Book of Common Prayer

Two into one will go

¹¹ So then, remember this! In human terms, that is, in your “flesh,” you are “Gentiles.” You are the people who the so-called “circumcision” refer to as the so-called “uncircumcision”—circumcision, of course, being something done by human hands to human flesh. ¹² Well, once upon a time you were separated from the Messiah. You were detached from the community of Israel. You were foreigners to the covenants which contained the promise. There you were, in the world with no hope and no god!

¹³ But now, in Messiah Jesus, you have been brought near in the Messiah’s blood—yes, you, who used to be a long way away! ¹⁴ He is our peace, you see. He has made the two to be one. He has pulled down the barrier, the dividing wall, that turns us into enemies of each other. He has done this in his flesh, ¹⁵ by abolishing the law with its commands and instructions.

The point of doing all this was to create, in him, one new human being out of the two, so making peace. ¹⁶ God was reconciling both of us to himself in a single body, through the cross, by killing the enmity in him.

Unveiling the new Temple

¹⁷ So the Messiah came and gave the good news. Peace had come! Peace, that is, for those of you who were a long way away, and peace, too, for those who were close at hand. ¹⁸ Through him, you see, we both have access to the father in the one spirit.

¹⁹ This is the result. You are no longer foreigners or strangers. No: you are fellow citizens with God’s holy people. You are members of God’s household. ²⁰ You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Messiah Jesus himself as the cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole building is fitted together, and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² You, too, are being built up together, in him, into a place where God will live by the spirit.

²⁸ When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. ²⁹ He was teaching them, you see, on his own authority, quite unlike their scribes.

Two healings

8 When Jesus came down from the hillside, large crowds followed him. ² Suddenly someone with a virulent skin disease approached, and knelt down in front of him.

“Master,” he said, “if you want, you can make me clean!”

³ Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.

“I do want to,” he said. “Be clean!” At once his disease was cured.

⁴ “Take care,” Jesus said to him, “not to say anything to anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering which Moses commanded. That will be a proof to them.”