Who is On the Throne?
Comments on Galatians with an ear to Luther’s commentary
Scripture Text: Galatians 2:12 and Revelation 4:2–11
Series: Comments on Galatians
Antioch, where this face-off between Paul and Peter occurred, was a much different place than Jerusalem. The latter is what Peter was used to and had a law-oriented approach to following Jesus. This is not to say that Paul could not discern how Christians in Jerusalem would focus on the Torah and the temple. He probably understood all too well how Jewish Christians might concentrate on these things. Antioch was different. When Peter arrived there from Jerusalem he found Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians eating and worshiping together. It must have been a marvel to him and he had to have remembered the joy of eating with Cornelius, his new, Gentile brother in Christ. So, Peter joined in with the Antioch believers, focusing on Christ instead of law.
Some from the Jerusalem Church took issue with this approach to the faith and to fellowship. When the Jerusalem group came to town, Peter separated himself from the Gentile believers in Antioch because he feared the reproach of others. You may recall similar fear when he denied Jesus in the courtyard of the high priest (Luke 22:54-62). What he did in Antioch was no less a denial of Christ, and Paul spoke out against him.
It came down to this: in Jerusalem and in Antioch two Christian cultures were worshiping God in two different ways. Frankly, one seemed more focused on Christ than the other and they became known as Christians or Christianoi, people of Christ, because of their all-out focus on him. It was from this Christ-centered Church that the world was evangelized.
Today, the Church still has a difficult time with the ways that different cultures worship God. One church declaims another over music, translation, art, or sacramental method (to name a few). Because we can sometimes seem like we worship our ways, we must remind ourselves that Christ is on the throne and not the ways we worship him.
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Rev. Dr. Mark E. Ryman has served as Pastor for St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury, NC, since 2021. Previously, Pastor Ryman served congregations in North Carolina and Ohio, as well as a call to specialized ministry with Sola Publishing.
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