Romans 9-11

 Romans 9–11

Jesus healing a woman with a hemorrhage
from the Santa Marcellino Catacombs
3rd Century

This week we're looking at Romans 9–11.

These three chapters are usually called parenthetical.

People see them as chapters that are kind of inserted

that don’t have anything to do with the rest of the letter.

 

I guess if you see the letter as just a spiritual, theological treatise

it might seem detached, but I think it is very related to everything else.

Paul is asking the question:

What about the Jewish people who don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah?

He’s pondering about their belonging in the family and about their salvation.

If salvation comes through faith in Christ, then what about those who don't share that faith?

And more specifically, what about the people who first received God's promises?

What about the descendants of Abraham? What about Israel?

 

Paul is wrestling with a question that was clearly weighing on him,

and perhaps weighing on some members of the church in Rome as well.

Paul and the people in the church obviously have loved ones, friends, parents, siblings,

maybe even spouses who are not Christian.

What about them? I’m sure we can relate to that.

 

Paul starts out the chapter saying that he has great anguish

over the fact that not all of his kinfolk follow Jesus.

He’s found something wonderful and he’s sad that everyone he knows hasn’t found that same thing.

I’m sure we can relate to that.

 

Now Romans 9–11 has a reputation for being difficult

This question he’s asking leads Paul into some rough theological territory.

                                                                                                                                   

Here's how the logic often works. It’s happened in many a seminary class time and time again:

If we agree that we are saved by grace through faith, not by our works.

Then we say that faith itself is a gift from God, the work of the Holy Spirit.

Then someone asks, "If faith is God's gift, why do some people have faith and others don't?"

And before long somebody concludes that God

must choose some people for salvation, and others for condemnation.

 

That's called predestination.

Our Reformed and Presbyterians friends have been

been more comfortable with that conversation.

Lutherans, not so much.

 

Lutherans tend to get nervous when we start trying

to map out the inner workings of God's mind.

Lutherans just don’t want to go there.

One of my seminary professors claimed that Luther said,

"Don't look up God's skirt."

 

Now, I've never been able to verify the quote,

but it certainly sounds like something Luther might have said.

Whether he said it or not, it captures an important Lutheran instinct:

we get ourselves into trouble when we think we've figured God out.

 

My personal theory is that theologians

should be very careful with the question "Why?"

Why does God do what God does?

Job asked that question.

And God kind of yelled back at him:

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"

We heard part of that reading earlier.

For four chapters God basically says,

"You don't have enough information to judge what I'm doing."

 

Now when I ask "why," it gets me into trouble

for about ten minutes on one Sunday

When Paul asks "why,"

Christians argue about it for two thousand years.

 

But there's another reason these chapters are difficult.

They've often been used as a weapon against Jewish people.

It seems like it doesn’t take much for people to
use anything as a weapon against Jewish people.

For centuries Christians have read the whole of Romans and

come away with the basic conclusion that  Judaism is bad.

 

Christian Preachers  have used
Jews as the bad example in preaching forever.
“The Jews followed the law, but we follow faith.

The Jews missed it; Christians got it right.” is the basic argument.

Christians have been pitted against Jewish people
The Jewish religion is treated as if it’s the failed, beta version of God’s relationship with humans.
No matter how gentle it is the message becomes:

"Judaism bad. Christianity good."

And that is not faithful nor accurate.

 

I’m sure I’ve done this, especially early on in my ministry

although I’ve consciously tried to avoid it.
Preachers and theologians still do it to this day to varying degrees

some much worse than others.

 

 Luther did it blatantly and terribly in treatises against Jewish people

which is absolutely awful and there’s no excuse for it,

and was referred to extensively in Nazi Germany to support their horrors.

Which is ironic, since Luther was so against trying to make decisions for God.

As I said, asking “why” can be dangerous for theologians and everyone else.

Christians cannot pretend that our tradition has always handled these texts well.

 

Paul does talk about the shortfalls of the Jewish faith,

but remember, he was Jewish.

It’s different when you’re talking about your own.

And he does it, just to get to the end point.

There’s always a BUT at the end of the sentence in these chapters.

 

“Yes, the Israelites have stumbled BUT they haven’t fallen.

And their stumbling serves God’s purpose.”

I guess you could get something bad out of it,

but you really have to cherry-pick phrases to get to that.

 

Later in chapter 11. Paul says blatantly:

So has God rejected Isreal? By no means.

That could have been Paul's whole answer.

Paul could have stopped there and made my job easier.

But he does go onto the why and trying to look into God’s motives while, at the same time,

telling us to not look into God’s motives.

And that can make things confusing.

 

If we take these chapters as a whole, instead of cherry-picking.

We can see that Paul does not think that God has rejected the Jews.

And he’s not trying to heap any hate onto an already doubly- oppressed group.

 

We should not reduce the Jewish religion to a cautionary tale

We have to remember them as the people through whom God

gave the covenant, the law, the prophets, and ultimately Jesus himself.

 

Jewish people were a difficult conundrum for the Roman Empire.           

The Romans were very much into their imperial Cult, or worshipping

the Emperors along side various gods.

