them. “Blessed be God who did not make me a Gentile. Blessed be God who did not make me a slave. Blessed be God who did not make me a woman.” That is what Jewish men said every morning. There is no doubt that the Apostle Paul, a Jew by blood and birth, grew up saying those three benedictions. “Blessed be God who did not make me a Gentile. Blessed be God who did not make me a slave. Blessed be God who did not make me a woman.” But in Christ, on that Damascus Road, the Apostle Paul was transformed. There is no doubt that when he wrote Galatians 3:28 by the power of the Holy Spirit it was in the face of those Jewish benedictions. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
In fairness to the Jewish people, we must say that their gender prejudice was common throughout the world at that time. Plato and Socrates both wrote that they were grateful for three things—they were made human and not a beast, that they were made Greek and not barbarian, and they were made men and not women. As you look at Christ, as you go through the pages of scripture, you see that He treated men and women with equal dignity. Look at the way Jesus treated Mary and Martha. Consider the friendship He had with them. Look at His relationship with Mary Magdalene. Look at the way He treated the woman at the well. He was defying social taboos, breaking down gender wails, treating men and women as equals.
By the power of Christ, He would have us do the same. No racial walls. No socioeconomic wails. No gender walls. As we conclude it is appropriate to say that there is a spiritual wall greater than any other wall that separates men and women from God the world over. This is the wall above all others that Christ wants to annihilate and destroy. All over the world, there are men and women separated from God by a great wall. All over this world there are some people who wonder whether God is even on the other side of the wall. All over the world there are men and women who enter into the religions of the world seeking to catch a glimpse of what is on the other side of the wall. Only Jesus Christ has the power to shatter the wall. When Jesus died on Calvary’s cross, the Bible tells us that in the Jerusalem Temple between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place, that veil, from top to bottom, was torn in two.