God’s People—Not Rejected! —Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 12A (Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32)
11 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so also they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
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Anti-Judaism/Antisemitism
has been a plague on the Jewish community for centuries, but it has also been a
stain on the Christian community, which has often perpetrated antisemitic
attacks, often in the name of Jesus. Unfortunately, antisemitism is again on
the rise, along with Islamophobia and other forms of racism. We can blame it on
social media, but ultimately it has deeper roots. The question is, how will we
who are Christians respond? While the state of Israel is wrapped in some of the
antisemitism, animus to the Jewish people goes back long before the
establishment of the state of Israel. In addition, opposition to the policies
of the state of Israel, especially those established by the current regime, is
not necessarily antisemitic. That’s because Israel as a modern state and the
Jewish people as a people are not the same. In other words, this is a
complicated situation that requires Christians to address our understanding of our
relationship with our Jewish siblings. Three chapters in Paul’s letter to the
church in Rome (Romans 9-11) address the question of the nature of God’s
covenant with Israel after Jesus. In other words, with the advent of Jesus, has
God abandoned the earlier covenant, replacing it with a covenant established in
the person of Jesus? Paul’s answer to that question is a bit ambiguous, leaving
us uncertain about what he actually believed about the covenant with Israel.
This three-chapter section opened
with Paul’s lamentation on behalf of his people, whom he desired to reach with
the gospel of Jesus (Rom. 9:1-5). Now we come to the closing verses of the
section, where Paul seems to suggest that God’s covenant with Israel is
irrevocable. So, we’re left with a conundrum that requires us to make a
decision. Do we believe that the covenant that is established in Jesus replaces
the one God established with the people at Sinai, or does this new covenant
continue parallel to the Mosaic covenant? In this final lectionary reading from
the three-chapter section of Romans, it does suggest that the gifts and calling of
God are irrevocable. This leads to a further question, which is what I think
Paul is dealing with. That is how we understand the relationship of Gentile
Christians to the covenant God originally established with Abraham and his
descendants. In my reading of Paul, it seems to me that even as God has not abandoned
the original covenant, God is seeking to expand the circle to include Gentiles,
bringing Jews and Gentiles together in the one people of God. While there are
questions as to whether Paul wrote the Ephesians letter, I find the word
present in Ephesians 2:11-22 to be particularly illuminating, for in this
passage the author declares that in Christ God brings both groups together as
one people, breaking down the dividing wall of hostility. That was Paul’s desire, and he went a long way
to bridge that gap, which led to frustration since both communities struggled
to accept the offer of peace.
So,
here in our reading from Romans 11, Paul asks and seeks to answer the question
of whether God has abandoned God’s covenant with Israel. It seems that in Paul’s
view the answer to the question is no. God has not abandoned the covenant or
God’s covenant people. In fact, Paul declares that he himself is an Israelite,
a Jew, a descendant of Abraham. He even identifies himself as being a member of
the tribe of Benjamin. He has the credentials to establish his Jewishness. He
believes that God hasn’t rejected his people, even if his people, for the most
part, didn’t receive Jesus as the Messiah. So, no, God hasn’t rejected the
Jewish people, a people God foreknew. That being said, as Paul brings this
section of the letter to the Romans to a close, a section focused on the role
Judaism plays in this new movement centered on Jesus, he wants to do two
things. First, he affirms the premise that God’s covenant promises are
unconditional. Secondly, due to Jewish resistance to Jesus, a path was created
so that Gentiles might experience salvation (Rom. 11:11-12). Of course, Paul
understands his calling as one that leads to the inclusion of Gentiles in the
covenant people through Christ. Of his Jewish siblings, he suggests that some
of the branches were broken off from the olive tree. However, he hints that
these broken branches can be grafted back onto the tree (Rom. 11:22-24). Now
these rather complicated verses are not included in the reading provided by the
Revised Common Lectionary, but they can’t be neglected because they are part of
the story.
As is
often the case, the creators of the lectionary skip over much of the
complicated parts of the chapter, the parts that raise questions about the
standing of Jews in this movement centered on Jesus. Thus, we jump over those parts, which do need
some attention, to the eternal nature of God’s covenant promises. The second part of the reading begins in verse
29, where Paul declares that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. That
said, we probably should step back to verse 28, which reads: “As regards the
gospel they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election they are beloved
for the sake of their ancestors” (Rom.
11:28). They are enemies because they resisted God’s invitation to embrace
the mission to the Gentiles, and yet
they are beloved because they are God’s covenant people. If we step back to
verse 25 and move forward, God is the one who is hardening the hearts of the
Jews toward the Gentiles. So, it seems to be God's fault. Could it be that God
has a purpose in mind? It does seem to
be something of a mystery, but one that has been confusing interpreters for
centuries. In the end, however, as confusing as this passage is, “the gifts and
the calling of God are irrevocable” (vs. 29). It appears that the key is God’s
mercy. Does this mean that all Jews will be redeemed without Jesus being the
Messiah? That is unclear, though Paul would seem to suggest that ultimately the
breach is healed in Christ. While my Jewish friends might not agree with this
assessment, there is a sense from a Christian theological perspective that the
healing of the broken relationship takes place in Christ. Most likely, this healing
of the relationship awaits the eschaton, at least in its fullness.
In
verse 30, Paul again turns to the Gentile Christian readers, reminding them
that once they were disobedient to God. However, they had now received mercy
from God. Thus, their disobedience led to God sharing mercy with them. The
final verse, verse 32, is again a bit challenging, but the emphasis is on
mercy. “For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful
to all” (vs. 32). Ron Allen and Clark Williamson conclude that “God’s gracious
love is all-inclusive. None of us merits salvation; it is available to each and
all as a gracious gift, Jew and Gentiles alike” (Preaching the Letters without Dismissing the Law, p. 81).
It is
clear from reading Romans 9-11 that Paul very much wants his Jewish siblings to
join him in embracing Jesus as the Messiah. It grieves him that they resist
(Rom. 9:1-5). But he also affirms the covenant God made with Abraham, believing
that it is irrevocable. His concern for his own people is deeply pastoral. He
believes that the divide between Jew and Gentile needs to be healed, so that
both can fully experience God’s love. As modern Christians, especially in light
of increasing antisemitism and anti-Judaism, we must affirm our debt to Jewish
relatives and the covenant God made with their ancestors, one that is
irrevocable. If we can do this, then together we can fulfill the promise that
Abraham’s descendants will be a blessing to the nations (the peoples of the
earth). But as we do so, we might want
to pay heed to this word from Sarah Lancaster: “The grandness of God exceeds
anything that we may know, and we are not in a position to understand the mind
of God or the ways God achieves God’s purposes. The richness of God is the
genuine mystery” [Lancaster, Romans, pp. 199-200]. Indeed.
Image attribution. Herrel, Edie Mae. Pathways to God, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://act.library.vanderbilt.edu/artworks/59845 [retrieved August 10, 2026]. Original source: Image was donated by Edie Mae Herrel and Dan Herrel, dkherrel@hotmail.com, nancynuss@gmail.com, Patrick.herrel@hotmail.com.
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