“For I speak to you Gentiles…if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches are broken off and you, a wild olive tree were grafted in among them, with them partaking of the root and nourishment of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches” (Romans 11:13,16-18)
Near the end of the great theological treatise that St. Paul wrote to the Roman Church, he addressed the relationship of Gentiles and Jews. So much of his ministry was spent explaining the mystery of God’s plan of salvation that included not Jews only but all humanity. He used the metaphor of an olive tree for its importance to the people of the Near East and for its longevity. He imagined the chosen people as sown from the seed of Abraham. The Old Testament is the history of his descendants ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. A great part of the epistle is spent describing how Israelites who were given the Law by Moses understood that to please the Almighty, one must fulfill the commandments of the Law; however, the problem was that the Lord really wanted more—He expected perfection. The Jews were proof of having fulfilled the letter of the Law, but they never caught the spirit of the Law, or the intention of God that He really wanted perfection. Another failing was that the Lord expected Israel to become “a light to enlighten the Gentiles,” but instead they cut themselves from the Gentiles and made an exclusive religion for themselves only.
St. Paul realized how narrow that concept was, and how it reduced belief to the scrupulous execution of rules without recognizing the broader aspects of spiritual living. He comprehended the message of Jesus Christ and taught it to as many as would hear him. The gospel, or good news, was that nobody could be excluded from God’s grace unless they rejected it themselves. One need not be a Jew to receive the Lord’s blessings. Jesus Himself taught the same message. Therefore, the Jews have no cause to boast about their ancestry, because in the new covenant relationship with the Lord Almighty through Jesus Christ, the Church replaces the heritage of Abraham. Better stated, Abraham has been recognized as the father of all the faithful, Jew and Gentile alike.
The apostle to Gentiles struggled to find some way to make the Jews accept Gentiles whole-heartedly. He brought donations from mostly Gentile communities and offered them to the temple and for the alleviation of the sufferings of his ethnic brethren. He had Timothy, his disciple who had a Gentile father and Jewish mother, circumcised to appease the traditionalists who may not have wanted to associate with the young man otherwise. He would begin in a new city or region, going first to the synagogue, trying to explain that Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified at the instigation of the Jews was actually the long-awaited Messiah; but his valiant efforts too often met with disdain, rebuke and ridicule.
Why not just proclaim a second olive tree? That idea had been considered by Gentiles in ancient times. If the Jews are happier without us, [as supposedly was stated at the council of Jamnia] as well as certain Gentile groups who wished to dispense with the Old Testament as irrelevant to the Christian gospel [considered heresy by the Church], could Christianity simply start anew? The New Testament begins with the detailed history of our Lord’s ethnic heritage beginning with Father Abraham. We who become one with Jesus inherit His ancestry, His spiritual genes as our own. St. Paul makes this clear; indeed, by accepting Jesus as the Messiah-Christ, we who bear His name have become the new Israel, a heritage we must accept with gratitude and humility, living up to the great blessing bestowed on us, unworthy as we are.