Walls, Borders, and Jesus

Political shifts in Washington, D.C. always have an impact on the flow of social media sites. You can see everything from “our country is lost forever” to “our country is finally saved” from different political parties, depending upon whoever is in charge in the federal district we call Washington.

It is no surprise that in the past few weeks, you and I have seen all sorts of posts about heaven and hell. They tend to point out that “heaven has walls” and “hell has no borders.” Ultimately, according to these posts, heaven has gates, with very strict immigration policies, and hell has open borders that any can enter.

The implication of such memes is that the United States must have strong borders, uncrossable walls, and gates where only those who meet our standards can enter. Of course, anyone can be a fool and go to hell.

What I haven’t seen posted along side of any of these memes is the fact that for one to get into heaven, we must depend upon God’s grace, mercy, and love. The guy I look at in the mirror every morning certainly doesn’t deserve to be “inside the walls of heaven” on his own merit.

I understand and accept the idea that “governments” are put in place – not specific governments as much as the idea of governments – by God. I equally understand that they are commissioned “to do good” and “to be a minister of God to us for our good.” (I’ve read Romans 13 a time or two – in context.) How the United States deals with borders is a fair discussion for the politics of our culture.

As Paul certainly encourages believers in Rome – who likely would argue their government was less godly than ours – we should respect the position such governments occupy.

However, I can’t imagine that Paul would think that as a follower of Jesus, any government should dictate my values. Think about it. The very government he encourages the Roman Christians to respect insisted that the Emperor was actually “Lord.” Who can count the number of late first-century and early second-century followers of Jesus who became martyrs because they would not say “Caesar is Lord”?

Do you really think Paul himself “obeyed the government” when it came to confessing who was and wasn’t “Lord?”

My point is simple – I respect the place of “the governing authorities,” but I can’t assume that I will always obey them. And I certainly won’t assume that anything the governing authorities choose, or that I insist that they choose, is “of God.” I think I’d prefer to go with Peter and the other apostles when they said, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)

It just strikes me a more than merely odd that as a follower of Jesus, completely dependent upon God’s grace, mercy, and love to enter into an eternal relationship with Him, I would use “the walls of heaven” and “the borderless hell” as an excuse to spew anti-immigrant memes on social media because one American president reversed the policies of another American president.

In case you didn’t know, reading the Bible can be a dangerous thing to do. I highly recommend it, but you often need to buckle your seatbelt, because Scripture can get in your face in powerful ways. Here’s a recent example from my own life.

I’m reading through the Hebrew Bible’s historical narratives right now for my own personal spiritual formation. Just last week, while all those anti-immigrant memes were flooding my social media feeds, I read about the dedication of the Temple in 2 Chronicles. The Temple. The most sacred place on earth until Jesus came. The Temple that David wanted to build, but God decided Solomon should build. The place where, in the words of N.T. Wright, “heaven overlapped earth.”

In his prayer of dedication, as the glory of the Lord was flooding the Temple and its precincts in ways beyond human description, Solomon, the great and wise king, said these words:
³²“Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this house, ³³ hear from heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.” (2 Chronicles 6:32,33, ESV)

This is a part of the prayer for the dedication of the Temple – during a time when “the chosen people” of God was a very narrow category. Yet – foreigners are welcomed. Have you ever looked up the word “foreigner” in a concordance and checked out how it is used in the Hebrew Bible?

Governments – in order to fulfill their duties – need to pay attention to things like “germs and terrorism,” as would be shouted from the rooftops today. I don’t see myself as smart enough to know what the right policies would be. I’m confident they wouldn’t look like separating parents and children from each other – sometimes forever. But I know it is complicated.

But it really isn’t complicated for followers of Jesus. For crying out loud, His own earthly parents took Him across an international boundary because of the danger posed by the ruling authorities. He told me to love my enemies. He told me to love others like He loves me. His word tells me to seek good for one another.

In fact, it may be as simple as to realize that “to hate my brother” means that I can’t and don’t love God.

In fact, it may be as simple as to realize that “to hate my brother” means that I can’t and don’t love God.

As one utterly dependent upon the grace of God to enter heaven, I want to be the last person to live as though “unless you deserve it, don’t enter” – either heaven or these United States. The government can make whatever call the politics of the day permit. That’s between the ruling authorities and God.

But as a follower of Jesus, I can only hope to act as He would. I’m certain He wouldn’t be posting heretical memes on social media about “deserving to enter” anything.

Even Solomon figured that out!