Have you ever been hungry? I don't mean the basic hunger
when it's three o'clock in the afternoon and you've been too busy to get any
lunch. I mean the kind of hunger where it seems like you'll probably never be
satisfied. In the ninth chapter of the book of Acts, Peter is terribly hungry.
It's about noon, so it's not too late in the day when he begins to feel pangs
in his belly. I think that this is no ordinary hunger, but the kind of
emptiness that you feel when you're not only physically empty but also spiritually
drained.
The last thing we see of Peter before this is that just the
previous day, he had been called on to perform an impossible task. A disciple named
Tabitha had become sick and died. They had called Peter to help them in their
grief, yet instead of morning, he has raised her from the dead by the power of
Jesus. Notice it was by the power of Jesus and not by his own power. Still, any
great spiritual effort like that can drain you of energy. So I imagine that
Peter is not only physically hungry, but spiritually famished at this point. He
has taken a walk on the flat roof, a comfortable, place in the heat of the day,
breezy beneath a fluttering awning. He can smell lunch cooking inside the
house. We don't know how it happens, but Peter falls into a trance, and has a
vision from God.
Peter sees a great sheet coming down out of heaven, filled with
every kind of living creature. A voice says, "Arise, Peter. Kill, and
eat!" Now, Peter is a good, observant, religious Jewish man. His whole
life he has followed the proscribed kosher diet. He has avoided certain kinds
of foods, including pork, shellfish, carrion birds and predatory birds, and
many other things. But now he sees a sheet filled with every kind of animal,
and the voice of God tells him to make a smorgasbord! He
thinks, "Maybe God is testing me," so he remains true to his
convictions. "Certainly not, Lord," he says. "I have
never eaten anything unclean before." But the Lord is indignant, and
replies, "What I have declared to b be clean, don't you dare call
unclean!"
This is too radical for Peter. He doesn't know how to handle
something as drastic as this. If he obeys the voice, then he disobeys the Law
of God. If he disobeys the voice then he
disobeys God. Not wanting to obey or
disobey, he does what any of us would do.
He does nothing. This is why the
Lord has to repeat the vision two more times, until he finally gets it. (How many times will God have to repeat
Himself before we finally get it? On the
surface, this vision seems to be all about food. Like a lot of Christians, Peter can’t see
beyond the surface meaning.)
While Peter is still inwardly perplexed, messengers from Centurion
Cornelius arrive. Four days prior, the
Roman captain had been praying as best he knew how. An angel had appeared to him, telling him to
send for Peter, who was staying at the home of Simon the Tanner in Joppa. Now, the messengers stand before Peter,
extending the invitation to come to Cornelius’ house. And Peter has a decision to make.
Perhaps he decides right away, but I like to think that all the
way to the Roman villa, Peter is still unsure what he should do. Just like sticking to kosher foods, observant
Jewish people were supposed to stick to kosher company. Each Roman home had its own shrine to the gods
and ancestral spirits. Peter knows that
this qualifies Cornelius’ house and every Roman home as a miniature pagan
temple, so he will defile himself if he enters it. When he arrives at the door, there must be a
suspenseful pause as he stands on the threshold. What will he do? Peter remembers Jesus’ instructions as the
Lord had commanded them to go through the cities of Israel, proclaiming the
Good News. They were to enter a house,
kiss the mezuzah, and let their shalom rest on the house. But that was how they were to enter Jewish
households. There was no mezuzah—how
could Peter give his peace to this Roman house?
Then, beyond the strangeness of the home is the unlikelihood of
the man Cornelius. As Peter wavers on the threshold he thinks his memory might
be faltering—is this the same Roman captain who had come to Jesus so his
servant could be healed? Or is it the
one who had carried out the crucifixion, and later proclaimed Jesus to be the
Son of God? Or is it someone even
worse? His own servants had declared him
to be “a righteous and god-fearing man, well spoken-of by the entire Jewish
nation”—but what were they going to say about their master? Peter isn’t sure. So he lingers at the threshold.
Today, I wonder—whose threshold have you been lingering at for far
too long? Jesus has called you, but are
there places you fear to go in the name of grace? Are there people who are just too much of a
stretch for you to accept? Philip’s
evangelism in Samaria was odd enough, but Samaritans, hated as they were, were
at least semi-Jewish. Here, Peter stands
at the threshold of his Roman oppressor, of one whom he had determined to be
beyond salvation. Following Jesus’
command to pray for his enemies is difficult enough—Peter knows this because
he’s tried it a few times. But enter his
home? Have a meal with him? Eat his non-kosher food? Share Jesus with him? See his enemy saved? As he stares down at the threshold it seems
to get larger and larger, looming up like something that he might stub his toe
on, like something that might make him stumble and fall—and if he falls, Peter
fears his Jewish traditions might shatter.
Thresholds can be dangerous things, you know. In one house we lived in, we had a threshold
that was too large—we kept hurting ourselves on it. Thresholds were originally higher than they
are today. They were designed to keep
thresh, or straw that was scattered to keep in warmth and act as carpeting,
inside the house. They were also
designed to keep mud on the outside.
They were designed as a barrier—but make it too large and you will hurt
yourself. Now Peter lingers at the
threshold, deciding what he will do.
Some thresholds, once you cross them you can never go back. What will you do as you linger at the
threshold of sharing God’s grace?
Peter decides to step inside, into the warmth of hospitality
unexpected. He sees not an enemy but a
man. He sees not only a man, but a whole
family, and a gathering of friends, eager and waiting to hear the Good News
about Jesus. Peter’s prejudices melt
away as he says, “You yourselves know
how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or
to visit him; and yet God
has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean (Acts
10:28).”[i] Peter repents of his former attitude and
embraces this family as his own. I
wonder, what prejudices do you need to release, in order to embrace the
beautiful people that God is bringing into your life unexpected?
Peter continues to say, “I
most certainly understand now that God
is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man
who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him (Acts
10:34-35).” Contrary to some claims,
this verse doesn’t indicate universal salvation. It does, however, mean that everyone is
welcome in the kingdom of God when they come to the Lord in holy fear, and
doing what is right by receiving Jesus as their Savior. As Peter shares the Gospel that day,
Cornelius and his entire household are saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and
baptized. “All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed,
because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles
also (Acts 10:45).”
From that moment, nothing would be the same in the church. Crossing that threshold had been a point of no
return for the Jewish movement called The Way.
Gentiles, foreigners, former idolaters—people of every language and
nation and kind began to be welcomed into the faith. Yes, it would require adaptation and change
(two words that are still difficult in the church today) to accommodate this
new kind of Christianity. But the world
and the Kingdom of God would be better for it.
I wonder, what thresholds are before you today? What barrier, designed to keep some out and
some in, is God asking you to cross? God
says, “What I have declared to be clean, don’t you dare call unclean!” Then he calls you to have the courage to walk
over the threshold and take a step of faith.
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