the    sides

This is part of our weekly journey through the book of Acts. Today is from Acts 10.

Saul had to be blinded in order to see what God was up to. Peter would need no less of a dramatic lesson to see it.

Just as Saul had stood on his own righteousness, so does Peter. “I’ve never eaten anything that was not kosher, Lord.” You’d think by now, Peter would have learned that whenever you answer Jesus with a “no” you’re pretty much in the wrong. Peter works from his understanding of God to derive his ‘no’ and Jesus has to expand his understanding.

We are no different. More precisely - I’m no different. The more I study and meditate on the words of Jesus, the better I think I am to make decisions. Yet, I’m consistently faced with the real Jesus who is more messy and real than I first realized.

Another random thought from this passage - God’s working both ends toward the middle. Unbeknown to Peter, God is working and speaking through a Roman commander. It’s a key part to the story because Peter’s assumption is that God only works with and through the Jew. God can only use the holy, the set-aside, the devout. He’d never use a pagan war-monger.

He’d never use a student.

He’d never use a black man.

He’d never use an HIV-infected homosexual.

Would He? At the least, He’d never use that kind of person to speak to me…to teach me…would He?

Figure out the kind of people that you know God could never use and you’ve just picked how God will speak to you next.

So Peter heads toward the Roman commander’s house. He remembers his last encounter with the Roman military. They were beating Jesus. Gambling over his clothes. Spitting at him. Nailing him to a cross.

As painful as the memories were, here was irrefutable proof that God was working in and through the pagan Gentile. So maybe this soldier wasn’t so pagan after all. The Spirit of God in the living room of a Roman commander, connected to Jesus just like Peter. We’ve spoke about the issue of tongues before and it bears repeating here. Every time the Spirit moves in Acts to cause tongues to speak, it points to Truth - not emotion. It points to Jesus, not the experience.

When Peter leaves Cornelius he knows that “the Way of Jesus” would never be the same again. Christ had come for and to the Gentiles.

There would be repercussions as Christianity would learn that it’s Jesus that sets the agenda for the Church, not humanity. They’d wrestle with their own traditions and assumptions in the same way the Pharisees had to do.

But God had spoken clearly through the life change of Saul and Peter…and the Church would never be the same again.