The Statue of Liberty greets people
from distant lands and on her pedestal is a poem written by Emma Lazarus. Here is a portion of that poem:
"Give
me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of
your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the
golden door!"
What an amazing invitation! I can’t imagine what it was like for early
immigrants traveling across an unforgiving ocean to see such a sight as the
Statue of Liberty. While this monument may
be symbolic of different things for different people I think it can be
generally agreed upon that it is, above all else, an invitation. Maybe this open door leads to freedom compared
to where you were. Maybe it is a door of
opportunity. Maybe it is a new
start. No matter what ‘it’ is, it is
only the beginning. This is only the
invitation.
Immigration reform has once again
bubbled back to the surface of political conversations and each time that it
does I can’t help but think of the invitation we hear from Jesus.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”—Matthew 11:28
I don’t know what influenced Lazarus
as she wrote her poem but I get the sense that it just might have been the
invitation of Jesus. She seems to get
it. She understands the kind of burdens
that people carry. She understands the
hope and the freedom a new door can offer and Jesus by all means is offering a
new door, a new way, to people that are weighed down by the troubles of this
world.
Not only do immigration conversations
make me think of the invitation of Jesus but also the dilemma of the early
church. The invitation of Jesus was
extended beyond the borders of Israel so that even Gentiles were responding to
Jesus as Lord and Savior. When the door
to God’s family was opened up to outsiders this led to issues for those on the
inside, the Jews. How do you graft in
the Gentiles? How do they become
citizens of God’s Kingdom? Citizenship
as a Jew was clearly defined and Gentiles didn’t fit the definition. Some felt that in order to walk through the
door they needed to become like the Jews.
Gentiles needed to give up certain practices and the guys in particular
needed to be circumcised like every good law abiding Jew. Undoubtedly there were Gentile males who did
just that. Still others wondered if
there was another way into this Kingdom.
When the apostles gathered together
to discuss this issue they came to an amazing decision. Peter concludes that ‘we should not make it
difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.’ (Acts 15:19) And with that
end in mind, they provide a few things for Gentiles to abide by and disregard other
things like circumcision. The magnitude
of that decision cannot be overstated. Circumcision
was deeply rooted in their identity as Jews and they set it aside for the sake
of their newly grafted brothers in Christ.
Two groups of people would have been
upset with this decision. First, there
would have been Jews who still felt that circumcision was a part of their
identity and disagreed with the apostle’s conclusion. We see those divisions reflected in numerous
books of the New Testament as people like Paul went around and had to convince them
that this was indeed an implication of the gospel of Christ. Another group of people who would have been
upset with this decision would have been those Gentile males who got
circumcised because some Jews said they had to go under the knife. They may have had a mixture of emotions. They could have been upset with the fact that
they went through that painful procedure for nothing. Ultimately, they didn’t have to do it and
maybe felt tricked. They also may have
felt angry at the Gentile males who avoided the knife via the apostles decision. I imagine they would have been jealous of the
Gentiles who got into God’s Kingdom without paying the same physical price that
they did.
Do you want to know who didn’t
disagree with this decision? A bunch of
uncircumcised Gentiles! The golden door
into God’s Kingdom was no longer blocked by a huge boulder rolled there by ‘the
circumcision group’. This decision was
overflowing with grace toward the outsiders but catch this. IT WASN’T FAIR! It wasn’t fair to the already circumcised
Jews or the newly circumcised Gentiles but it was by all means graceful toward
the Gentiles at the door. If grace is
anything it is unfair and the apostles knew that. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection had
nothing to do with fairness.
Take the time to read Jesus’ parable about
a vineyard owner. (Matthew 20:1-16) The owner
hires some people in the morning, some later in the day and others at the end
of the day. When it comes time to pay
them, they all get the same wage and workers are outraged. Everyone except the people hired last. Overlap that with what we see in Acts. Can you see how envious the circumcised Jews
and Gentiles would have been that the uncircumcised Gentiles got the same wage? Gain without the pain? It wasn’t fair but it
was generous. The owner responds, “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you
envious because I am generous?”
I strongly believe that things like
Jesus’ invitation to the weary and burdened or the situation in Acts can
provide helpful insights into immigration reform. However, that is not my priority here. America is NOT God’s Kingdom and the Statue
of Liberty is NOT Jesus. My priority is
the church that Christ loved (Ephesians 5:25) and whether or not we are
adequately reflecting the invitation of Jesus in the way that people are
grafted into God’s Kingdom. We need
people protecting the door but not in the way that too often happens. We need people on the lookout for boulders
and the people trying to push them in front of the door. If you’ve ever sat in church and wondered why
new people aren’t coming in, you may want to check out what’s been going on at
the figurative front door. Are there any
figurative stumbling blocks to people coming in? Do what Paul tells the church in Rome and ‘make
up your mind not to put any stumbling block
or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister’.
Oh! And while you’re out there you
may want offer the invitation of Jesus to a world that desperately needs it.
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