Acts 10, "Embracing the Unclean Commoner"

We were in New York City a couple of weeks ago, and at one point I was riding a bus from LaGuardia airport to our hotel in Queens. As a Jesus follower, I want to consider others better than myself, and make room for others, so I went to the back of the bus, took a window seat, and piled my bags on my lap. At one stop, a man boarded the bus. He was wearing a sweatsuit with stains all over it and carried a plastic shopping bag. He took the seat next to me, and immediately from the odor, I could tell he had been wearing these clothes for a long time. As it turned out, I was supposed to have gotten off the bus at that stop. I wasn’t paying attention, and before I knew it, I was heading into Harlem.

There’s not really more to this story. I share this experience because it illustrates the way we see other people. To me, this man was an “unclean commoner”, a stranger, an outsider to my world. He didn’t smell like me, he didn’t look like me, and he didn’t act like me. I wonder how he saw me. I wonder how God sees him…and me.

Several years ago, I met a man named Joel. Joel had been sleeping in his van, but had secured a bed at a shelter in Alfred. He couldn’t bring his van, so I had agreed to let him park it in our driveway. But I couldn’t send him to Alfred without dinner. So, I welcomed him in. But before dinner, I diplomatically “offered” him the use of our shower and laundry. I wanted him to clean up before he joined my table. I was the gracious host, Joel the unclean commoner. I wonder how Jesus would have handled that?

From everything I’ve read in the Bible, Jesus spent most of His time with unclean commoners. He’s the one that said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He was called a friend of sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes. I wonder if He’s still doing that? If we are going to be a community on mission with Jesus, who’s table might we need to join to find Him at work?

Who are the “unclean commoners” in your life? Maybe it’s not people who smell bad or have unclean clothes. Maybe it’s people who have made lifestyle choices different from yours. Or people who think and believe things you find unbelievable. Have these others become unclean in your eyes? What are the ways we have segregated ourselves from them?

Let’s ask the same question of the church. Who are the unclean commoners that don’t have a seat at our table? Addicts, homeless, mentally ill, homosexuals, transsexuals, members of the opposing political party, criminals, dysfunctional families, potheads, or prostitutes. Warranted or not, there are a lot of people who have gotten the message that they would need to clean themselves up if they will ever be welcome in the church. And truthfully, many of them hold us at arm’s length too.

What if God is at work in and among those very people held at arm’s length from the church?

Our passage casts a two part vision for us. If we live according to this two part vision, God can work through us to transform unclean strangers into brothers and sisters in His kingdom.

Part 1: You Might Be the Answer to Someone’s Prayer

We are reading through the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the record of the works and words of Jesus’ apostles. It is the record of the growth of the church after the resurrection of Jesus. This passage introduces a shift in the focus for this book. From this point on in the Christian movement, the most receptive people to the gospel of salvation in Jesus’ name will no longer be Jews. This passage is the beginning of the expansion of the gospel to the nations. If you’ve read the Bible up to this point, the nations, the Gentiles, are the unclean commoners outside the blessings of God to Isreal, His chosen people.

We meet Cornelius in verse 1. Everything about this man would have made him unwelcome in any respectable Jewish home, if they considered themselves at all religious. He is a genuine Italian Roman, a gentile, considered an idolater. He is a centurion, commanding 100 men in the occupying Roman army, a tool of Pontius Pilate to oppress the Jewish nation. He is living in Caesarea, the provincial capital named for Caesar, by this time worshipped in the empire as a God.

So, let’s put Cornelius in context. The Jews lived God-centered. Everything about their existence and identity was derived from their relationship with God. God had saved them from slavery in Egypt and given them a land of their own, and had promised to dwell in their midst. So, He told them that they were a holy people, and should live like it. He told them

Leviticus 11:45 (ESV)

For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

Being holy is the opposite of being common. If the Holy One of Heaven was dwelling with them, they would need to keep their lives free from corruption. This meant doing justice with one another, refraining from idolatry, and keeping ritually pure, or clean, so that they could worship in God’s temple.

