Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

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.

The feeding of the five thousand

³⁰ The apostles came back to Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. ³¹ “All right,” he said, “it’s time for a break. Come away, just you, and we’ll go somewhere lonely and private.” (Crowds of people were coming and going and they didn’t even have time to eat.)

³² So they went off privately in the boat to a deserted spot. ³³ And . . . crowds saw them going, realized what was happening, hurried on foot from all the towns, and arrived there first. ³⁴ When Jesus got out of the boat he saw the huge crowd, and was deeply sorry for them, because they were like a flock without a shepherd. So he started to teach them many things.

⁵³ They made landfall at Gennesaret, and tied up the boat. ⁵⁴ People recognized Jesus as soon as they got out of the boat, ⁵⁵ and scurried about the whole region to bring sick people on stretchers to wherever they heard that he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he went, in villages, towns or in the open country, they placed the sick in the market-places and begged him to let them touch even the hem of his garment. And all who touched it were healed.