What God has made Clean: An Eastertide Meditation on Acts 10

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, 

Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

But in every nation he that feareth him, 

and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, 

preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)

That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, 

and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: 

who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; 

for God was with him.

And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, 

and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:

Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;

Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before by God, 

even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.

And he commanded us to preach unto the people, 

and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God 

to be the Judge of the quick and the dead.

To him give all the prophets witness,

 that through his name, whosoever believeth in him 

shall receive remission of sins.

While Peter yet spake these words, 

the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, 

as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles 

also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. 

Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, 

which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. 

Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

In the 10th chapter of the book of Acts, we have recorded a tremendously significant event in the life of the Church.  Cornelius, who is described as a just man, devout before God and active in good works for the care of the poor, was visited by an angel of God despite being a Gentile.  While Jewish tradition going back to the words of Moses commanded Jews to be hospitable and just with Gentiles while keeping themselves distinct (due to the promise of the coming Messiah through the decedents of Abraham,) by the time of Peter such distinctions had given way to open prejudice and condescension.  Not only did many of the Jews, guided by the complex traditions of the Pharisees, look down upon Gentiles as inferior and unclean, but many Gentiles of Roman and Greek heritage thought the same of the Jews.  Prejudice and animus went both ways, such that Jews and Gentiles did not eat with each other, visit each other’s houses, or participate in the same social events— they might share business and political dealings, but everything else was out of the question.  Many pagan Romans would despise the Jews and their God as conquered and weak, and many Jews would contemptuously view the pagan Romans as ignorant and soiled by their worship of false gods.  The chasm between these peoples was vast, despite their geographic proximity in the Mediterranean basin.

And yet, God sent a holy angel to Cornelius, a Roman.  Likewise, He reached out to Peter in a vision, befuddling him with a command not to call unclean what God Himself has cleansed.  Eventually, the Word of God brought Peter to Cornelius’ house, and by Peter’s preaching, all those assembled were given the gift of the Holy Spirit— which is forgiveness, life, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus.  They spoke in tongues just as the Apostles and other Jewish converts did, inspiring Peter to ask what should prevent them from being baptized, since they had received the same Holy Spirit?  A chasm between people so wide that no man could breach it, was closed by the work of Jesus’ sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  No longer were Jews and Gentiles to be separated, or to look down on each other in derision, because each was saved by the same grace through the same faith, sealed by the same Holy Spirit into the same Body of Christ which is the one, holy Church.  As God Himself cannot be divided, but lives forever as the perfect unity in community of the Most Holy Trinity, so too would all those grafted into Him by grace through faith live in unity with each other through Him.  The blood which Jesus poured out on His cross was for the sins of the whole world, and His Word was sent out to the whole world— first by His Apostolic witnesses, and then in every generation by those ordained after them to preach their Apostolic message— that the whole world might be reconciled through Jesus.

Sadly, divisions between people still plague the world, and do so even within the visible boundaries of the Church.  People for whom Jesus has died are called unclean, made to feel the bitterness and prejudice of those who would look down upon them, abuse them, condemn them, or refuse to associate with them.  Outside the Church, people resort to brutish tribalism to assert superiority of their tribe over others in the realms of race, politics, economics, and myriad other divisions.  Inside the Church, that same tribalism manifests as denominationalism and powerful bureaucracies, each waving their banner of superiority over their fellow Christians, holding hostage the gifts of Christ’s fellowship and His means of grace from those who don’t wear the same team jersey, or bow to the same tyrannical bureaucrat.  Such manifestations of our fallen nature reveal our pride and malice, greed and covetousness toward each other, breathing out a hatred and division which is alien to the Spirit and work of Christ our Savior.  Such sin masks and occludes the deeper reality which was revealed to Peter and Cornelius:  that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you this day, calling you away from your wicked pride which deceives you, and creates humanely insurmountable chasms between you and your neighbor.  Hear the Law as it pierces your heart, and opens your eyes to all the ways you have been guilty of fomenting division, schism, and triumphal tribalism of your clan over another, calling you to repentance.  Hear the Gospel as it comes to heal your separation from God through the blood of Jesus Christ by grace through faith in Him, and then heals your divisions from your neighbors, as you all learn to live in the light of the same Word, by the power of the same Holy Spirit, united into the one Church which is the indivisible Body of Christ, now and forevermore.  Having been made clean by the grace of God, see your neighbor through the same crucified and risen Jesus who has cleansed you, that embracing your brothers and sisters, you might never again call unclean that which Jesus has washed in His own holy blood.  Amen.