BY JEANNE ZORNES
Viewed up close, mosaics don’t make sense. Where’s the beauty in countless broken pieces?
Brokenness wasn’t God’s perfect plan. Sin split off the first shards at Paradise.1 Big chunks fell when tangled tongues halted Babel’s pride-driven tower.2 One piece, Abraham, was pulled from the heap for the promised Messiah’s ancestral lineage.3
Abraham’s descendants boasted having God’s covenantal favor. But when their long-awaited Messiah came, He reached outside Jewish exclusiveness to alienated, broken Samaritans and Gentiles. Those “who once were far away” were “brought near by the blood of Christ.”4 At Calvary, God declared His worldwide love, that whoever believed in Jesus would have eternal life.5 Jesus left earth commanding, “Go into all the world.”6
Pentecost undid the curse of the tower of Babel, the Holy Spirit enabling the disciples to miraculously preach in the native tongues of the cosmopolitan crowd.7 The mosaic grew as persecution drove believers away from Jerusalem.
One was Peter, who received God’s plan for a multicultural church through a strange vision of a sheet from heaven, laden with creatures that proper Jews never ate. God commanded, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”8 It wasn’t about recipes, but redemption for all, starting with Gentile seekers waiting for Peter at a soldier’s house.9
Paul plunged into meeting global human brokenness, building the mosaic as he preached that the gospel has no racial barriers.10 He scolded those (even highly regarded Peter) who regressed to religious elitism.11 In a giant step toward cultural inclusion, the highest church council released new Gentile converts from having to keep Jewish ceremonial law.12
To encourage living out faith by grace in a multicultural way, today’s church has John’s Revelation for a model. The aged apostle saw heaven’s completed mosaic of uncountable tribes, languages, peoples and nations — all redeemed and worshipping the Lamb.13
Scripture
1. Genesis 3:23
2. Genesis 11:1-9
3. Genesis 12:2-3
4. Ephesians 2:11-22
5. John 3:16
6. Mark 16:15
7. Acts 2:1-11
8. Acts 10:15, 11:9
9. Acts 10:34-36
10. Romans 16:25-27
11. Galatians 2:11-16
12. Acts 15:5-20
13. Revelation 5:9, 7:9
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