Galatians 3:28.

One of the most important verses in the New Testament is Galatians 3:28.  “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  We say it at Baptism because it describes the new life Jesus gives us.  It is also one of the most radical verses, for it upends the normal order of human society along three important axes.

In this verse, the apostle Paul says nothing less than that God, in Christ Jesus, has abolished nations, classes, and genders.  We are no longer divided by these categories.  All of these (and more) have been used over the ages by the Empire to divide and conquer people.  Indeed, the Empire uses these categories even today to enforce the moralities of domination by which it maintain its power, and keeps people in bondage.

But I fear that we do not take Galatians 3:28 seriously.  If we did we would be living very differently.  Many Christians still tend to believe that nations, classes, and genders not only still exist, but should be allowed to continue to divide us.  Indeed, these divisions infect even our churches.

1.  No nations.

In saying that “there is no longer Jew or Greek,” Paul breaks down the dividing wall that is nationalism or worse, racism.  Now in Christ Jesus, no nation or race is superior or specially “chosen;” no nation or race is exceptional; no nation or race is better or worse than any other; and no nation or race gets to impose its will on another by force or otherwise.  In God’s eyes, nations simply do not exist.  They are as imaginary as the arbitrary lines that nations invisibly draw across the landscape and declare to be “boundaries” of separation and distinction.

If “there is no longer Jew or Greek,” and therefore no longer different nations, how can we lift up one nation, our nation, above all others?  How can we, for example, advocate that people buy products made by workers on this side of an imaginary line, and not buy products made by workers on the other side of an imaginary line, in the name of a “nation” that does not in God’s eyes exist?  How can churches and Christians participate in war and take a side in favor of this or that nation?  Should churches install national flags in their sanctuaries?  

The affirmation that “there is no longer Jew or Greek” does mean that “all lives matter.”  BUT that has to mean that the lives of “others” that have been reduced to not mattering in the current regime have to start mattering.  That’s why the more urgent plea and agenda today is for African-American, Latinex, immigrant, and Native lives to be lifted up.  And those whose lives were thought to matter more need to be brought down.  White supremacy is obviously antithetical to the gospel.

2.  No classes.

In saying that “there is no longer slave or free,” Paul breaks down the dividing wall that separates and causes enmity between economic classes.  But dissolving classes necessarily means a reversal in which the slave is made free, and the free no longer benefit from the slave’s labor.  In other words, Paul’s classless order is inherently and necessarily revolutionary because the only way to dissolve classes is by bringing one up and the other down.  

Like the Lord’s mother sings in Luke 1: “[God] has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.  He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” 

The church has to be in the business of abolishing classes by instituting justice for the marginalized, mistreated, poor,  disenfranchised, and exploited.  It has to advocate for the redistribution of wealth and the payment of reparations to those whose ancestors were violently compelled to work without compensation.  Otherwise its claim that there is now neither slave nor free is an empty lie.

3.  No genders.

In saying that “there is no longer male and female,” Paul breaks down the wall that divides people according to gender.  Again, the only way to bring about gender neutrality is to de-privilege the gender which has been dominant — cis-hetero-males — and start making the lives of others matter more.  

Unfortunately, many elements of the church still cling to gender  bigotry as a mark of Christian faith.  Even this week there was much anguish expressed among “Christians” at the ruling of the Supreme Court that mandates the inclusion of LGBT people under our civil rights laws.  

Clearly, can anyone still trying to maintain an exclusive understanding of gender identity claim to be “in Christ Jesus,” given this verse?  Can a church that chronically privileges men do so?  It is pathetic when the Supreme Court, of all institutions, takes Galatians 3:28 more seriously than many Christians do.  (On this, anyway.)  

4.  Now What?

We Christians need to engrave Galatians 3:28 upon our brains and ask ourselves all the time whether our decisions, our words, our actions, our thoughts, the things we decide to post on Facebook… live up to the standard of this verse.  There is much in our culture that encourages and rewards a reflexive nationalism and  racism, that enforces economic classes and maintains gender bias.  It is built into our laws, habits, “morality,” and ways of thinking.

But we are only followers of Jesus to the extent that we are shaped by the basic and fundamental Christian confession articulated in Galatians 3:28.

+++++++