That the
Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise
in Christ through the gospel, Ephesians 3:6
Anywhere on
the Bus
In
accordance with Southern “Jim Crow” laws at the time, Parks was arrested and
charged with disorderly conduct. She was fined $14.00, plus court costs. Her
case was appealed but was denied. However, her quiet and courageous act would
become the premier event that began the American Civil Rights Movement and
was instrumental in bettering racial relations nationally.
Rosa Parks arrest by the Montgomery, AL, PD,
December 1, 1955
In the early
church there was a lot of bigotry by Jews toward the Gentiles. Jewish belief had
always been that any association with them made them ceremonially unclean. As
far as any Jew was concerned, no Gentile sat at the back of the bus, they
weren’t even allowed on the bus.
Paul’s
preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles is one of the main reasons Jewish leaderships
were always so annoyed with him. Jealousy was the other (Acts 13:45, 22:21-22).
Paul was simply not one who was ahead of his time in not
being ethnically challenged. He was one sent, and he went, to the non-Jewish
world because God saw the Gentiles worthy of inclusion in His plan of redemption. Paul
allowed any cultural or personal prejudices to die away and to let the love of
Christ rule his heart. With that, a great harvest was reaped of new believers into
the household of Israel. In Yeshua, Christianity is fully Jewish.
Thank God Paul walked in the Spirit, realizing, that
ethnically speaking, Christ’s blood was thicker than religion. His blood was
the Supremacy of a new and personal Second Covenant, offering full
acceptance to we Gentiles. His atoning blood was and is the only thing powerful
enough to defeat the satanic realm and open the veil for us into the holy
presence of our Father in heaven. Because of Christ not only are Gentiles now allowed
on the bus, but praise the Lord, we can sit wherever we want.
Ken
