Peter knew, almost since he was born, some things he should never, under any circumstances, eat. He knew some people he should never associate with, never be friends with, never stay in their house, never eat with them.
He learned what it meant to be God’s chosen people. The rest of the nations God had rejected as unclean. Jews should not have anything to do with them.
Looking back on his time with Jesus, he should have realized that Jesus did a lot of things he should not do. Men did not speak to women, but he did, even Gentile women. No one should work on the Sabbath, and healing counted as work. Worse yet, often the people he healed on the Sabbath were people who had suffered from their disability for a long time. Their healings were not emergencies. Jesus could have waited until the next day, but he did not seem to care about rules or customs or traditions.
Peter and the other disciples learned Jesus used his own set of rules. Not everyone declared unclean by the law was untouchable. Jesus healed lepers, a Canaanite woman’s daughter, a Roman centurion’s servant. Still, from childhood, Peter knew the difference between Jews and Gentiles, between God’s chosen people and the rest of the world.
Peter also knew the difference between clean and unclean. If people touched something dead, they became unclean, unclean until evening. But now Peter was visiting Simon, a tanner, who worked with hides. Hides come from dead animals. And since he did this every day, he was unclean every day. Did it matter because the other Simon was a baptized Follower of the Way?
“Lord, you know Simon. You know his heart. You sent me to stay here with him. But …”
A light breeze brought him something from where the women were cooking down below in the house. It was noon, and Peter was on the rooftop. His nose twitched. I’m hungry. Lamb. They’re roasting a lamb.”
“But I’m praying. Lord, I don’t know …”
And bread! It’s baking in the oven!
“No, I have to pay attention to what I’m doing. I …”
His eyes widened. He stepped back. “What’s that? Something’s coming down out of the sky? And it’s not attached to anything above.”
The whatever-it-was dropped closer, until he could almost reach out and touch it. Instead, he glanced behind him and took two more steps back. He didn’t want to back off the roof.
“It’s a sheet! A sheet full of animals!”
Without moving his feet, he leaned forward to see. What he saw horrified him! A horse! A bear! A camel! Unclean animals! Creatures with undivided hooves. Creatures that do not chew their cud.
He recoiled in fear and disgust. He threw up his hands to cover his face, backing across the roof to the outside wall. Forgotten was his question about staying with Simon. Forgotten was the roasting lamb or the bread baking.
A voice seemed to come out of a cloud, but there was no cloud in the sky.
“Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” [1]
His mouth gaped open. His hands were up, so he covered his mouth with his hands and shook his head. This had to be something God was doing because sheets full of animals of any kind do not drop out of the sky!
His response, besides waving his arms, was, “Surely not, Lord!” [2] And, of course, people do not say, “No,” to God, so he added in his defense, “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” [3]
The sheet dropped lower, and the animals shifted around. Two mice crawled up onto the edge and stared at him. The voice spoke again. “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” [4]
Again the command came. “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
He continued to shake his head. Because he was already against the short outside wall, he could not back up farther.
He repeated what he said before, thinking, “And I’m not going to start now!”
There’s something about the number three. When something happens once, a person can pretend it did not happen. If it happens again, they might wonder about their sanity. The third time … best to sigh and accept it.
Of course, this happened a third time. The voice and his response, but then the mice fell back into the sheet. He could no longer see the alligator, the mule, the giraffe. The thing, the sheet with all those animals, rose and disappeared behind a cloud that had not been there before.
Not much time passed, only a few breaths. He heard someone knocking below. He moved to the front wall. Three men stood outside the gate, one of them a Roman soldier.
“Is a man named Simon, also called Peter, here?”
An inner voice, one Peter recognized as the voice of the Spirit, spoke. “Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.” [5]
He went down as instructed, knowing that he was going to talk with at least one Gentile. The other two, probably.
“We have come from Cornelius, a centurion. He sent us because an angel visited him and told him to ask you to come back with us.”
Sill confused about the vision, if that’s what it was, he turned to his host. The tanner did not object to an invitation for them to stay and spend the night. Being called “unclean” for having Gentile visitors was not any worse than being unclean for what he did every day.
In the morning, they headed north for Caesarea, the Roman capital of the province of Judah, to meet with the military leader in charge of protecting men like Herod. He had enough power to make a simple Galilean more than somewhat nervous, but Peter was not alone as several Followers from Joppa went with him.
As they traveled, Peter walked with the soldier and his companions, but he could hear the conversation behind him.
“A Roman centurion?” Peter recognized the words spit out as coming from Joshua, the one considered their leader. “Why are we going to visit a Gentile? That’s not allowed!”
“I know. Peter’s lost his mind.”
“It’s bad enough that he was staying with a tanner. I invited him to stay at my house, but he said he was fine with Simon.”
“This is against the Law of Moses.”
“So why are we going along with him?”
He heard their footsteps stop. So far they hadn’t said anything he had not already thought. He turned to face them. “Because the Holy Spirit told me to.”
Joshua stepped forward. “The Holy Spirit? How do you know?”
“I have heard the voice before.”
“Right. The Holy Spirit told you to go against everything we’ve learned.”
Peter straightened his shoulders. “Just like Jesus did.”
“Jesus would not go against the Lord God.”
“Oh, yes, he did.” Simon let his memories pour out. “When he talked with the Samaritan woman. When he healed on the Sabbath. When he called a tax collector to follow him. When he fed 4,000 people on the Gentile side of the Jordan. When he defended us for plucking grain to eat on the Sabbath. When he …”
Joshua interrupted. “Jesus did all that?”
“And more. … He not only healed a leper, but he touched him. And he forgave the sins of a paralyzed man. And he …”
Joshua put up his hand. “And you’re sure that we’re supposed to go speak to this Roman?” The last word came out more gently.
