I have said in another occasion that when Paul said “See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand”, he had taken the pen, which is a rod, from the writer’s hand, as Paul may have used to dictate since he was short-sighted. He took the pen and wrote with large letters that he can see, and each letter in Greek is detached from the other.
What is the subject of this section? There is a group in the church that wanted to force Gentile converts to get circumcised and follow the ritual laws of Moses. This is against the decision of the Council of Jerusalem that didn’t oblige the Gentile converts to pass through Judaism if they became Christians.
So, there were people in Galatia that did not respect the decision of the apostolic council. Paul denounced those Christian Judaizers and there circumcision pride as he said: “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”. As if he is saying that the requirements of the Law are from this world, so if they were crucified (dead) then I’ll be alive.
The apostle increases his tone as he says: “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything” but the new creation that occurs in us through baptism. Baptism is a reflection of Christ’s death and resurrection in us. Therefore, what’s the remaining importance for us from circumcision which was the sign of the testament between God and Abraham? The sign of the new testament in us is Christ’s blood and consequently the Baptism as the apostle arrives to say: “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God”.
The common interpretation of the expression “Israel of God” is its reference to the church which includes that old Israel that converted and the Gentiles that joined through baptism.
Paul gets tired of this situation and he says: “From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus”.
These marks or signs “in my body” are the pain that Paul suffered from the Jews and Gentiles. “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep” (2Cor 11: 24-25).
For him this was the reflection of Christ’s crucifixion in his body, which means that these sufferings invalidate the continuation of our practice to the Law of Moses in its legitimate way.
In this Sunday which precedes the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross we prepare for the feast by our admiration to the sufferings of the apostles and saints, and by our knowledge, as today’s Gospel says, that God “so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son”.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “صليب المسيح” – 12.9.2010- Raiati no37