They believed that everyone’s worship and belief kept the Empire strong and victorious.

Everyone was expected to believe and worship and teach their children,

this was believed to have a direct effect on the outcomes.

If people stopped doing this, they believed

that they could be less successful, or even defeated.

Kind of like Tinkerbell, you had to believe or else the little fairy doesn’t live.

 

Now, the Roman Empire kind of prided themselves as religiously tolerant.

True and not true.

Since everyone was polytheistic, you could still worship

the gods of your ancestors, but people who were

occupied or taken into slavery in the Roman Empire

had to worship their gods/emperors along side the gods that they were used to.

 

Like I said Jewish people were a conundrum for the Romans.

Their whole thing was worshipping one God.

They insisted on NOT worshipping the Emperors.

This made them outcasts and outliers form the norm,

and people treated them with suspicion and hatred.

They were blamed for any lack of success the Empire had.

It’s kind of surprising that the Romans didn’t just destroy them

right off the bat.

 

I think Romans allowed the Jewish people to survive initially,

and to worship their one God because they were fascinated by them,

which would not be enough on it’s own.

But also because the Jewish people were resourceful and hardworking

and gave generously to their Temples.

I think the Romans put two and two together and noticed

that if they allowed them to worship as they wanted,

the people would give to their Jewish temples, and then

the Romans could take a little or a lot off the top when they needed it.

Otherwise, I’m guessing the Romans would have wiped them out, which they did later.

So for the mean time, the Jews were exempt from worshipping other gods and emperors.

 

The Jewish people could be ornery too.

Once, Caligula, the emperor before Claudius who exiled them,

tried to put a statue of himself up in the Jewish Temple

which led to uprisings and rebellions, which often happened,

The Romans acquiesced after a lot of negotiations and bloodshed.

There was an uneasy tension between Jewish people

and the Roman Empire for quite a few years.

It was in one of these tense times that Paul was writing this.

 

Then in 66 AD, about 10 years after the writing of this letter,        

the Jews in Jerusalem began a revolt against the Romans,

which eventually led to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70ad

The city was razed, and most of the people were killed or enslaved.

 

This is just a small blip on the tragic history of

the Jewish people and the least we can do is not

add to it by insulting them or suggesting that their relationship

to God is not valid or second tier or naive.

 

So when we read Romans 9–11, we need to do so carefully.

As I said, if you cherry-pick some passages, you could get these chapters

to say “Jews bad, Christians good”

But I don’t think Paul was saying that.

I’m going to try and  look more at the full meaning of these chapters.

 

At the beginning of chapter 9,

Paul certainly doesn't begin by rejecting Israel.

In fact, he says exactly the opposite.

He says that he’s got anguish that most of the Israelites don’t believe in Jesus,

and he says, he’s heartbroken because:

 

9:4-5                                                                                                               

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; ⁵ to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.

 

Paul starts this out by affirming the gifts God has given Israel.

He’s telling hearers clearly that the history of the Israelites is where Jesus came from.

God blessed forever.

 

But the question still of why most the Israelites don’t believe is still there.

And Paul goes onto the why.

 

To do that, Paul tells an abbreviated version of the story of                     

Jacob and Esau from Genesis.

 

Jacob and Esau are brothers, the children of Issac and Rebecca and

the grandchildren of Abraham and Sarah.

Jacob has an enchanted life and Esau, through no fault of his own really,

drew the short straw.

It’s really unfair when you hear it.

But the story says that Jacob is just blessed by God and Esau was not.       

  

9:10-15                                                                                                           

Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac: ¹¹ even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, ¹² not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.” ¹³ As it is written,

“I have loved Jacob,
    but I have hated Esau.”

 

¹⁴ What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 

¹⁵ For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
    and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

 

This is Paul getting into predetermination which is dangerous.

Especially when he uses the word hate.

(He’s not saying that Israelites are from Esau by the way.)

But Paul is saying that God has God’s reason for doing things.

And we’re not here to judge that.

God’s gonna do what God’s gonna do.

 

By the way, notice, Paul is using Jewish stories

in this chapter and actually throughout the letter.

He’s instilling an honor in the Jewish story and history.

The gentiles might have even needed to go and ask the

Jewish people what the whole story was about.

All of the Jewish people would have known that the story

of Jacob and Esau ends with them reuniting and choosing forgiveness over revenge.

 

Paul goes on:

 

9:19-24

¹⁹ You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”

 ²⁰ But who indeed are you, a human, to argue with God?

Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”

 ²¹ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?

 

Again, who are you to argue with God?

God is the potter and we are the clay.

Let God be God.

 

And Paul suggests that God has a motive for this.

He’s asking “why” which again, I do not advise theologically.

But here we are:

 

9:22-24                                                                       

 ²² What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction, ²³ and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴ including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the gentiles? 

 

So even though Paul doesn’t like that they reject the message of Jesus,

He’s saying that some people are used for faith

and some people are used for a different purpose.

Some people that don’t have faith in Jesus

are there in order to show God’s glory.

 

So even if people aren’t active believers,

God is still using people for his purposes.

 

I’ve seen this myself.

