When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face,
because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he
used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and
separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged
to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that
by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not
acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them
all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it,
then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We
who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not
justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ
Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law,
because by observing the law no one will be justified. If, while we seek to be
justified in Christ, we are found also as the same sinners, does that mean that
Christ is a servant of sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I
prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I
might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God,
for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
When you and I go down to the basement to enjoy a potluck
dinner, the historians of the world are not present to record who we sat next
to or what we had to eat. If anybody
were to come down with a video recorder or take pictures you would probably
tell them to get lost - there is no significance to the matter whatsoever. The only times in history that a seemingly
simple supper took on eternal consequences was the meal that Christ shared
prior to his death and the bite of fruit that Eve and Adam had from the Tree of
Knowledge.
They are worthy of our attention.
Peter had no idea of what was about to happen, but this seemingly
insignificant meal among the Galatians was also forever written in the annals
of Bible History through the pen of Paul.
What was so important about it?
Paul tells us and gives us some -
Deep Reflections Into A Seemingly Simple Supper
I. The story of the supper revisited
The meal takes place at Antioch. There were two major Christian congregations
- one located in Jerusalem and one in Antiooch.
Both of them had completely different complexions. The Jerusalem congregation was made up
primarily of Jews, while the congregation at Antioch - being farther north -
had a wider variety of Jews with a most likely predominance of Gentiles. For some reason Peter; who was primarily sent
to evangelize to the Jews; came up to visit this congregation in Jerusalem -
apparently about 14 years after Paul’s visit to Jerusalem. While he was there, Paul writes that some “men came from James” who belonged to “the circumcision group.” Just earlier in this chapter Paul talked
about an earlier ruckus that some men had caused at their congregation -
claiming that these Gentile converts had to be circumcised according to the Old
Testament law. It appears that the same group
caused another ruckus. Paul doesn’t
explain much more about these men when he says they came “from James.” Does that mean
that they had the endorsement or James or that they were a rogue group of men
who claimed to be from James. I would have to think that they were a rogue
group, since James concurred with the judgment that Gentiles did NOT need to be
circumcised. At any rate, these
gentlemen who were seemingly under the guise of Christianity yet wanting to
keep the Old Testament ceremonial law showed up at Antioch some time after
Peter. Prior to this point Peter went
ahead and ate and drank with the Gentiles.
You could envision him maybe even eating a nice pork sandwich - who
knows?
When these men from James came and showed up at the
Antioch fellowship, Peter changed his tune.
Paul writes, “when
they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles
because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.” What was he so afraid of? Well, he seemed to be afraid of what they
would say and how they would respond.
Perhaps he envisioned them going back to Jerusalem and telling everyone
that Peter was eating with Gentiles and breaking the Old Testament Ceremonial
Law. You could imagine the scenarios
that went through his head. “If they see
me eating with these people, then my ministry in Jerusalem will be shot. They’ll tell everyone that I’m not upholding
the law. Then I’ll lose any opportunity
to witness.” Peter was genuinely worried
his reputation back home and how they would respond. So in fear he withdrew from eating with the
Gentiles.
II. The implications of the supper
Little did Peter then realize what would happen as a result. Pretty soon,
the other Jews who lived in Antioch also felt that if PETER - a pillar of the
church - wasn’t
eating with the Gentiles, then neither should they. Even Barnabas sat down on the other side of
the gathering. Imagine the
scenario. Here you go through the
potluck line and get ready to sit down, and you notice a racial and dietary
divide down the middle of the room.
Those who used to sit at the same table and laugh together were no
longer mingling - they were acting as if they never had. You could have cut the tension with a
knife. The only Jew on the Gentile half
of the congregation was Paul. All of the
rest had seemingly sat in their own little corner, and Peter nervously and
uncomfortably and without intention led the whole exodus. Here he had come to enjoy some fellowship,
and all of the sudden in the blink of an eye this seemingly simple supper had
become very complicated and divided.
