Scripture: The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
Acts 10:9-16 ESV [Click here to read the entire chapter.]
Observation: Recapping Yesterday’s Daily Focus, Luke takes us to the Caesarean house of a devout God-fearing Roman centurion named Cornelius. He practiced his faith by generously giving alms to those in need and continually praying to the God of Israel. Indeed, Cornelius was praying earnestly when an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a vision and called him by name. Frightened, Cornelius inquired about the intent of this celestial encounter. The angel assured him that his pious acts of giving and praying had been a pleasing sacrifice to the Lord and instructed him to send men to Joppa to Simon the tanner’s house and escort his guest, Peter, back to his house. So, without delay, Cornelius directed two of his servants and a devout soldier to go to Joppa and do as the angel instructed.
Today’s devotion continues this landmark development of the church with God broadening Peter’s scope of the Gospel to include Gentiles. The day after Cornelius sent his men to Joppa, Peter went to the rooftop of Simon’s house at noon to pray. Feeling peckish and perhaps smelling the aroma of food preparation from below, Peter drifts into a daydream and sees a great sheet holding clean and unclean animals descending from heaven. Suddenly, a heavenly voice commands Peter to rise, kill, and eat. Peter contends that he has not and could not eat anything “common or unclean.” But the voice admonishes Peter for calling what God has “made clean” common. This interactive vision and voice occurs three times before it fades into heaven.
Takeaway: We learned from Wednesday’s Daily Focus that Peter remained in Joppa with Simon, who is a tanner. A tanner’s occupation would be deemed by Levitical law as unclean because they handled dead animals (Leviticus 11:39). Thus, Peter kept company with a man who remained unclean throughout his workday. Luke’s notation is intriguing, given that Peter would hypocritically argue against the Lord in his vision about eating unclean animals. Also fascinating are the parallels to the Last Supper, when Jesus started to wash Peter’s feet (John 13:6-10). We see a similar brash response of exhibiting impertinent behavior toward his Lord without inquiring about the purpose. Ironically, when Peter grasped that Jesus washed his feet to symbolize the heart of the mission, Peter blurts to Jesus to wash his hands and head, to which Jesus replied that he was already clean. Also, the repetition of the number “three” seems an unlikely coincidence to Christ’s post-resurrection commissioning of Peter, where he tells Peter three times to feed his sheep (John 21:15-17). Here, the Lord commands Peter to feed sheep from another pastor whom Peter presumed common and unclean.
Our takeaway? It is tempting to scoff at Peter for his hypocrisy, but we all have elements of hypocrisy where what we profess does not align with what we do. Thankfully, like Peter, our Lord is patient and persistent with us. Indeed, like Peter, our Christian worldviews harbor personal preferences and biases that we confuse with upholding God’s holiness code. For example, several years ago, when I facilitated a recovery group for men struggling with porn addictions, members of the church complained to the pastor that this was not the type of outreach that a church should host on its property. Understandably, they based their concerns on the safety of church members. But, like Peter, they reacted without asking questions. In truth, we desperately need outreach to this people group, given that the percentage of men addicted to porn is the same inside and outside the church. If we declare them unclean and have nothing to do with this type of gritty outreach, then we cut off hope to over fifty percent of the males who attend worship with us.
Thankfully, like Peter, God will speak to us through dreams, images, and the community of believers to expose our faith’s inconsistencies and wrongful applications. Of course, we must hold fast to the core tenets of our faith as expressed in the Scripture and our creeds, but as one of my seminary professors once said, there is a little bit of heresy in everyone. So let’s err on the side of grace and humility and allow room for the Holy Spirit to take us into unchartered territory where the love of Christ calls the least, the last, and the lost from their darkness into his light.
Prayer: Father God, we thank you for your Son, who died for us so that we are no longer called unclean and common but instead called children of the King. So would you please grant us humility and courage to go where your Holy Spirit leads into the unchartered territories of your Son’s kingdom and serve others floundering in darkness with the sacrificial love of your Son and lead them into his light just as he has done for us? Amen.
Rev. Gordon Green, M.Div., M.A. Counseling
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