Clean and Unclean (Acts 9:20 – Acts 10)

Today’s section goes from Acts 9:20 through the end of chapter 10. We don’t have time to read all of the text, so I am going to give you some highlights and encourage you to read all of it yourself. We may revisit parts of it later, but today we need the bigger narrative.  Here is a quick overview before we unpack some of the details.

In Acts 9, after Paul’s encounter with Ananias, he sticks around and does some proclamation of Jesus as Lord. The local Jewish people try to kill him (I’m guessing it’s his former colleagues), but he escapes. He goes to Jerusalem and meets a bunch of the disciples who, as you might imagine, were skeptical. A guy named Barnabas smooths things over. That name will come up later.  The section on Paul ends this way:

Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers. (Acts 9:31)

The narrative returns to Peter. He is on the move, and He is crushing it. He’s preaching. He heals a paralyzed man, and,

“All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.” (Acts 9:35)

He raises a woman named Tabitha (Dorcas, in Greek) from the dead. The people love him, and,

“This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.” (9:43)

Then Peter decides to stay with a local tanner (9:44), a guy who was constantly ritually unclean because he handled dead animals. It seems like an odd choice… until it doesn’t. We’ll get to that.

He gets this vision of a sheet descending from heaven with clean and unclean[1] animals mixed together. A voice says, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

So Peter, faithful adherent to Jewish purity laws, says, “Surely not, Lord.”

God says, “What I have made clean, you must not call unclean.” (Acts 10:13-15)

This happens three times, which is par for the course for Peter (3 denials that he knew Jesus; 3 challenges by Jesus of, "Do you love me?")

Meanwhile, God is speaking in a Roman house to a Gentile family (Acts 10). Cornelius, an important dude in the Roman army, is a praying, generous, devout God-fearer whom the Jewish people respect. Cornelius receives a vision to summon Peter, so he does.

When Peter gets there, he enters a house he was trained to avoid because of ritual impurity – but he had just been in a house like that, so some preparation had been done. There, he announces a tradition - shattering truth:

“God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” (Acts 10:28)

Then he starts preaching, and the Holy Spirit lands on them, and a bunch of folks get baptized. Then they invite Peter to stay and eat together with a bunch of Gentiles, and he does.

Peter is starting to look a lot like Jesus.

* * * * *

That’s the forest. Let’s look at some beautiful trees.

Healing is Unifying

Peter heals two people:

• Aeneas had been paralyzed for eight years. He couldn’t worship in the temple (beyond the court of the Gentiles), and there was likely plenty of speculation about what sin he had committed to deserve that.

• Tabitha/Dorcas was a disciple beloved by widows, known for good works and helping the poor. Listing both of her names likely highlights that this female disciple was a bridge-builder between the Jewish and Greek cultures.

These healings introduce a theme that’s going to continue in Acts 10.  God’s saving power is not limited by boundaries that create insiders and outsiders. And the restoration is not going to be merely physical. The result will be a building of a community of faith populated by people free of the hierarchy of value labels that traditions and cultures can enforce.

Peter Joins What God Is Already Doing

We talked about Saul’s zeal needing correction, which happened on the road to Damascus.  Now Peter is going to get some holy disruption concerning categories of people he considered clean and unclean.

To be fair to Peter, he’s giving it a go. He’s staying with a tanner, which Jewish people just did not do. There are dead animals, blood, hides, stench, impurity.

“A wife, it is said, could claim a divorce from a husband who became a tanner (Mishna Khethuboth): “It happened at Sidon that a tanner died, and left a brother who was also a tanner. The sages held that his (childless) widow had a right to plead, ‘Thy brother I could bear but I cannot bear thee.’” (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)

Let’s give Peter the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he’s testing himself. Maybe he’s trying to bring the tanner some honor by staying with him (like Jesus eating with Zaccheus). I don’t know.

