Jesus's Non-Discrimination Clause

Introduction

Acts 10:1–23 ESV

1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, 8 and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. 9 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. 17 Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood at the gate 18 and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. 19 And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” 21 And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?” 22 And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” 23 So he invited them in to be his guests. The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.

A few years ago, I went to see the Stephen Spielberg movie Lincoln. The movie’s concern is only on the latter part of his presidency and life. It centers on his great push both to get the 13th amendment to the Constitution passed in the House of Representatives, and to bring the Civil War to an end. There was ample footage of the kind of debates that took place on the House floor. To get the ⅔ majority in the House, Lincoln needed every Republican and four Democrats to vote in favor. One of the Democrats he was trying to turn in favor of the amendment was Kentucky rep. George Yeaman. But here’s what Yeaman said at one of the debates on the House floor,

Although I’m disgusted by slavery, I rise on this sad and solemn day to announce that I’m opposed to the amendment. We must consider what will become of colored folk if four million are in one instant set free…And, and! We will be forced to enfranchise the men of the colored race—it would be inhuman not to! Who among us is prepared to give Negros the vote? And, and! What shall follow upon that? Universal enfranchisement? Votes for women?

The house floor erupted with shouts. The members on both sides unable to fathom allowing Blacks or women to vote. But it’s hard for us to imagine living at a time when the thought of allowing Blacks or women to vote would’ve been so appalling in our country. Of course, the 13th Amendment did pass, with every Republican and four Democrats (including Yeaman) voting in favor of it. And even though Lincoln was successful, the movie ends with his assassination. I knew that’s how it would end, but I still found tears welling up in my eyes when the credits were rolling. And the tears were welling up because my heart was struck by the reminder of the immense price that is paid in the pursuit of justice and righteousness. It often costs those engaged in the pursuit their very lives.

You cannot help but think of the one who embodies justice, righteousness and holiness in himself, Jesus Christ. And the price he paid for universal enfranchisement—to bring people from every tribe, tongue and nation into the family of God. And yet, the practical outworking of it has been difficult, to say the least. The struggle against ethnic discrimination, even in the church, finds its roots in the book of Acts. And we might even say the struggle begins right here in our text. The promise of Jesus’ kingdom is not limited to any ethnic, socio-economic, political, or other type of group. And the Holy Spirit has to make this clear. I have three C’s for us as we work through these 23 verses; Comfort, Correction, and Courtesy. The message of comfort that God gives to Cornelius, who is outside of the promises, excluded, disenfranchised. The message of correction that God gives to Peter so that he better understands the Gospel. And the courtesy, by courtesy I mean hospitality, that results from this understanding.

Comfort

This passage follows the apostle Peter’s witness by the water in the cities of Lydda and Joppa on the Mediterranean coastline when he healed Aeneas and resuscitated Dorcas from the dead. And he stays in Joppa at the house of Simon the tanner. And we get a hint even from where Peter is staying that God may be setting him up to explode his categories for who is included in Jesus’s kingdom. Because tanners were considered ceremonially unclean among Jewish people since their work necessitated constant touching of dead animals. And for an orthodox Israelite like Peter to be staying at a tanner’s house was boundary breaking itself. But that was only a start. Because God wanted to bring the comfort of the Gospel not just to Jewish tanners like Simon, and not just to half-Jewish Samaritans like you see in ch. 8, but to the Gentiles as well (that is, to everybody else).

So, there is this man, Luke says in v. 1, named Cornelius. He is a Roman centurion, stationed in Caesarea (about 32 miles north of Joppa). He is one of the centurions over the Italian Cohort. And a cohort was made up of six “centuries.” So, he was in command one of the six centuries, about 100 soldiers. Centurions were men with great power. In the blink of an eye they could have you flogged or killed. But Cornelius wasn’t a ruthless commander, leading his soldiers by fear and oppression. The opposite is the case. Luke describes him in v. 2 as

Acts 10:2 ESV

2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.

He wasn’t a Christian. He wasn’t a disciple. He didn’t even know who Jesus was, but it is clear that the Spirit of God was at work in him, creating in him a desire to know God. I find the comparison between Cornelius and Dorcas, who we meet at the end of ch. 9, very interesting. Dorcas is a disciple, a follower of Jesus, and Cornelius is not. They both were people of means, they had wealth. And both of them were rich in mercy towards those who had need. Dorcas was full of good works and acts of charity. When it says that Cornelius gave alms generously to the people, it could be translated that he practiced generous charity with the people. “Charity” in 9:36 and “alms” in 10:2 are from the same root word. And he didn’t discriminate in who received his charity. Because when the men are describing Cornelius to Peter down in v. 22, they tell Peter that the whole Jewish nation can testify that Cornelius is an upright and God-fearing man. He was known in household, among his cohort, and in his community as a reverent, God-fearing man. He was known for mercy, not oppression.

a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. ()

Here’s my point. Cornelius was outside of the promises. But God was working on his heart. There was a practical outworking in his extending charity to those in need. But his heart was unsettled. He prayed continually to God. The word used for prayer in this context has the sense of making a request, beseeching God out of real need for help. He didn’t need financial help. He didn’t need physical help. He wasn’t sick. He needed comfort. He needed a settled heart. He needed to know Jesus, but didn’t know that’s what he needed.

The deal is that we have no idea how God has been working on people’s hearts independently of us. Cornelius had never heard about Jesus or the Holy Spirit. But God was creating a need in him. A need to hear the comforting message of his salvation through Jesus Christ. We don’t know who God’s working on, but we know that he’s still working on folks. Our confidence as Christians is that the issues of the heart are unsettling people. God has written his law on our hearts. He is at work preparing the hearts of people to hear and receive his message of comfort.

