Unclean No More
by Laurence Windham

Unclean No More
by Laurence Windham

The Book of Acts is officially and erroneously titled in most Bibles as, the Acts of the Apostles. There certainly is action. But I do believe it a stretch to ascribe the will at work to men. Otherwise, Ananias would not have gone to see Saul the newly converted persecutor, Phillip would have missed the Ethiopian eunuch, Paul would have gone to Asia instead of Macedonia, and Peter would never, ever, have entered the home of a Gentile. The Lord choreographed all these events and more. Just like all times, God moves the pieces around the board according to His good pleasure. The results are always what He wants. That is no small detail when we consider what is going down with Peter and that cosmic tablecloth vision found in Acts Chapter 10.

Peter is praying on top of the roof around dinnertime. His stomach is growling as his hosts are preparing the midday meal downstairs. Then God presents Peter with something else to put in his mouth besides his foot. A lavishly prepared banquet of goat, beef, lamb and, and pork!

Being the righteous racist that he is, Peter rejects a direct command from God with the same ignorant zeal that caused this brash one to try and prevent Christ from being crucified. Such ignorance, by the way, that our Lord called "Satanic". 

There is acceleration in the text. Cornelius sends for Peter, God sends Peter the tablecloth vision three times. Cornelius' servants are knocking at the door, God breaks Peter's trance to tell him that the door is for him. God doesn't even allow any time for someone to call and tell Peter he has visitors.

It's like the old woman who had two pet doors installed side by side on her back door. When asked why the need for two she responded, "I have two cats." When asked why both cats could not make use of one door she replied emphatically, "Because, when I say SCAT! I mean right now!"  This is what is going on with Peter. God is wasting no time. He wants something taken care of right now. He wants bigotry to end.

Soon after Peter goes to Cornelius' house, and preaches the gospel where all in the house are converted and receive the Holy Spirit, Peter goes to Jerusalem and is confronted by his fellow Jews. Basically, their dispensational theology has failed them. They have come to believe for generations that God had no affection for Gentiles. (Like the twist here?!) Their understanding of the Scriptures had affected their vision. They no longer could see red, yellow, black and white. They had one category for the "right" race.

When we first moved here in Virginia I supported my family by working as a carpenter and a house painter. On one of the jobs, a fellow found out that I was seminary trained. So, since he was the principal Sunday school teacher in a local church, he decided to test my knowledge of the Bible. "Do you know where black people come from?" he drawled. "Well, they like all races have to be descended from Noah's sons." I answered logically. He continued, (ignoring what I said), "And the Lord said to Noah, take two of each kind into the ark."

Shocked at a bigotry that would stoop to the level of calling people of another race, animals, I asked the only question that came to mind, "So, the Klan strong in this area?" Likewise, anti-anything-not-Semitic sentiment was strong among the Jews of Peter's day-including the newly converted Jewish church. They were about to be shocked by God. He was all about fulfilling His promise to their father Abraham and bringing the nations of the world into Jerusalem. Whether they wanted Him to or not. God was being consistent with His word. The Jewish response Peter got from the church in Jerusalem reveals their ignorance of what God is like, and what God likes. Fortunately for them, God also granted them repentance and understanding.

Why animals in Peter's vision? Well, as we should know by now, all the answers are in Genesis. Perhaps the fact that Noah took clean and unclean animals in the ark was symbolic of the fact that God's ultimate design was to make them all clean. Chronologically, the word "unclean" is used in Scripture before it is defined. But, the term was known at the time of writing. Therefore, the fact is understood retroactively. So, should this vision of Peter's in Acts 10 stand-alone without any literary support from the rest of the Bible? I think not. The application is simple. In Christ we are a new creation. In the first creation there were no Jews and Gentiles. There was just God and His people.

So, the command of God is to not classify what He has declared clean as unclean. Remember, God gave the vision to Peter three times. You know, there is something going on with this ex-fisherman-disciple-now apostle and the numeral 3. There are the three denials, the three affirmations, the three wake-up calls during the prayer service at Gethsemane, the three visions of clean/unclean animals, and now, three men waiting to escort him to Cornelius' house.

Don't wait for God to tell you repeatedly what is right. Get your act together, now. There is an "Us" and a "Them." But the categories are not colors but dimensions. We are light. And whatever color you are, as a Christian, you  reflect the beauty of diversity within the very body of Jesus' adorned bride. Then there is the Darkness. Where light is absent and men are blind. They "see" differences based on superficiality rather than truth. Race and color matter to them in a perverse way. We are not so. We are in Christ. There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism which serve to produce one people. All by the grace of God. He makes of all peoples, tribes and nations, the superior race.