Peter stepped forward and put his hand on Joshua’s shoulder.
“I am.” He sighed, then continued, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
“I’m sorry, but what did you say?”
“Let me tell you.” As they resumed their walk to Caesarea, Peter explained his vision. He did not tell his friends that he was still uncomfortable with what he was doing.
In Caesarea, a small crowd of people waited at the house, some of them Roman soldiers. That did not make Peter feel better. He could tell from the expressions on his friends’ faces that they were thinking the same, but the angel had called for him, so there he was, standing where the Holy Spirit sent him. Were these people something impure that he was not to call unclean, like the animals in the sheet?
# # #
Three days earlier, the Roman centurion stood with his wife by the gate, watching his servants walking away down the road. After a long silence, Justina asked what they were both thinking. “Do you think the Galilean will come back with them?”
“I don’t know. I hope so,” Cornelius answered. “The probability is not very great. I’ve spent time in Galilee, and those people … they have no use for us. They see us as their oppressors, rather than peace keepers. They hate us.”
“So the odds are against him coming.” Justina’s shoulders sagged.
“Yes.”
“But Rabbi Binyamin …”
“Yes, he talked with us. He explained to us their religion. But Rabbi Amos? He refused to meet with us. We couldn’t go to the synagogue, and when we tried to invite him to our house, I thought he would pass out. ‘Jews do not enter the homes of Gentiles! Nor do Jews allow Gentiles to enter our homes!’ ”
“Yes, I remember you telling me that. Then why, after Rabbi Amos died, did Rabbi Binyamin meet with us and let us convert?”
The centurion shook his head. “Not everyone was happy about that, even after everything we’ve done to help them.”
Justina changed the question. “But why would the angel tell you to send for Peter if he might not come?”
He put his hands on her shoulders. “You ask questions I can’t answer. You know that, don’t you?”
“Well, what Eli told us about the man Jesus, how he taught a new law, the love of God and of neighbor, … if this Simon Peter was a disciple of his, he might consider us a neighbor. Maybe?”
“I hope so.”
This Roman centurion had faced many swords without flinching, but the angel was not of this world. His message? He began with affirming the centurion’s prayers and told the Roman to send to Joppa for Simon, also called Peter.
After the angel left and Cornelius recovered his senses, he sent two of his slaves and a God-fearing soldier, as the angel commanded.
Now, remembering the visit of the angel, Cornelius looked at his wife and smiled confidently. “God would not have sent the angel if God did not plan to send Simon Peter. He will come.”
“You’re right.” She smiled back. “He will come. We will invite the others.”
In spite of their confidence, the sun dawdled in crossing the sky. Night came twice. Every time someone passed their gate, they ran to see who was there. Were their messengers coming back? Was Simon Peter with them? Would the Galilean come?
Late on the third day, they looked down the road. “Look! That’s Lucius!”
“And Tercio and Marcus! They’re coming back! But with others! There are four more!”
“But which one is Simon Peter?”
At the gate the strangers hesitated. Then one of them stepped forward. Lucius pointed at him. “This is Simon Peter,” he whispered. Cornelius eased toward him and dropped to the ground in an attitude of worship.
Peter reached down and pulled him to his feet. “Stand up. I am only a man myself.” [6]
As they walked to the house, Cornelius recognized his friends’ voices inside. Peter reminded him he should not visit Gentiles.
Cornelius nodded and looked away, afraid Peter was going to be like Rabbi Amos.
Peter sighed. “But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?” [7]
The Roman turned to face the Galilean. He explained about the angel’s visit and being told to send for Simon called Peter. “Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” [8]
Cornelius feared making a mistake as Peter looked around and saw women included in the group. In Roman society, women, at least of the middle and upper class, had more rights than women in Jewish society. Roman women could own property. They could participate in public worship. Jewish women were not allowed in the main room of the synagogue or in the Temple itself.
Peter did not hesitate.
As Peter spoke, Cornelius recognized a warm feeling. He turned and looked at his wife. She looked different, surrounded by light. And it occurred to him he was also feeling a light engulfing him. This was a new feeling, a tingling sensation, yet a deep peace, a warmth that filled him through and through, and a need to praise God for this great gift.
But what words came out of his mouth? He spoke Latin, of course, and Greek, the commercial language. He understood enough Aramaic to listen to the rabbi in the synagogue. But now, the words of praise that he spoke, the words his wife was speaking, were none of those languages, yet they had meaning to both him and his wife. Similar words came from the group gathered in his home.
He also heard murmuring from the men who came with Peter—murmuring in Aramaic, questioning how these Gentiles had received the Holy Spirit.
As if from a distance, Cornelius heard Peter speaking. “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” [9]
After the baptisms, Peter shared his experiences as a disciple of Jesus — how Jesus healed both Jew and Gentile, both men and women; how Jesus taught both Jew and Gentile, both men and women; how Jesus included both men and women in his band of followers.
Peter and his friends stayed for a few days with the Roman centurion.
Later the church leaders in Jerusalem called him to account for baptizing Gentiles, especially a Roman officer. When he told his story, they praised God. “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.” [10]
For consideration:
1) Predestination states that God chose who would be saved even before they are born, even before creating the world. What are the implications of that for us as Christians?
2) How does John 3:16 relate to God having chosen a specific group or specific people?
3) Peter and his companions heard the Romans speaking in tongues. How do we recognize God working in someone’s life?
4) What people do we reject today? Who do we call impure?
[1] Acts 10:13
[2] Acts 10:14a
[3] Acts 10:14b
[4] Acts 10:14b
[5] Acts 10:29b-20
[6] Acts 10:26b
[7] Acts 10:28b-29
[8] Acts 10:33b
[9] Acts 10:47
[10] Acts 11:18