This wasn’t the worst of it. Paul called Peter out in front of all of
them, because the very connotations of what Peter was doing dug even deeper
than a mere seating chart. Paul’s words
sound kind of complicated, but I’ll do my best to explain it. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to
follow Jewish customs? If it was now
wrong for the Jews who were supposed to be saved by Christ to eat this meat,
then it must be wrong for the Gentiles as well. Their example was telling the Gentiles that
they were sinning by eating their meats and that they should be obeying what
were supposed to now be mere Jewish CUSTOMS.
The second explanation is a little more
tricky. If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we are found also as the
same sinners, does that mean that Christ is a minister of sin? Absolutely not!
If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. Let’s try to split it out one phrase at a
time.
I. If,
while we seek to be justified in Christ, we are found also as the same sinners -
By preaching salvation in Christ, they were also preaching that they didn’t
need to try and prove themselves to God by obeying the Old Testament law, since
Christ obeyed all of those laws. But if
in fact they were supposed to be obeying those laws, they were then sinning by
telling people that Christ’s works were enough to have them declared not
guilty.
II. does that mean that Christ is a minister of sin? Absolutely
not! If it were true that they never
should have been teaching that the law had been fulfilled in Christ, then the
very teachings and practices of Christ would make him the one promoting sin -
the minister of sin. That couldn’t be
right!
III. If I
rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. If Paul were to go along with Peter and start
telling the Gentiles to obey the law and start watching what they eat, he would
in fact prove that he had been breaking the law all this time.
IV. At the end of this section Paul then
concludes, I do not set aside the grace
of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for
nothing! If the Gentiles indeed could
have been saved by obeying the Old Testament law - then Christ never had to
come and die in the first place.
The insinuations of this
simple meal were more than Peter ever realized.
By simply giving into his fear of the Judaizers
and refusing to eat some pork with some Gentiles he was in effect saying that
all of Jesus’ works and His death were completely useless, because his actions
were insinuating that the works of the law were necessary to stand right before
God. The very nature of the grace of God
and the gospel is that it has to stand alone.
This seemingly simple meal teaches us that we need to
think about the context of what we do - even the most simple things. If you are a parent, little eyes are
watching. When you eat without praying
because you have company over, you are professing to your children that there
is no God that has provided that food for you and that you are afraid of
professing your faith. If you put sports
over worship, what is the message that you are telling your children? No matter what you say, your actions speak
louder than your words. When you do not
eat with a visitor during
I find it sad that we are so afraid. We are afraid of people getting mad at us, so
we just join the crowd. We are afraid
of sounding strange with our Lutheran doctrine, because it isn’t as popular as
the decision and glory theology. We are
afraid that other kids in our class will make fun of us if we invite them to
III. Don’t forget who you are when you go
to supper
Peter was living in fear of what might happen at the lips
of the circumcision group. He was afraid
of what they might say. He didn’t
realize the implications of his actions - how his behavior was in fact
attempting to put the Gentiles back under the law. The biggest problem Peter had was that he
momentarily forgot what the Gospel was all about. Paul lovingly had to remind him of it.
The Gospel takes us completely away from what the world
or religion might say of us under the law, and points us to the attitude of God
towards us. It focuses on “the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” With a laser like focus Paul reminded Peter
that in the Gospel of Christ God demanded nothing of us but instead gave us His
all - His own life - on the cross. This
forgiveness doesn’t come with a special diet, a special exercise program, or a
circumcision of the flesh. Paul reminded
Peter that “a man is not justified by
observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.” Faith in Christ focuses only on Christ -
not on man. It has nothing to do with
who we are or what we do. It doesn’t
concern itself with what any man thinks of him - but only what God thinks of
him. It has everything to do with who
Jesus is and what He did. He is the Son
of God who gave His own life for our sins.
Faith in Christ clings only to Christ.
In Christ, God declares by an eternal decree that he is innocent of his
sins.
