Jesus Crossed Boundaries: The Jews and the Gentiles
Jesus Crossed Boundaries: The Jews and the Gentiles.
“If the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you – a wild olive branch – were grafted in among them and have become equal sharers in the rich root of the olive tree, then don’t boast as if you were better than the original branches! However, if you do boast, remember that you are not supporting the root, the root is supporting you!” (Romans 11:1-18).
The Olive Tree. The prominence of the olive tree in the Holy Land led to it being a meaningful symbol throughout Israel and the Scriptures:
(1.) Reconciliation and Peace. The ancient olive tree was the first tree to bud after the Flood, and signified a renewal of the relationship between God, man and nature. “After waiting another seven days, Noah released the dove again. This time the dove returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone.” (Genesis 8:11).
(2.) Healthy Children in a Happy Home. A satisfying and fulfilling family life is the one of the blessings of following God’s ways. “Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table. That is the Lord’s blessing for those who fear Him.” (Psalm 128:3-4).
(3.) Beauty and Splendor. The wood of the olive tree is known for its amazing grain and striking appearance. And the tree itself is a fascinating picture when it gets older, with its twisting and turning trunk and the unexpected knots throughout. It is an evergreen with smooth bark, and its leaf has a beautiful shade of silvery green. “I will be to Israel like a refreshing dew from heaven. Israel will blossom like the lily; it will send roots deep into the soil like the cedars of Lebanon. Its branches will spread out like beautiful olive trees.” (Hosea 14:5-6).
(4.) Joy and Gladness. When someone rubbed olive oil onto their face, it began to look like the face was shining, radiant with happiness. Thus olive oil came to symbolize the look on the face after using the oil. “You love justice and hate evil. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.” (Psalm 45:7).
(5.) The Person who is Flourishing, Growing and Fruitful. Because the olive orchard was a common scene of healthy growth and fruitfulness, it became a symbol for the person who was likewise. This passage highlights that this person is flourishing because he is planted in the house of God where he can grow roots in God’s love and worship Him to his heart’s content. “I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God’s mercy.” (Psalm 52:8).
(6.) The Nation of Israel. Unfortunately, this prophecy of Jeremiah speaking the word of the Lord contains His voice of judgment because of their stubborn persistence in idolatry. “I, the Lord of hosts, Yahweh of Heaven’s Armies, who planted this olive tree, have ordered it destroyed. For the people of Israel and Judah have done evil, arousing my anger by burning incense to Baal.” (Jeremiah 11:17).
(7.) The Jews and the Gentiles. Paul is inspired in Romans 11:17-24 to provide for us a picture of God’s arrangement regarding the Chosen People of both the Old and New Covenants. The cultivated olive tree represents Israel, and the wild olive tree represents the Gentiles. The farmer tending the cultivated tree enables it to bear fruit by pruning and nurturing it carefully. He trims and discards the branches that are unproductive, and he keeps the roots of the tree intact. Out of tree’s holy root will come the Chosen One. The Gentiles have weak roots, because they are wild and uncultivated. The branches of this wild olive tree were thus incapable of bearing fruit. But then the farmer, out of sheer mercy, took an unproductive branch from the wild tree and grafted it onto the cultivated tree. This grafting would succeed in nourishing the wild branch, giving it new life and enabling it to bear fruit. This is a picture of how Gentile believers can now share in Israel’s blessings through its Messiah, who is the root of the cultivated olive tree. Paul says that the Gentile believers do not replace Israel, that they were grafted onto the Jews through Jesus. Israel remains God’s cultivated tree, His Chosen People even now, and through the Messiah is the source of salvation for all Gentile believers. Christians are branches growing from the Jewish tree, from the root of Christ. Both Israel and the Christian Church are a part of one cultivated olive tree and are given life through Jesus Messiah.
(8.) The Holy Spirit. Olive oil has been used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit throughout the New Testament. It is even directly implied in the inspired word choice of Messiah, which means “Anointed One.” In a spiritual vision of Zechariah (4:1-6), he was given a symbolic prophecy of a golden lampstand, otherwise called a candlestick or a menorah, the official source of light in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple. This lampstand always symbolizes the nation of Israel. This lampstand in the vision is miraculously fueled by the two olive trees on each side of it that continuously pour out its olive oil into the bowl that stores the oil, on top of the lampstand. This ongoing source of oil assures that the lampstand will have a continuous supply of oil so that it will be lit constantly. The light of the lampstand will never go out because of its supply of olive oil. Israel will be once again restored and will achieve its high calling of being a light to the world, illumination for all the nations, as it is empowered by the oil of the Holy Spirit. The Lord made this abundantly clear by including in this vision these memorable words, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” (Zech. 4:6). This brings to mind the powerful vision of John in Revelation 1, where we see Jesus “tending the lampstands,” which means He was providing the fuel, He was making sure the lampstands were lit. In other words, Jesus was the olive tree providing the Holy Spirit so those seven churches could thrive as lights in their world!
