The "Wall of Partition"

Saint Paul says in today's Epistle, “(He) has broken down the dividing wall of hostility.”  In other translations, these words are different, for they say with somewhat more clarity, “(He) has broken down the middle wall of partition.”  The reference to the “middle wall” relates to the Temple of Solomon.  Excavations of the temple site show that there was this “central wall” beyond which only those who were Israelites were permitted entry.  In that excavation, a stone was found on which was engraved, “No man of another nation is to enter within the enclosure round the Temple.  Whoever is caught will have himself to blame that his death ensues.”


Saint Paul uses the wall as an analogy to the wall that was present between God and man because of sin. It separates us from God eternally unless it can be torn down.  Christ came, He lived in our flesh, He demolished the wall by living a sinless life and, through His death and resurrection, the wall is removed and we are restored to the presence of God.  No barrier remains.
 

Saint Paul continues that our Lord has done this great work “so that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two.”  Saint Paul refers to the two who are on opposite sides of the wall – the first, we who live in the fallen world, who have no hope of entering into the other side, and the second the Man who is God who is the only one worthy or eligible to be on the inside.

The prophet Isaiah says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you.”  This is the separation that has been removed for us by our Lord.  This is the wall of enmity that has disappeared – the wall of our sins.  

"(You are) built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;  in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."  By breaking down the wall, the Lord reuses us, the bricks, in a new structure. He creates from us a temple for the Holy Spirit, Whom we know, Who is our Comforter, Who lives in and among us, to Whom we pray always that He will "come and abide in us,"  we who are held together, made fast by the Cornerstone, Jesus Christ!