Either way, the fact that he needs a vision suggests he hasn’t stopped putting people into categories of clean and unclean. So, he gets a vision of universal equality of human value in the eyes of God. He has to catch up with what God is already doing.

This continues in Acts 10 where, Cornelius doesn’t convert because Peter is persuasive; Cornelius responded to Peter’s message because God had prepared the way first. Cornelius already prayed, gave alms, and was a “God fearer,” a Jewish way of saying revered God. The Jewish people respected him. God was already at work.

 “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ 

So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” (Acts 10:30-33)

Then, the Holy Spirit manifested before Peter even finished his sermon (10:44).

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in different languages and praising God. (10:44-46)

It’s often viewed as a repeat of Pentecost, but this one is for the Gentiles.  There was no carefully orchestrated moment Peter had to create before the Holy Spirit was ready. Acts 10 is Pentecost without circumcision, without Torah observance, or without markers of “clean” and “unclean”. The Holy Spirit was way ahead of Peter.

Faithfulness is not about getting God to endorse our plans; faithfulness is recognizing where God is already at work and joining His mission.

Doctrinal change = relational change

Back to Peter’s vision. It wasn’t ultimately about food; it was about abolishing hierarchies of human worth. That was going to have massive implications about how Peter needed to interact with people. We are still on a theme of people zealous for God whose incorrect belief and practice – or both – need refinement.

Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.” (10:27-29)[2]

Their relationship is changing because their understanding of what God is like, and what God is doing, has changed. The story ends with table fellowship:

“They asked Peter to stay with them for several days.” (10:48)

Note the progression: Peter went from living with a tanner (unclean Jewish man) to being in a Gentile home (unclean Gentiles, double whammy)  - and then sharing a meal, which clearly sent a signal of value, dignity and worth.

The gospel doesn’t just save souls; it erases unrighteous categories of value and creates a community that shares a common feast at a common table.

Acts 10 is not the story of Gentiles becoming acceptable to God. It is the story of God teaching the church about those whom God has always invited to be a part of His Kingdom. Which, it turns out, is everybody.

Most of us don’t wrestle with kosher laws, but I am guessing there are ways we still have a tendency to label people and place “unclean” so that we can avoid them, critique them from a distance, and maybe even celebrate how much better we are. Meanwhile, God is already at work in them and is calling us to them: “Don’t call unclean what I have made clean.” 

Note that God said this of Cornelius before Peter went there and before Cornelius converted to faith specifically in Jesus. I think we need to make a distinction between different kinds of clean. There are a lot of verses about how the cross makes it possible for us to be clean because of the sacrificial provision of Jesus.

But if we walk in the light, just as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)

There is also a cleansing baptism done by the Holy Spirit:

[God] saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit…” (Titus 3:5)

Cornelius and friends had not yet been washed by the regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, so this category shift God makes clear to Pter must be something different.

I suspect it addressed the laws of ritual uncleanliness that insisted that Gentiles were so unclean almost by nature that they must be avoided entirely. This is not based on Torah teaching. The idea that Jews shouldn’t be in Gentile homes or eat at their table was a rabbinic tradition that began during the Second Temple period (516 BC to 70 AD).

God tells Peter that distinction is gone. There are no homes or tables he must avoid to be clean; no cities he dare not go to; no people who aren’t worthy enough to be invited into the Kingdom of God.

I wonder if we have lines drawn where the “clean” ends and the “unclean” begins.

• It’s that group that has been so vilified that we just aren’t sure we should go to them with a message that God loves them and we do too.

• It’s the people we just don’t want to have a meal with because we think our reputation might take a hit.

• It’s those we fear have a spiritual darkness around them that’s so strong that we need to avoid them.

If I am reading the story of Cornelius correctly, the Holy Spirit is already standing on the other side of these lines waiting for us to catch up with the work the Holy Spirit is already doing.

