Walls and Bridges-Luke 4:18-20

Key verse Luke 4:18

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed”

In today’s sermon, I want to focus on a lectionary passage of the 3rd Sunday of the New Year. I was fascinated by Bishop Barron’s explanation of walls and bridges in a Christian’s life. These days walls have been politically charged. Some perceive walls as a means to keep people out, standoffish, and xenophobic. On the other hand, bridges are great. It connects people. The tendency about walls and bridges tends to be simplistic and one-sided. Some say I’m against walls and I’m for bridges. Walls and Bridges are neutral objects. They are useful and not useful within context and circumstance. For example, a knife is useful to slice bread, spread peanut butter, etc. At the same time, it can be used to kill. A car can be used to transport people, enjoy a road trip and transport goods. A car can also be used to ram into storefront to steal. It depends on context and circumstance.

To live a productive and fulfilling Christian life we need walls and bridges. There are times it needs to be built; other times it needs to be torn down. And one final point, we need wisdom when to build and tear down. When Christ is at the center of our hearts and minds, we will have the wisdom what to do.

First, Walls to build.  In the ancient world, walls were necessary for protection against enemies, safety and flourishing of people and culture. The great wall of China was built to protect against nomadic enemies from the north. It was over 13K miles and took 2000 years to build. One fun fact about the great walls is two South African runners hold the record for running the entire Great Wall of China in one go. They ran the 2,620 miles length of the wall in 98 days, running a marathon per day. You also have a digital wall called a ‘firewall.’ You need a firewall for your network to thwart any malicious virus and online threats. In nature, living organism have cell walls to protect it from harmful pathogens.

In the Bible, walls represent protection, safety, and security. If a wall is breached, then defeat is almost certain. The conquerors do terrible and unspeakable acts to people within the walls. The survivors are taken into slavery. While in captivity, their national identity is forgotten. But there is also a more important wall. You could call it the ‘spiritual’ wall. This wall protects the heart and soul of the people.

The book of Nehemiah records the breach of physical and spiritual walls. It also records the rebuilding of both walls. It was the time in Israelite history when the Babylonian captives were trickling back from their foreign exile after 70 long years. Many of them lost their national and spiritual identity due to the breach of both walls. Their once glorious capital city was destroyed and leveled. Look at Nehemiah 1:3. Some men came and visited Nehemiah. “They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The walls of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” When he heard this news, Nehemiah wept and mourn for days. It is similar to what people are experience in the LA fires, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

What caused the wall of Jerusalem to fall? The destruction of a nation’s physical wall is preceded by the fallen protective wall of the heart. According to Exodus 19:6, God’s vision for them was to become a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” God blessed the nation of Israel with the law, the words of the prophets as a wall of protection against enemies from within and without. However, when the nation of Israel, left their walls unguarded, their hearts were easily corrupted. Once the walls of their hearts were demolished, they became a prey to devil and foreign adversaries. Nehemiah 1: 6b reads, “I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.” God in his great mercy allowed the Israelites to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the physical walls that were destroyed by the armies of Babylon. This great project of rebuilding the wall was given to Nehemiah. Not only this, God used Ezra to also rebuild the walls of people’s hearts through the word of God.

Let’s look at Nehemiah 8: 2-4 ” 2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. 3 He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.” Standing at one end of the open place, he read out of the book. “The book here is the Torah and it’s the prophets. He read out of the from daybreak until midday again in the presence of the men, the women and the children old enough to understand. It was a very long sermon, from daybreak until mid-day. They heard the wonderous stories of God’s mighty works upon their nation. According to Nehemiah 8:9 the people were moved and struck to the heart and wept as Ezra read.

How can we remain faithful to Christ in our corrupt generation? From Nehemiah and Ezra, we learn we need to build a wall around our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” We desperately need the word of God and his promises as a wall to guard our hearts. Most of all, we need the Holy Spirit to protect us from enemies who try to breach our spiritual wall. Our culture and social media are extremely toxic. Technology has also been used to increase this toxicity. Recently I read a disturbing story about a 14-year-old boy became ‘friends’ with an AI Chatbot. This chatbot told him to kill himself, so he did. We need to build a wall around our hearts. I pray for our west loop community, to build a wall around our hearts through the word of God.

Growing up the walls of my heart were paper thin. The devil and his temptations easily breached my heart. I was easily swayed by the toxic culture. At 18, I was determined to live a party life in college, I played in a rock band and joined two fraternities. Every Friday night, I would go to a bar on Taylor and Miller. By God’s grace, he led me to Bible study. Building the wall of my heart caused so much turmoil in my heart. I remember considering leaving the church, because it seems Christian lifestyle was too restrictive. By God’s grace and mercy, and the prayer of many servants of God, God gave me strength to build the wall of my heart.

Second, Walls to Destroy.  We know walls are good for protection, preserving national identity and our personal faith. We need the walls of the word of God to preserve our hearts, children and ministry. These are positive aspects of walls. However, the Bible talks about the sinister side of walls. It can be used to imprison and torture.

Let’s read Luke 4:18-20 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus proclaims liberty to the captives. Because we are born in sin, by default we are captives. Psalm 51:5 reads, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” My granddaughter Yasmin is cute, but she is already born in sin and a captive. As we get older, the prison walls get thicker and higher. Through life events, whether good or bad we are thrown in multiple prison walls such as pride, lust, anger, etc. We are helpless to tear down these walls. No amount of money or will power can free us from captivity. This is the reason the psalmist calls out to God by saying in Psalm 142:7 “Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.”

We can also enter prisons due to our spiritual blindness. We think we are free, when in fact, we are actually prisoners. Even good things such as going to church, or doing good works can be prisons. If Christ is not at the center, rather self, it can lead to self-righteousness, self-sufficiency and pride. We can also a prison of oppression. We create prisons of self-pity, sorrow, loneliness, anxiety, fear of death, etc.
Another terrible human condition is prisons within prisons, In the movie Shawshank redemption, one prisoner was free serving 50 years of his sentence. However, he could not adjust to his new life so he killed himself. Another is the prisoners fall in love with their captors. They love and hate their sin at the same time. This is the nature of addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling, pornography etc.

Who can free us from these terrible prisons? God’s anointed son, Jesus. We are freed when we accept the good news, which is the gospel. The good news is that Jesus took upon himself the punishment we fully deserved. He is God who can help us change and be truly free! Jesus destroys the prison walls, let’s read Ephesians 2: 14, “14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.”

Jesus sets us free from the prisons we enter or build. He breaks down the walls of hostility. Looking back in my life I was a spiritual jailbird. Before Bible study, I was in a prison of inferiority complex, lust, laziness, fear and others. When I began Bible study, I thought I would break free from prison, but I entered a different type of prison I entered the prison of self-righteousness, people’s recognition, and good works. Since taking care of my ill father, I became oppressed thinking about the future of growing old and becoming immobile, and coming in terms of my mortality, etc. I thank God for my Lord Jesus, who have led me as my good shepherd. Jesus has paid my bail and took my sentence upon himself. I thank God for Jesus who has set me free through his salvation work on the cross. Let’s each examine our hearts and pray for Jesus to set us free from our personal prisons.

Third, Bridges to build. In the first part we learned about Nehemiah and Ezra who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and the heart and soul of the nation, respectively. We thought of Jesus who destroyed the walls of self-imprisonment and sets us free.

Wisdom is having the knowledge when to build a wall and when not to build a wall. Ecclesiastics 3:3b says there is a “time to tear down and a time to build.” Understanding what to do in certain circumstances is crucial in our Christian life. When someone hurts us or betrays our trust, it is not easy to forgive, instead we build thick walls to keep them out. Christ calls to build bridges of reconciliation and forgiveness. God could have condemned us because of our sins. But God created a bridge through his son Jesus Christ. John 3:16-17 reads “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Corrie Ten Boom was a holocaust survivor. After the war, she gave a lecture about her experiences. One person came to greet her. She recognized him as one of her guards at the prison cell where her sister died. But he did not recognize her. He wanted to shake her hands. At first, a flood of anger came upon her heart. She ask God to stretch her hands to forgive. She said it was the most difficult thing for her to do. She prayed and broke down the walls and offered a bridge to her enemy. She said in her memoir “For a long moment, we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.”

In this passage, we learn we must rebuild and fortify our hearts with the word of God. At the same time, we need Christ to set us free from our prison walls. Not only this, Jesus builds a bridge to the presence of God. Because of our sins, we were condemned. But through Jesus death on the cross, a bridge was established. We could enter the presence of God. We also learn we need the holy spirit to help us build bridges of reconciliation and forgiveness. May God bless us with wisdom when to build, tear down and build bridges.

Questions:

1. What do walls represent in the Bible (Job 1:10, Isaiah 26:1, Rev. 21:11-12) ? How did Nehemiah respond when he learned about condition of the wall (Nehemiah 1:3)? What was Nehemiah’s response after hearing the news (Nehemiah 1:4-7) ? How are “spiritual walls” necessary for daily living as a Christian (Proverbs 4:23-27, Philippians 4:7) ?

2. When a city wall falls, what does it represent (Proverbs 25:28, Psalms 137:1-3)? Why did Nehemiah rebuild the wall (Nehemiah 2:17)? How did Ezra build a spiritual wall for the returning exiles from Babylon (Nehemiah 8:2-4)?

3. What are some negative views of walls (Ephesians 2:14-15)? How does Jesus set us free from these prison walls (Luke 4:18-20)? What is the significance of Jesus building bridges (John 14:6, 2 Corinthians 5:18)?

4. How and why do we build our own prison and stay in them (Psalm 142:7)? What are some self-made prisons you have build? Who can set us free from our prisons (John 8:32)? How can we have wisdom when to build walls and when to break them down?