Acts 10:34-43 Commentary

A lot happens preceding Peter’s conclusion voiced in verses 34-43.  Beginning in verse 9 of Acts chapter 10, we are told the incredible story of an afternoon siesta on the roof.  Peter dreams of a great white sheet being lowered from heaven.  It descends until Peter is at last able to peer over its hem.  Inside are all kinds of animals – tasty chickens and cows, along with forbidden pigs, reptiles and birds.

Peter hears a voice from heaven: “Get up Peter, Kill and eat.”

And Peter is offended by this!  With injury in his voice, Peter tells God: “Oh no, sir!  I’m not like that. I know the rules.  I keep the rules.  I would never eat those filthy and forbidden animals.  Even fried chicken or a T-bone steak is out of the question now that they’ve been tainted by association with those other, unclean animals.”

And the real difficulty of interpretation here is that Peter gave the right answer.  For thousands of years, Peter’s people have known that there are animals and associations that are simply off limits.  So, in response to his right answer, all Peter receives is rebuke: What God has made clean, you must not call profane.

This vision repeats itself on loop three times.  Three times Peter is commanded: what God has made clean, you must not call profane.  Here, three times, the plates shift beneath Peter’s solid ground.  Tremors run through his certain faith and, before he even has a chance to regain his footing, verse 19 tells us that “the Spirit said to him, ‘Look, three men are searching for you. Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them.’”

Still shaking his foggy head clear, Peter greets his guests.  They are Gentiles, speaking on behalf of another Gentile, Cornelius who has received a vision from God, just like Peter.  But Peter knows the rules.  How is it that a Gentile received a vision?  Visions are for Israelites.

Peter, like many of us, if we’re honest, could have easily and comfortably assumed that visions, that the Holy Spirit’s work, is only “for me and my kind.”

Nonetheless believing — or at least being curious enough about — the reported visions, Peter and a handful of disciples, begin the journey to visit Cornelius. One imagines the fantastical notion of yesterday’s vision grows legs and travels with them.  Upon entering Cornelius’ home, Peter blurts out: “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?”

And Cornelius begins a familiar story – a visitation from God telling him to send for a man named Peter.  So, Cornelius concludes: “Therefore I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.”

And THIS is the context of Peter’s sermon.  A context of seismic activity as the church is challenged to push through into the unknown.  What is it, exactly, that the Lord is commanding Peter to proclaim?  Could it be that Christ is not only for the Jews?  And it may well be that Christ is for everyone?  If Peter dares to speak and believe these words, true fellowship between Jews and Gentiles is the result. New chairs have to be pulled up to the table. The rules so ingrained and accepted in Judaism and the newly birthed Christianity will be overturned.  The bedrock of faith is shifting under his very feet, Peter takes a deep breath and begins:

“I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.”

Even Peter’s words are a wrestling.  This message is for the people of Israel and yet Jesus Christ is Lord of all.  How can it this be?  And in that moment of wrestling, as Peter rehearses what he knows to be true about Jesus, all of the tremors and quakes, suggestions of seismic activity erupt into the real deal.  A movement of the Holy Spirit so broad and fantastic that it cannot remain only with the right people but must be for ALL people.  The Holy Spirit pours out upon those Gentiles and they begin speaking in tongues and praising God.  In that moment, the Jewish believers who came with Peter, stand aside with their mouths a-gape.

What they had once believed was theirs, and theirs alone, is now also for Gentiles.  The bedrock of their exclusive claim on Holy Spirit power is shaken.  The Holy Spirit is on the move and the Holy Spirit isn’t playing by their rules.

Peter’s sermon to the household of Cornelius is often called the 2nd Pentecost, which should remind us of that 1st day of Pentecost.  That day when Peter spoke boldly, quoting the prophet Joel, saying:

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your young men will see visions, Your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they will prophesy.”

Like the church at the time of the Apostle Peter, we are a people, a church, infused by the Holy Spirit.  We have been given dreams and visions too. What does it mean for us to say that the Holy Spirit is on the move and the Holy Spirit isn’t playing by our rules? Today. In our context. In our lives.

Illustration:

In Ron Hanson’s novel, Mariette in Ecstasy, about a young nun in training, another girl receives a visitation of the divine, throwing her convent into disorder.  Again, opinions fly, sides are taken and Mariette is sometimes branded a saint and other times a pretender.  In one moment of clarity, her priest simply acknowledges, “We don’t have to understand what God is doing for God to be able to do it.”

“We don’t have to understand what God is doing for God to be able to do it.”  This takes us straight back into the heart of today’s Scripture passage.  The church is moving forward in Acts.  Peter is scrambling to keep up but, in that one glorious moment, the Holy Spirit shows up, leaving the disciples with their jaws on the floor.

Peter looks to them and says, in essence, “We don’t have to understand what God is doing for God to be able to do it.”  Or, in verses 47-48, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”