We should be in contact with all people, because God is working them already. Isaiah records God saying,

“I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; I appeared to those who did not look for me.” (Isaiah 65:1)

They are, after all, His image bearers. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), so He’s at work. I’m thinking now also of all the reports of dreams people are having in other countries preparing the way for the missionaries who arrive to introduce Jesus.[3]

When we embrace the reality that Jesus is already at work, our love and mercy will increasingly match the wideness of God’s love and mercy.

A couple questions for us to think about today as I invite us to join Jesus in the work He is already doing?

Where might God already be at work—healing, welcoming, and pouring out the Spirit—while I am still deciding who belongs, who’s clean, and whether I’m willing to enter their house?

Am I following the Spirit into unfamiliar places—or asking the Spirit to stay within my boundaries?”

Is my obedience shaped more by faithfulness to Jesus—or by comfort with people like me?

______________________________________________________________________________________

[1] As described in Old Testament Law

[2] Perhaps there are two miracles here: Cornelius received the Spirit, and Peter stopped resisting Him.

[3] “Have you seen The Man in White? Jesus is appearing to people in dreams” https://www.unreached.network/have-you-seen-the-man-in-white-jesus-is-appearing-to-people-in-dreams/

Harmony #41: Clean and Unclean (Mark 7:14-23; Matthew 15:10-20)

Last week, we read how Jesus called out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They were offended at the disciples’ ceremonial uncleanliness because they didn’t wash their hands before they ate; meanwhile, they dishonored their parents by exploiting loopholes in their traditions.

The first thing Jesus did was to address their hypocrisy. Now he returns to the question of what it means to be clean or unclean.

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand. There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into his mouth. Rather, it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles him.”

Now when Jesus had left the crowd and entered the house, the disciples came to him and said, “Do you know that when the Pharisees heard this saying they were offended?”

And he replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.  Leave them! They are blind guides. Someone who is blind cannot lead another who is blind, can he? Won’t they both fall into a pit?”

Peter said to Jesus, “Explain this parable to us.” Jesus said, “Even after all this, are you still so foolish? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into a person’s mouth from outside cannot defile him? For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer.”[1] (This means all foods are clean.)

“But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person. For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder,  adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, false testimony, slander, pride, and folly. These are the things that defile a person; it is not eating with unwashed hands that defiles a person.”

* * * * *

I have two points today. The first has to do with evangelism.

“Jesus’ replacement of ritual purity with purity of the heart prepares the way for his ministry in impure Gentile regions. In the book of Mark, this is the last story before Jesus begins to reach the Gentiles. He is going to be in impure places with impure people… he is not going to be made impure by being in ceremonially unclean places.”[2]

I love this aspect. Jesus was breaking down barriers of judgment and disdain for the “other.”

Before, to be ritually pure, there was no way a Jewish person could have spent any kind of meaningful time with a Gentile. There were just too many ways that one could become impure by touching so many things, or eating particular food, or not washing properly. Not only was it a huge barrier to meaningful connection, it must have surely sent a message about the status of the other person as a human being. “I can’t be around you. You’re gross.” There’s no way to soften that blow.

But Jesus, and then the writers of the New Testament, made it clear that the “us vs. them” mentality needed to stop. The original plan was for the children of Abraham to bless the entire world.  They were pretty good at letting immigrants and foreigners into Israel (they didn’t have to join Judaism as a faith, but they had to leave their idols and obey the civil laws and cleanliness laws). But… they were not good at all at going into all the world and telling the good news of Yahweh. Over time, the traditions that arose made it almost impossible.

So, that needed to change. Here’s Paul.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, [Wolverines or Spartans, locals or fudgies, natural born citizen or immigrant, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, no Baptist or Reformed or Pentecostal,] for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth… were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside… the [ceremonial] law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.  

17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.   21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:11-22)

 I love how Jesus and Paul are knocking down snobbery or superiority. There will be no “turning up our nose” when we go into all the world and preach the gospel. What we will see instead is that every person is a potential member of this household, a potential part of the church that rises to become a dwelling whose cornerstone is Jesus and in which God lives by his spirit.  That is a message of hope for those without hope in the world.

