True Israel
Romans 11
Will Fitzgerald
Kalamazoo Mennonite Fellowship
August 30, 2009
Last week, we reviewed again how God really does have a plan in mind for humankind, a plan that started from the foundations of the world, and focused more and more on Israel, until the one true son of Israel, Jesus, came, not only for Israel, but that “no one who believes in him will be put to shame,” and, with respect to the love and grace of God, there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, but “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Israel became the “object of wrath”—or, more particularly, Jesus became the object of wrath, so that all can be objects of mercy. Paul reminded us that there has always been just a remnant of people who have the outward appearance of being followers of the Lord God who were, in fact, true followers of the Lord God, until, finally, all of but one person out of all of Israel rejected God’s way—this one, of course, being Jesus, the son of man, the son of David. Consider: even his closest (Jewish) followers abandoned him at the end. But Jesus descended into the world of the dead, and ascended into heavens, and the gospel is proclaimed to all.
Does this mean that, since the people of God rejected God’s plan for them, that God has rejected the people of God? Paul says “by no means,” and gives several reasons for this.
First, he reminds them that he himself is a Jew; therefore, God has not rejected all Jews. And, of course, his readers and we know that many of Jesus’s Jewish followers had returned and become part of the remnant of the faithful ones (vv 11:1-7).
Second, he again reminds them that the “stumbling” of Israel was part of God’s plan to bring grace to all the world.
Third, he expresses a wish that God’s grace to the Gentile Christians will make Jews jealous, and want to return to God to receive the same grace.
Forth, he reminds them that we haven’t seen the end of God’s plan yet. To the Gentiles at Rome, he warns them not to be proud, but to realize that they are “wild branches” who have been grafted into the vine of Israel, and they could easily be broken off. To the Jews, he reminds them that God remains committed to his covenantal promise Should all be proved liars, God will still be proved true to God’s covenant. He says this very cryptic remark: “a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved.”
He reminds them that God’s ways are particularly hard to understand, and that it shouldn’t be too surprising if we don’t understand it all.
It is unlikely that we’ll understand it all. Or perhaps, even much of it. But there are a few things that we know that Paul didn’t know, not because we are smarter than Paul, but because we live roughly as long since the time of Paul and Jesus and they did since the time of Abraham.
Here are some things that we know now that Paul did not know:
His wish that the grace shown to Gentiles would make Jews jealous did not happen. Paul believed that God would extend grace to all the world, and so he would not be surprised at the modern church being almost completely Gentile. But from almost its earliest days, once the Gentiles were in the firm majority, there has been strong enmity between those who call themselves followers of Jesus, and those who continued to call themselves Jews, and some of the enmity (and, though it is not Paul’s fault, it is certainly true) is rooted in the words of Paul himself.
He did not foresee the general anti-semitism, and the violent anti-Jewish riots that have sprung up, time and again, and in many different places; the rioters often using their Christianity as a weapon rather than as a means of love, accusing Jews of being Christ-killers and of using the blood of Christian children in their rituals. He did not foresee how this action by those who are called Christians would inspire the Nazi holocaust of six million Jews. And he did not foresee how this would lead to the establishment of a Jewish state of Israel. And he did not foresee that another large religious movement, Islam, would spring up of Jewish, Christian and pagan soil and rival Christianity in size—and whose followers would often be haters of Jews (although with some exceptions, of course).
Any modern discussion by Christians about Jews must, I believe, consider these facts about the world.
So, what should we do, we who call ourselves followers of Jesus, especially we who call ourselves Mennonites?
Paul leaves lots of doubts about what constitutes “True Israel,” that is, the faithful remnant. We should accept the grace that God gives us, and work at faithfully following the law of Christ.
We should be hesitant in our judgments and statements about how God is acting in the world, especially with respect to Jews in Jewish-Christian relationships. Paul’s reminder about being “wild grafts” is good to remember.
We should be hesitant in expressing our judgements about our own special status before God (and the lack of said for others.) And, we remember Paul’s reminder. And we remember that there have been many who have been sure of their own special status before God that have acted in ungodly ways, ways small, large, and extra large. We remember, as a warning to ourselves, that the Mennonites in Prussia supported the Nazi party in the run-up to World War II.
We should be very hesitant about taking sides in the politics of Israel and and the Middle East. Some Mennonites are strongly pro-Israel based on an end-times theology that owes more to certain early 20th century American views of the end of the world than either a clear and careful reading of Scripture permits. Some Mennonites are strongly anti-Israel because of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. It is certainly easy to read material from the Mennonite Central Committee and Christian Peacemaker Teams and conclude that only Israel is acting in bad faith, despite clear evidence to the contrary. I would be happier if MCC and CPT were more active at building bridges of peace among enemies rather than taking sides. (For one Jewish perspective on the later, see a report by the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs, although I disagree strongly with certain aspects of that report.)
What I have said might suggest that I am unsure whether God still has a plan for the world. By no means! It is not, perhaps, as clear as I might want it to be—but that is my problem, not God’s! I don’t know if we’re building the kingdom of God, or extending it, or waiting for it, or receiving it. Whatever is going on, it both is and is-not: I see the grace of God active in the world through many means, and I see the failures of humans all around. I must finish with the same words I used last week:
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever.