Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Ephesians 3:1-12

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Sometime in the late 1980’s Gertruda rushed to a hospital in Poland. She was told her husband Jan, a railroad worker, suffered a severe head injury at work while attaching two train carriages. Poland was in a terrible period of despair, great poverty, and confusion under the Communist regime. The doctors had even more devastating news for Gertruda and the family: besides the severe head injuries caused by the work-related accident, Jan was suffering from brain cancer. He fell into a deep coma and doctors didn’t expect him to live longer than three years. His family had faith that Jan would recover. Gertruda provided the loving care Jan needed to survive. Day after painful day, year after year she cared for her dear husband. The shocking good news is that Jan awoke on April, 12, 2007 after 19 years of coma. He awoke to a world of democracy and capitalism. Jan was surprised to find out that 18 years had passed since the fall of Communism and that 11 grandchildren couldn’t wait to hug him. He said, "What amazes me today is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning, I’ve got nothing to complain about." Sadly, we often don’t appreciate the simple things in life until they’re taken away from us. By all the doctor’s accounts Jan’s medical condition should have resulted in his death. Jan’s recovery truly is shocking good news to Jan, Gertruda, and their family.

Paul has some shocking good news for the congregation at Ephesus. He describes it as the "mystery of Christ." Mysteries are interesting. There are many mysteries all around us. This Christmas my nephew got a magic trick kit. He was so excited to show us one of the mysterious tricks. He had a small blue box. He would come up to you and pull a drawer out of the box to show you it was empty. Then he slid it back in and out again and suddenly there were three Hershey’s kisses. He was so tickled at the trick. The funny part was he couldn’t wait to show you how it worked. After it was explained it was no longer a mystery.

That is exactly what Paul is doing in his letter to the Ephesians. He is explaining the "mystery of Christ." I imagine he was just as excited as my nephew to explain the mystery. Why did I say that the "mystery of Christ" is shocking good news? You see the Gentiles of that day were uncircumcised and called "foreigners", and "aliens." They were considered outsiders so much so that the Jews couldn’t associate with them. We read in Acts 10 that Peter had misgivings about entering the house of a Gentile, Cornelius the Roman centurion even though God told him to go in a dream. The shocking good news for the Gentiles is in verse 6, "This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel." Suddenly the Gentiles are told, "You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household." Another translation is "through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." The key to the mystery revealed to Paul lies in the expression "together" used three times. Another way to use our English to explain it would be to say that the Gentiles are co-heirs with the believing Jews, co-members of one and the same body, that is, the church, and co-sharers with Israel in the salvation, that Christ’s merit has won.

The "mystery of Christ" wasn’t shocking good news just to the Gentiles. Paul received the "mystery" directly from Christ.

Remember as a Pharisee his name was Saul and he was an enemy of Christianity and a vicious persecutor of the church. In fact, Saul was on his way to Damascus to conduct a raid on Christians in that community when Christ confronted Paul. Christ literally knocked him down when he rebuked him "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Through the working of Christ’s power, now Paul became a convert to Christianity and a servant to the gospel. Paul accepted the assignment to carry the gospel to the Gentiles. Let’s talk about shocking good news. One of the most vicious persecutors of Christians receives the "gift" of God’s grace. He received the undeserved gift of the gospel, salvation. I don’t know about you but that sure seems shocking to me. Just like Jan in the coma who was for all practical purposes dead, shockingly received life after 19 years; Saul who was in a coma of sin or for all practical purposes dead to salvation shockingly receives the undeserved gift of eternal life. Jan should have died from his injuries and illness, Saul should have paid the price of death for his sins. Both were given shocking good news, the gift of life.

You too should die for your sins. You were born in the coma of original sin. Shockingly, through the Holy Spirit you died to sin and rose to Christ during your baptism. He killed the old Adam and brought forth the newness of life in the new Adam. Through the washing of the water with the Word you received the undeserved gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life. What shocking good news. What a mystery! That sinful people like you and me are loved by God so much that He would give us this gift. You don’t deserve it, I don’t deserve it! We haven’t and can’t do anything to earn it! Yet forgiveness is yours, given to you through the gospel; the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who took your place in that coma of sin and died to pay the price of your sin. Jan really appreciated the shocking good news, the gift of life. It was taken away from him for a time. We too take for granted this shocking good news. Jesus’ undeserved gift has lost its shock value. I pray you don’t learn to appreciate it by losing it for a time. Turn to Christ in His Word where you can get a better appreciation for this shocking good news.

Paul took his assignment seriously and enthusiastically to take the gospel to the Gentiles by living among them and serving and teaching them. We too have an assignment to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." Take your assignment seriously and enthusiastically. We already live among the Gentiles. Serve them, teach them. Make disciples by loving your neighbor through service. Trust me, to someone who doesn’t know about the undeserved gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life when they finally get it, it will be shocking good news and you get to share it with them!

See, once the mystery is explained, it all makes sense and there is no more mystery. Now you get to open and explain this mystery called the gospel. I pray you are as excited about explaining the mystery as my nephew was about the mystery of his trick box. You are forgiven! Do you deserve it? No! But it was given to you any way. What shocking good news!

Amen.

Nice flow with the story. Not sure the analogy of "coma" fits in the middle of the fourth page. Christ did not wake us from the coma. He killed the old Adam and brought forth the new Adam. Just something to consider. You could make the change to say that we were not like Jan: we did not wake up, we died and were brought to newness of life. Or just drop the analogy at that point and focus on the newness of life angle. Just a thought.

Amen.