10:7 And when the angel
who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants
and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually. 8 So when
he had explained all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa.
9 The next day, as they
went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to
pray, about the sixth hour. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat;
but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and
an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and
let down to the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the
earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came
to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
14 But Peter said, “Not
so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”
15 And a voice spoke to
him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” 16
This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.
17 Now while Peter
wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant, behold, the
men who had been sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon’s house, and
stood before the gate. 18 And they called and asked whether Simon, whose
surname was Peter, was lodging there.
19 While Peter thought
about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are seeking you.
20 Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent
them.”
Simon Peter is a Jew, Cornelius is a Roman soldier and never
the two shall meet.
In 2001 I met a woman who had just moved back to Canada from
South Carolina and she told me a story that shocked me. She had a young
daughter and her daughter (white) befriended another little girl who was black.
The friendship hadn't been a long one when this mother received a knock on her
door. It was the mother of the little black girl. She was not rude or mean but
she basically said "I know you aren't from here but our daughters cannot be
friends. That isn't how things are done around here." And with that she
was left to explain to her daughter why she just lost her new friend.
In some places and in some cultures there are invisible lines
you cannot cross and if you do someone will let you know. The Jews had huge
walls and definite lines. To touch a Roman or enter their home made a Jew
unclean which meant they had to go through a ritual of purification in order to
be "clean" again and interact with other Jews, attend the Synagogue,
go to the temple, etc...
Meanwhile God loves everyone. God knows that from one blood
He created all people. He knows that if we traced our family trees back far
enough we are all one family. He knows that no human being is unclean simply by
virtue of nationality, race, gender, language, colour, etc... God knows this
but we struggle. God knows this and wants us to see it too, but we struggle. We
major in externals. We classify and rank and prejudge.
The Bible says nature teaches us about God. I remember when I
took an advanced biology class in high school being fascinated by our
classifications of animals and substances and that some things just didn't fit.
All liquids contract when they freeze and become solids yet water expands.
Mammals give birth to live young yet the duck billed platypus and the short
beaked echidna lay eggs. Hyenas are typically seen as dogs yet they more
closely are related to the cat family by our classification system.
What is my point? Nature defies classification. It destroys
our boxes. It tears down our walls and wreaks havoc with our attempts at tidy
charts and graphs. Nature reveals God - A God who loves variety and rejects
classification.
When God classified animals in the Old Testament into clean
and unclean it was never a statement about the value of the animals. Rather it
was a health principle. God then used this system which Peter knew well to open
his mind and heart to a radical new idea. When it comes to people, no one is
unclean. Peter was at first confused by the vision. Then God told him:
"Three men are here to see you. Go down and go with them doubting nothing,
for I have sent them."
God is about to obliterate another wall. Tomorrow we'll see
what happened next.
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