Trust Not in Walls
'Siege and destruction of Jerusalem', La Passion de Nostre Seigneur c.1504
By Unknown author - This image is available from the National Library of WalesYou can view this image in its original context on the NLW Catalogue, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44920497
Great walls, firewalls, border walls, prison walls. Wall Street, Walmart, Walt Disney, the walls of our heart, the walls of our cells – trust not in walls.
Think about all the famous walls throughout history and their subsequent failure.
Hadrian’s wall was built in AD 122, to form the northern boundary of the Roman empire and keep the Scots out of England (as if the Scots needed to be held back from plundering some mediocre lager). It became a World Heritage site in 1987.
But Hadrian is more well known for his beard, his magnificent beard. Though a Roman emperor, he was the original hipster and looks like he could have spent significant time in one of those barber shops where they let you sip espresso while Modest Mouse plays in the background.
Or how about the Great Wall of China built over several centuries to form the northern boundary of the Chinese empire and keep the Mongolians out of China (as if they needed to be held back from pilfering some Er Guo Tou). Several sections were built by China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang whose tomb is not far from the Terracotta Warriors (a beautiful memorial to the emperor’s brutal HR policies)
Comedian Turner Sparks used to tell a story about visiting the Great Wall with his uncle:
“They told us the Great Wall stretched for 2000 miles and took 2000 years to build. Uncle Keith said ‘that’s only a mile a year! What took them so long!?’”
Foreign armies just went one extra mile down the road to invade.
Or what about the Berlin Wall, which seemingly was built to keep people in not out? I saw the 1989 footage of happy people swinging sledgehammers to tear it down. Their glee filled faces looked like they were playing highstriker at the carnival. Clearly, they couldn’t get rid of it quick enough.
Despite our knowledge of those failings from the past, the allure of a perfect wall is simply intoxicating. We long for everlasting security and protection, the warm nestled feeling behind a good strong wall where we can finally and completely exhale.
It is all an illusion. All walls fail. Even the walls of our cells are on a trajectory towards being breached. To date, no human body has been able to withstand the continuous chipping away that constitutes living life on planet Earth.
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Of all the walls in the Bible, the most well known is the Wall of Jericho – which came “tumbling down”. We had a fun song about it in Sunday morning bible school. Why, oh why, did we identify with the people outside the wall rather than those inside the wall? The song was lighthearted and catchy. It should’ve been a dirge.
Another wall in the Bible, slightly less well known, is Nehemiah’s wall.
The Old Testament book of Nehemiah is often given the same treatment as the stories of Noah and David. We gloss over the salacious sections of the story and focus on their earthly triumphs. It’s an ESPN highlight reel of all the great things they have done, whilst omitting the cracks and fissures in the wall of their legacy.
Nehemiah was a Jewish exile living in Babylon and serving in the government Artaxerxes. He requested an assignment to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city of his homeland. Because of the boldness of his request, the king granted permission and Nehemiah was sent back with provisions and authority to complete the rebuilding of the city.
American mainstream Christianity has tended to focus on first of half of Nehemiah’s memoir – his struggles to rebuild the city’s broken walls and the resistance he faces in this task from Israel’s nearest neighbors.
When the city wall is finally completed (about halfway through the book), the scene is triumphant. There is singing and dancing, they read from the Torah, and a dedication is given for the wall. These are the passages you typically hear in churches. The wall is used as an image of how we need to protect our families, community, and nation.
The gaps in the wall are also used to describe the gaps in our personal morality, which can only be filled in through strict behavioral control. Only once the gaps are filled in, that is, we are behaviorally perfect, will we be safe from the fires of burning hot hell.
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The first half of the story is celebrated, the second half of the story seldom talked about.
The later chapters of Nehemiah’s memoir become more difficult to relate to. They do not follow the arc of a Hollywood storyline. There are extensive name lists – a who’s who in the org chart of their era. And there are the numerous spats that Nehemiah has with his subordinates and followers. As the book progresses, Nehemiah’s anxiety about his own legacy begins to creep into the narrative. There are xenophobic speeches and pharisaical enforcements of the rules.
It becomes a case study in the struggles of getting older and wrestling with one’s life work. In this sense, there is a real value in what’s written.
To put Nehemiah’s life and legacy into a wider context, I decided to research what Jesus says about walls. To my surprise, he rarely talks about walls, but when he does it is never positive. An example is the statement he made about the city of Jerusalem a week before his crucifixion:
“The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”[1]
His words may be foretelling the events of the First Jewish-Roman War, which began in 66 C.E. with the ouster of the Roman garrison of Jerusalem. For a period, a provisional government of Jewish nationalists would control the city and surrounding area.
But it was short lived. The celebrated wall around Jerusalem, perhaps the same bricks from Nehemiah’s era, would be destroyed with not a single stone standing on another. Once again Roman centurions would be seen on the Mount of Olives, this time an entire legion under the command of future emperor Titus. They laid siege to Jerusalem in 70 C.E. destroying the temple and burning large sections of the city. There was factional infighting among the Jewish rebels and the Romans pushed the sieged populace to the brink of starvation.
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Despite the evidence that all walls fail, the temptation to want them is too strong to resist. We erect them in all different forms and manifestations. We build border walls to keep our enemies out and we build prison walls to keep our enemies in.
Some walls are brick and mortar, while others are conceptual. We put our trust in walls we believe are too big too fail. Wall Street and our entire economy props up our careers and finances, it’s tough to imagine life without it. Walmart and the other large marketplaces promise to keep us safe from scarcity and shame. We lean on them for our physical and status needs.
Walt Disney and the myriad of other entertainments and content offer protection from the harsh reality of existence – the fragility and finite nature of life on planet earth. The constant distraction and noise keep us feeling safe inside our bunkers, but our enemies at the gate are still there.
Despite all our walls, we can’t quite shake the feeling that we’re not actually safe. That’s why anxiety is endemic in American life. It’s also why when push comes to shove, we will sacrifice anything and everything for the illusion of safety.
When it comes to feeling safe, Saint Paul puts it bluntly:
For he [Jesus] himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility… [2]
Paul died several years before the siege of Jerusalem, when the Jewish rebellion had the greatest hope of success. He was imprisoned in Rome at the time. Though others around him may have felt triumphant at the news of the uprising, perhaps he had seen enough of life to know that physical safety was fleeting.
He experienced a mystical awakening that rooted him in something deeper and less tangible than sticks and stones. Simply put, the man did not trust in walls.
All will come tumbling down eventually, even the walls of our very own hearts.
REFERENCES
Book of Luke, chapter 19
Book of Ephesians, chapter 2