There were things that could make a person unclean, so that they could not enter the temple to worship God. Contact with a dead body, or with bodily fluids, or eating animals that God had said were “unclean”. Pig, shellfish, predatory birds, most insects, and all reptiles. Any uncleanness would make you unholy, or “common”, and you could not enter the presence of God. Even touching one of these things could make you unclean. So Jews stayed out of the homes of people who shed blood, touched dead bodies, or ate gentile food. Three strikes against Cornelius, the Roman soldier.

We learn in this passage that against all expectations and prejudices, this man fears God, gives to the poor, and prays to God continually. God is at work in his heart, drawing him closer to Himself. And God answers his prayers. An angel appears to Cornelius and tells him the answer to his prayers is a man named Simon Peter.

There’s only one problem. Peter is a good Jew. And Peter might not want to be the answer to the prayers of an unclean heathen. So, God will now give Peter part 2 of the vision.

Part 2: Jesus Makes Unclean People Holy

As we keep reading in Acts 10, we find out Cornelius is not the only one praying. Peter prays too. And maybe this is a word of warning to us, but Peter prays while he’s hungry, and things get pretty weird. He sees an opening in the heavens. Grant Osborne says this is, “an apocalyptic image that means God is acting decisively. A major event in salvation history is about to commence.” Acts: Verse by Verse.

What descends from heaven is a big canvas sheet, filled with all kinds of creatures of earth. The “clean” are mixed in with the “unclean”. A voice from heaven, that Peter recognizes as Jesus, tells him to get up and eat these creatures. Peter is shocked. He objects by saying,

Acts 10:14–15 (ESV)

But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”

And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

This is shocking for Peter. Think about the imagery of this vision from his perspective. Unclean animals are coming down from heaven, the very dwelling place of the Holy God. Jesus’ words to him indicate that something has changed. God has made the unclean clean and the common holy. How did that happen? We’ll get to that.

This interaction happens three times. Why? Because the vision really has less to do with animals and food than it does with people. The text is specific. Three men are about to knock on Peter’s door. These are three unclean, unholy (“common”) people who want to are inviting him to the home of a stranger. The Holy Spirit gives Peter the message.

Acts 10:20 (ESV)

“Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.”

Peter does two things. He invites the men in to be his guests. They sit at his table. Then he goes with them to visit Cornelius. The segregation between the Jew and the Gentile is ending. We can see how significant this was to Peter through his first words to Cornelius and the people in his house.

Acts 10:28 (ESV)

And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.

Peter shares the gospel with Cornelius and his household in verses 34-43. Jesus of Nazareth came from God to do good and heal all who were oppressed by the devil. He was crucified but God raised him on the third day and he appeared and ate and drank with His disciples.

Acts 10:42–43 (ESV)

And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Then the climax,

Acts 10:44 (ESV)

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.

Heaven opens again, and the Holy Spirit of God descends upon and into these people. Peter and the Jews with him would never in a million years suspected this. They had not converted to Judaism. They had not cleaned themselves up yet. God just comes right in and makes Himself to home. The baptism comes after. God brings His cleansing presence by His Spirit. We only affirm this with our religious rituals.

Peter learns his lesson. He now sees that God has a different vision for other people than he had thought.

Acts 10:34 (ESV)

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,

A good translation from the Greek for that last phrase would be, “Truly I understand that God does not take you at face value.” God sees deeper into a person than the outward appearance, behavior, and labels we have put on them. And Peter admits he needs to change the way he sees them to fit God’s way. The good news of forgiveness and cleansing in Jesus Christ is for everyone. And he sits at Cornelius’ table.

Could there be someone right now in Westbrook or Portland or Scarborough who is praying to God and seeking to do right by Him, but doesn’t know the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ yet? Could you or I be the answer to their prayer? That’s part 1 of our vision. What if it is someone we have labeled “unclean” or “unholy/common”, and we have held at arm’s length? Part 2 of the vision is sitting at table with them.

Communion.

Questions for Discussion

Who is invited to your table this week?

Who are some people in our community that have been segregated from the church?

What do we learn about God in this passage?

Who are some people you know like Cornelius, who are good and pray to God, but don’t yet know Jesus? Is there any application from this passage for you in that relationship?

What do we learn from Jesus and Peter in this passage that we can apply to our own lives?

Where are some places our lives touch the Corneliuses around us? How can we as a church bring the gospel to them?

How will you respond to this passage this week?

Who is someone you can share this passage with this week?