I know people are doing God’s work who never set foot in a church.

Or refuse to set foot in a church again.

Of course, people are healers, and workers of justice, and peace

without being Christian.

 

And there are some people who are not believers

Who are spreading God’s word, maybe inadvertently.

 

I’ve seen conversations on social media where some Christians

are spreading lies and half-truths about what the scriptures say,

about things like poverty, or immigrants, or LGBTQ people,

lots of times by misquoting Paul and this letter.

 

And I’ve seen long-time committed atheists and agnostics and non-church goers

respond by looking up scripture and quoting it back to them to correct them.

I really do think that God is using both,

the misquoting Christians, and the quoting atheists/agnostics

to further God’s message.

 

So then what??

 

Which leads us back to that sticky theological question:

so if some are not molded for faith, but for another purpose,

Then are they still saved, included, loved by God eternally, getting into heaven?

Who’s getting in? That’s our question.

  

And here’s what Paul has to say in the first part of Chapter 10.

 

10:5-8                                                 

⁵ Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” ⁶ But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it say?

“The word is near you,
    in your mouth and in your heart”

So, Paul is saying that in his old way of religious thinking – Moses- counts who did things right.
But the ones who trust the new way in Christ don’t ask who’s getting into heaven and who’s going to hell.

Again, the ones who trust in the new way in Christ don’t ask who’s getting into heaven who’s going to hell.

I wish some more Christian preachers would frame this one and hang it on the wall.

 

In other words, Stop trying to figure out who gets in and who doesn't.

Stop trying to keep score.

That would be very “law minded” of you to do that.

 

Stop trying to determine who is saved and who is condemned.

Christ has already come down.

Christ has already been raised.

God has already acted.

The Word is already near you.

 

And then Paul gives us this beautiful little piece:

¹⁴ But how are they to call on one in whom they have not trusted

And how are they to trust in one of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 

¹⁵ And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?

As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

 

Notice what Paul doesn't say.

He doesn't say:

"How beautiful are the feet of those who speculate about who is going to heaven."

He doesn't say:

"How beautiful are the feet of those who have figured out God's secret plan."

 

Now I watched quite a few preachers video

commentaries on these three chapters and none of them

seemed to take Paul’s overall advice,

instead they cherry-picked bits of the letter

to insinuate that if people wanted to be saved, included, part of the family,

then you’ll just have to convert, adapt, be like us, worship Jesus,

then God will love you.

Which is what some people are passing on as good news unfortunately.

 

Paul says

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.”

Bring the good news.

That's our job and that’s those preachers’ jobs.

Not managing salvation.

Not sorting humanity into categories.

Not deciding who is in and who is out.

Just proclaiming the good news of God's love.

No one is going to believe if we take all these other diversions.

 

As our Confessions Professor at Philadelphia was kind of famous for saying,

“Just preach the damn gospel” Pardon my French.

Could we just do that?

 

And furthermore, in chapter 11

Paul talks about the Olive Tree.

The olive tree is a metaphor for this whole, mysterious, faith family of God.

He directs this part specifically to the Gentiles hearing:

 

11:17-18                                                                     

Now I am speaking to you gentiles.                                                                                       

¹⁷ . . . if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted among the others to share the rich root of the olive tree, ¹⁸ do not boast over the branches.

If you do boast, remember: you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 

 

The Gentiles, Christians, have been grafted into something older than themselves.

The covenant didn't begin with us.

The story didn't begin with us.

The faith didn't begin with us.

We are guests who have been graciously welcomed into a story that was already unfolding.

 

I get the distinct feeling from reading this,

that it wasn’t the Jewish people asking this question about their relatives,

It was the gentiles trying to intimidate the Jewish people

by telling them that their relatives were not saved.

Which would make sense, considering their situation

between the gentiles and the Jewish people.

 

Paul's warning to Gentile Christians is clear:

Don't become arrogant.

Don't assume God's love for you means God's rejection of someone else.

Don't mistake inclusion for replacement.

You are nourished by the root.

The root is not nourished by you.

A good reminder for all of us

 

And finally, after three chapters of wrestling with these questions,

Paul reaches the only conclusion that really makes sense:

 

11:33-35         

³³ O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

³⁴ “For who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?”
³⁵ “Or who has given a gift to him,
    to receive a gift in return?”

 

In other words:

 

God is God.

And we are not.

And God doesn’t owe us anything, not even an explanation.

 

So again, ironically, the problems that have come from this segment of Romans

trying to question God’s motives and choices

and trying to exclude Jewish people who don’t follow Christ-

none of those things are Paul’s .

He just doesn’t do it in this letter.

He’s not trying to burden and divide these people in the church in Rome.

He’s trying to bring them together to be one family.

 

Maybe that's the real message of Romans 9–11.

God's mercy is bigger than our categories.

God's faithfulness is deeper than our understanding.

God's covenant is stronger than our assumptions.

 

Our calling is not to solve every mystery.

Our calling is to trust God's mercy, proclaim God's love,

and leave the final judgment to God.

 

Or, as Luther may or may not have said:

Stop looking up God's skirt,

and just preach the gospel.