The Mystery of the Gospel for the Jews and the Gentiles:
“If you read what I have written, you will be able to understand my insight into this mystery concerning the Messiah. In past generations, it was not made known to mankind, as the Spirit is now revealing it to God’s holy apostles and prophets; This mystery is that through the Gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together with the Jews in God’s promise in the Messiah Jesus.” (Ephesians 3:4-6).
MYSTERY: a sacred secret hidden in the heart of God until the appointed time of revelation; a truth that can only be known by divine disclosure; spiritual insights into God’s way of thinking and planning; hidden truths revealed by God that are beyond human intellect and reason; divine knowledge that can only be understood through the Holy Spirit; God’s thoughts and plans revealed to believers and hidden to doubters and unbelievers.
“I do not want you to miss this mystery, brothers and sisters: an insensibility, a hardness, has temporarily befallen a part of Israel to last until the full number of the ingathering of the Gentiles has come in. And then all Israel will be saved… ‘This will be My covenant, My promise, says the Lord, with them, when I shall take away their sins.’ But from the point of view of God’s divine selection, they are still the beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable; He never withdraws them once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.” (Romans 11:25, 27-29).
Various thoughts from St. Paul, who of course is a Messianic Jew called to be the apostle to the Gentiles, “who was given the privilege of announcing to the Gentiles the Good News of the Messiah’s unfathomable riches.” (Ephesians 3:8). The primary mystery of this aspect of the Gospel is explained well in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 2:13-16, “But now in Christ Jesus, you Gentiles who were once so far away, through the blood of Messiah have been brought near. For Christ is our shalom, our peace, our bond of unity and harmony. He has made us, both Jew and Gentile, one body, and has broken down and abolished the hostile dividing wall between us, by destroying in His own crucified flesh the division caused by the Torah with its decrees and ordinances; that He from the two might create in Himself one new body, one new quality of humanity out of the two, and so making peace. He designed to reconcile to God both Jew and Gentile, united in a single body by means of His Cross, thereby bringing the feud to an end.” (Ephesians 2:13-16). The following thoughts are from Romans 11:
(1.) Jews and Gentiles alike are part of God’s chosen people through the Messiah Jesus. “By trusting in Jesus, Gentiles are equal partners with Jews in the body of Messiah and are made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ.” (The Complete Jewish Bible, translated by Dr. David Stern).
(2.) The Gospel of grace has grafted the Gentiles, (“branches from a wild olive tree“), onto Abraham’s tree, (“a cultivated olive tree“), through Messiah. Paul expands on this mystery in Romans 11:17-24.
(3.) Because of God’s grafting, Jew and Gentile have become equal sharers in the rich nourishment of the roots of Abraham’s tree. Gentile Christians should rightly be grateful for the Jewish roots of their Christian faith. In a real sense then, Christianity is a Jewish religion. As Bible translator Dr. Brian Simmons puts it, “Our Messiah is Jewish and the Scriptures we read were given to the beloved Jewish people. So we Christians feast on the New Covenant riches that have been handed down to us through the ‘olive tree’ of Judaism.”
(4.) Both Jewish and Gentile believers share equally in God’s inheritance by being called God’s children. As mutual partakers, they both enjoy the promise of God’s eternal blessings, because they are in union with Christ. “For in union with the Messiah Jesus, you are all children of God through your trusting faithfulness; because as many of you as were immersed into the Messiah have clothed yourselves with Him, in whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor freeman, neither male nor female; for in union with the Messiah Jesus, you are all one. If you belong to Jesus, you are seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29).
(5.) God’s revelation concerning salvation was directed first to the Jews as His chosen people in the early Covenant.
(6.) Gentile believers are extensions of the Jews, God’s Chosen People. They are included, but they do not replace the Jews as the original people of God.
(7.) Jewish and Gentile believers are bound together in Christ, in anticipation of the restoration of Israel, when all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26).
(8.) The restoration of Israel will include the blessing of all nations, and Israel will be a light to the whole world.
(9.) It is Messiah Jesus who gives significance to everything in the body, including Jew and Gentile, which is the basis of equality among the many varieties of believers.
(10.) Gentile believers remain Gentile, Jewish believers remain Jews, but there should be no division between them, since they are united in Christ.
(11.) To be included in the mystery of salvation, both Jew and Gentile alike must believe in Messiah Jesus. Their body of fellowship is made up of those who call on the name of Christ.
(12.) For the most part in Romans 11, the “you” is singular, which highlights that each of us is personally grafted onto the Olive tree.
(13.) Paul makes the point that the final target of the Torah has always been Messiah Jesus. The goal of the Law has always been aiming towards Christ.
(14.) Paul prophecies that Israel will endure a temporary stoniness, a hardness of heart, a veil over their eyes, until the Gentile world enters into its fullness. And this is the way that all Israel will be saved. The Gentiles will, with humility hopefully, attract the Jewish people to Jesus as the Messiah, to provoke them to a jealousy because of the witness of the Gentiles’ life and faith in Christ. This temporary rejection of Jesus by the Jews will actually bring salvation to the Gentiles, who in in turn will stimulate Jewish faith in Jesus as the Messiah. This will result in a greater outpouring of faith and the coming salvation of Israel.