God is concerned to bring comfort to Cornelius. He gives him a clear vision of an angel with a clear message. Cornelius is terrified in v. 4 after an angel of God appears and calls him by name. He says, “What is it, Lord?” The angel says, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.” God is well aware of your prayers and your charity. The message is that God is going to answer your prayers by bringing you some good news. So, send men to Joppa and bring Simon Peter here. Cornelius sends two servants and a devout soldier on this mission.

Correction

The problem in the text is that God needs to work on Peter too. He’s been working on Cornelius, unsettling his heart. But Peter needs to be unsettled to. Cornelius stands in need of comfort, and Peter stands in need of some radical theological correction. He needs to have his theology adjusted. V. 9 tells us that as the men were on their 32 mile journey from Caesarea to Joppa, when they were approaching the city, Peter went up to the rooftop of Simon’s house at around Noon in order to pray. As he was praying, he got hungry and wanted something to eat. As lunch was being prepared, Peter fell into a trance, and he has his own vision. He sees, in v. 11, the heavens opened and an object like a great sheet coming down, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. And in this sheet were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds. Then a voice speaks to Peter. “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” Peter is hungry, but he’s not that hungry. He’s not hungry enough to eat foods that the law says are unclean. So he responds in v. 14. “Absolutely not, Lord. I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” The voice speaks a second time to correct Peter. This is Jesus’s non-discrimination clause. The voice says, “What God has cleansed, you do not call common.”

We have to get how disrupting this was for Peter. This happened three times, Luke says in v. 16. Peter has to be told three times to rise, kill and eat. He has to be told three times not to call unclean what God has made clean. And it’s clearly about more than food. His whole life had been one of discriminating who had a right to the promises of God. What is deeply ingrained in his head as to who is included in the kingdom of God had to be surgically removed. While Cornelius needed to be comforted that the message of Jesus’s kingdom was for him too, Peter needed to be corrected to expand his understanding of who this message was for. When God corrects your theology it can leave you in a state of confusion. That’s what happened to Peter. He was perplexed about the the vision and what it meant.

What are the things that are deeply ingrained in us about who the kingdom of God is for, that the Holy Spirit needs to explode? Who are the people that, if not with our lips, with our actions we think shouldn’t be included? I doubt that any of us would sound like Congressman Yeaman and say, “Universal enfranchisement in the church for those people! Absolutely not!” But who are those whom our heart struggles to be engaged with? And so, by our actions we say, we don’t want you here?

We can have as a church, knock the ball out of the ballpark worship music. We can have every bell and whistle that Christian and American culture says makes us attractive and appealing. But if we miss this. If we miss Jesus’s non-discrimination clause. That no one, regardless of background, or ethnicity, financial status, or struggle with sin (be it around the area of sexuality, or drugs, or consumerism, or any other vice)—that no one is excluded from being welcomed in to receive and to live out the implications of the message of God’s grace—if we miss that, we have missed the very heart of the gospel. And the Spirit of God wants to do for us what he did for Peter, bring ongoing correction to our theology so that the comforting message of God’s grace in Jesus is not withheld from anyone by word or action.

Courtesy

You see, there is a practical outworking of this correction that Peter receives. It results in a courtesy. And, as I said, I don’t mean politeness. What I mean is a radical hospitality. Inviting these Gentiles into a Jewish home. Peter is still on the roof, perplexed about the vision. The three men show up outside the gate of Simon’s house. And they’re calling out. “Is Simon, who goes by the name of Peter, staying here?” Peter is still ruminating over the vision in v. 20. He’s still trying to figure this thing out. The Spirit says to him, “There are three men looking for you. Get up, go down off of the roof and accompany them without hesitation, because I have sent them.”

There’s something we miss here. The ESV doesn’t do us any favors in the translation. If you have an ESV, you probably have an asterisk there after the word, “hesitation.” So, at least it does better than most other translations. Instead of “hesitation,” the better translation of this word in this context is “discrimination.” Accompany these men without discrimination the Spirit says. Do not discriminate agains them because they’re Gentiles. Do not make a distinction or prejudge them because I have sent them. So Peter goes to the gate and says, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why are you here?” They tell him about Cornelius. His testimony as a just and God-fearing man, who himself doesn’t discriminate against Jews, but is generous to the Jewish people as well. And our text ends with this sentence. “So he invited them in to be his guests.”

A simple statement, but the expression of the Gospel being lived out by Peter. Hospitality, biblically speaking, is welcoming strangers. We can talk about being hospitable, but if we’re only welcoming people into the church or into our homes who we know, or who are like us, we can’t call it biblical hospitality. This text ends with the outworking of the message that the Spirit gave to Peter. When it comes to the gospel, we are commanded towards a radical inclusion. What that inclusion looks like is a hospitality that rubs against the grain of our culture and our biases.

Hospitality is messy and uncomfortable. Church is messy and uncomfortable. But the angel of God didn’t preach the comforting message of the gospel to Cornelius. God could’ve just dropped the good news about Jesus in Cornelius’s lap by including it in the vision. But he didn’t do that. He told him, go get Peter. Why? The Lord wanted Peter to share the good news with Cornelius. In the communication of the message, God desired the expression of the message to be lived out practically, even if it’s messy.

Cornelius needed his vision to know that there is good news for him. Peter needed his vision to know that there is good news for the Gentiles.

Cornelius needs this vision to know that there is good news for him. Peter needs his vision to know that there is good news for the Gentiles.

God gives these visions. Cornelius is afraid. Peter is confused. Cornelius receives comfort. Peter receives clarity.

Overt exclusion has been replaced through faith in Jesus Christ by overt, radical inclusion. May God give us grace and power to live it out as he overturns our categories, destroys our discrimination, and corrects our theology.