When the Holy Spirit brings us to faith in Christ, it
takes everything that we are and all that we take pride in and all that we are
embarrassed of and nails it on the cross with Christ. Paul said it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no
longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by
faith in the Son of God.” Paul
regarded himself as having personally been nailed to the cross when Christ was
nailed to the cross. When he was
baptized he was intimately so connected to Christ it was as if he was
physically put on the cross with Christ.
But that is not all, Paul also stated that
Christ lived in him. The same Christ who
was raised from the dead was now alive and well - living within him. He had an intimate fellowship with the Son of
God Himself.
Do you see what Paul was trying to do for Peter? He wasn’t trying to embarrass Peter or
browbeat him into doing it his way. He
was trying to remind Peter of the wonderful and precious privilege we have
through faith in Christ. It puts the
living Christ in us. If Christ already obeyed the law, why should Peter be
worried about trying to impress God by what meats he eats? If Jesus really died for the world and
fulfilled the law, then why should he give them the impression that they need
to fulfill these laws? If God really has
accepted him, why should he worry about whether the Jews of the circumcision
accept him? If God really is a God of
grace, then couldn’t this gracious God save the Jews in spite of what the Judaizers said?
There was no reason Peter had to live in fear of what they might say, as
long as he was doing what was in line with the Gospel.
Do you remember the story of when David brought home the
ark from captivity? He was so excited
that he took off his outer garment and was dancing with all his might in front
of it. He didn’t care whether his
dancing looked ridiculous to the professional dancers. He didn’t care what the slave girls said
about him, or even what his wife said.
He was just responding to the grace of God in bringing back the
ark. That was his sole focus.
Isn’t that how Paul was telling Peter to live? That’s how God wants you to live. You have the living Christ living in
you. You know that God loves you and has
forgiven you. Why should it matter to
you whether or not you are popular at school?
Is it really that important? When
you know God loves you, you don’t have to act like a prostitute in order to
feel “loved.” When you know you’re
forgiven, you don’t need to try and punish yourself through gluttony or
drunkenness. You don’t have to bend over
backwards to make your kids like you when you know God loves you. You can be a parent and raise your children
right - instead of using them as your self esteem toys. Even if nobody likes you and they all think
you’re a bore - and maybe you are - it doesn’t matter as long as God loves
you. Live in the grace of Christ. Recognize that you have the living Christ
living in you through your baptism. Live
in the power of the Gospel - and don’t worry so much about what others may
say. Don’t be afraid of messing up or
offending people or being too “pushy”.
If you are trying to act in grace and mercy, in line with the gospel,
then don’t let your fear of “saying the wrong thing” or getting rejected get in
the way of spreading the gospel.
When someone has amnesia it sometimes means that he or
she can no longer remember who he or she is.
It happens almost weekly on soap operas.
In reality it doesn’t happen very often at all. Yet what an awful feeling that would be - to
forget who you are! Isn’t that what
happened to Peter? In the pressure of the
moment, in a simple supper setting, he acted like someone he wasn’t - as if he
were no longer living under the freedom of Christ. So as a result of this simple supper, Paul
had to remind him of who he was and what he had in Christ.
Throughout your life you will be constantly faced with
situations which will tempt you to forget who you are. In a simple exercise class, the teacher will
use a form of mysticism and tell you to empty your mind to reach your inner
self. In a simple classroom setting, the
science teacher will tell you that you came from a frog or a monkey. In a simple evening of studying, your liberal
classmate will inadvertently ridicule conservative Christians for their strict
constructional view of the Bible. You
will be afraid to speak up for your faith - afraid to stick out by speaking up.
You will convince yourself that even if you speak up, they won’t listen
anyway. In those simple moments, don’t
be afraid to face ridicule, and don’t forget who you simply are. You are a Christian. You are loved by God. God has declared that through faith you are
forgiven in Christ; not guilty. You believe in Jesus, and you are filled with
Christ. Instead of trying to act like
someone you aren’t, speak and act like who you are, and don’t be afraid of what
anyone says in those simple settings.
Amen.