Chapter 10

The Romans used to see the Jews as a very odd bunch. An odd bunch, moreover, that tended to be a fair amount of trouble.

If your only understanding of the relationship between the Jews and Romans is the Bible, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Jews were conquered and longing for deliverance.

This is certainly the way that the Jews saw it.

In fact the reality could be seen another way.

To the Romans, the Jews were not conquered. They were another group of people who were participating in the great benefits that the Romans had bestowed on the world – the “Pax Romana”, or Roman Peace. But unlike so many other nations who accepted this gratefully[1], the Jews fought against it. You got the impression that they seriously thought they were better off without the Roman Armies keeping their borders safe from the barbarians.

And of course there was the way that they thought they were better than everyone else. . .

Seriously. I mean, we’re the people that have brought this peace to the whole Greek-speaking world (the only parts of the world that matter). By our blood, sweat and tears, they don’t get overrun by germani, picti or celti; and they have the hide to treat us like we’re second class citizens. Apparently we don’t matter to this god of theirs, who lives off in a temple lined with sea cow hides.

I say this both for humour value (looking at this the other way around can be funny) and for a needed perspective, both on Peter’s attitude and Cornelius in Acts chapter 10.

The bald facts are as follows: (vs 1-6) Cornelius receives a vision from God that he needs to seek help from a man named Peter, at a particular place. Meanwhile (vs, Peter sees a vision of all kinds of non-kosher creatures, and is told to “kill and eat”. Peter refuses to eat because these animals are unclean, but he is rebuked with “don’t call anything unclean that God has made clean.”

Needless to say this is a rather bizarre dream, and Peter is pondering its meaning when there is a knock on the door of the house where he is staying, and Cornelius’ men are standing outside.

Suddenly (you can see the penny dropping, can’t you?) Peter understands the vision – it’s now as clear as crystal!

The vision isn’t about food (in case you haven’t picked that up) but about PEOPLE. Peter’s difficulty in accepting the non-kosher food pales into insignificance compared to his difficulties with accepting “non-kosher people” (i.e. gentiles). Now Peter understands that God is telling him to think beyond the Jews, and ensure that the Gospel is preached also to the Gentiles!

So Peter (to cut a long story short) arranges for the household of Cornelius to be baptized.

Of course, we Christians wouldn’t do such a thing. Our acceptance before God relies on Him, not us, and we don’t ever have trouble with that, right?

No, not if you’re a normal Christian. Most of us still have prejudices; it’s just that they’re a bit more insidious. For us, the prejudices might be against a particular activity (such as gambling) or a particular orientation (homosexuality, for instance).

Now, you might be saying that there’s a difference – these are things which are sinful. And you’d potentially be correct. Yet whilst there’s a place for us to help people deal with whatever sin is in their life, surely we have to first share Christ with them.

An analogy may help here. In first aid training, you’re repeatedly told never to move someone if they have suspected spinal injuries. But if you’re the first person on the scene of an accident and you find that the person in the car has both severe arterial bleeding and signs of a spinal injury, you still have to deal with the bleeding first. Yes, it is true that the spinal injury may well be a problem later on – but you want the person to be alive so that that problem can be dealt with later. If you don’t prioritise the circulation, you might have a patient with excellent spinal cord position, but who is also dead from blood loss.

In the same way, whatever is a problem in someone’s life is obviously less of a problem than being separated from God – and whatever else we feel, we MUST see that as the priority.

And this means that we really need to ensure that we accept people and love them unconditionally. And we don’t only do this so that they might become a statistic for our benefit, either – we love and accept that person because that is how GOD sees them.

Christ died for that person’s sin – who are we to not accept them?

Now, God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way. Sooner or later, all the sin areas in our lives must be dealt with, and you may be able to help when that time comes. But just as the priority in first aid is keeping the victim alive, breathing and with a heartbeat, the priority in Spiritual first aid is reconnecting the person with Christ.

Cornelius saw the truth in the God of the Bible even when the Jews were prejudiced against him. But without a vision in the nick of time, Peter may have gone into this situation in a self-righteous frame of mind – and he might well have rejected a person who was ready to hear about and receive Christ. It’s a tragedy – and sadly, one which we Christians are slow to learn from; so it is repeated again and again.

When God has drawn someone to Him, it is critically important that those first faltering steps of faith are encouraged, not rejected.

[1] Yeah, Romans were capable of wishful thinking too . . .