* * * * *

The second point is a basic point of correction for Jesus’ listeners: what does not enter the heart cannot make a person unclean. Food does not enter the heart. It might make you unhealthy, and there are good reasons to consider the ethics involving what we eat, but that’s different from being spiritually unclean.[3] Adam Clarke summarizes well:

In the heart… the principles and seeds of all sin are found. And iniquity is always conceived in the heart before it be spoken or acted.

In other words, what comes out of the mouth reveals what’s in our hearts. And if our words are full of sinful corruption, it reveals a heart that is full of sinful corruption as well. 

Why would our hearts be in this state, especially if we claim to be followers of Jesus? I think it’s because our diet is a problem. Remember, Jesus is still riffing on the narrative that started with him doing miracles with physical bread, then telling his audience He is the bread they need to eat, and now coming back to the diet analogy again.

Our spiritual diet matters. A lot. We are constantly feeding our hearts and minds. We can’t go through the day without that happening. And we get to make choices about what we are going to feed it.

An old Cherokee said to his grandson, “A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

That not a quote from the Bible, but it’s a pretty good biblical principle. To go back to last week’s sermon on hypocrisy, this is why his audience needed the bread that was Jesus. Our hearts need the Bread of Life. We need spiritually pure and perfect nourishment for our heart, soul, and mind, so that what comes out from our heart, soul and mind is good.

God’s Word is described often as various kinds of nourishment:

·      milk (1 Peter 2:2)

·      meat (1 Corinthians 3:2)

·      bread (Deuteronomy 8:3; Job 23:12)

·      sweeter than honey (Psalm 119:103).

Biblical writers had a lot to say about consuming God and His Word.

“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, LORD God Almighty” (Jeremiah 15:16)

“Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

“I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” (Job 23:12)

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:34).

“Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you …” (John 6:27)

I like this summary from Abigail Dodds:

He has prepared food for us. The food he has prepared is himself. He serves us himself through his holy word—the Bible. The feast he’s invited us to is not a potluck. We do not bring a side dish to share, rather the Son of Man came to serve, not be served. We bring nothing but our hunger, our deep need for him. And the Lord says to us, “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Ps. 34:8)[4]

So how do we feast on Jesus? David Nasser, in his devotional "A Call to Die," states that spiritual eating requires "intention, selection, and effort".[5] I want to build from his material to talk about this a bit more.

Intention: When we don’t eat well or we skip a meal, it can have an impact on how we fell. We might feel nauseous, shaky, bloated, light-headed, maybe depressed, or get ‘hangry’.  It's the body's way of letting us know that we either didn’t choose the right nourishment or didn’t choose enough. For optimal health, you need optimal nutrition.

If I want to eat well, then I must go places where nutritious options exists and avoid places in which junk food abounds. If I am hungry, I can’t go to Billy’s Deep Fried Burgers and Twinkies and think that I will eat well.  Likewise, if I want a spiritually healthy diet, I must go to places or be with people who offer me spiritual healthy options and avoid people and places that offer me junk. Paul wrote,

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

Notice he didn’t limit this to Scripture. While Scripture is the core of our diet, through common grace God has put good things all around us all the time.

It’s impossible for us to live in the world and not ingest things that are anywhere from junky to toxic. But we can choose a lifestyle that immerses us into spiritual food forests where food is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and grounded on a foundation of the truth of God’s Word.

Selection: We have to make conscious choices. If we are not purposeful, we will wander further and further from true nourishment. I’ve noticed that the more fried chicken I eat, the more I want fried chicken. The more I snack on Cheetos, the more all other lesser snacks fade into the background. I didn’t drink pop for a long time; when I had a couple Coke Zeros, they started calling to me with their sweet, bubbly song. And, yeah, I responded.

But that’s the way it’s supposed to work, right? I don’t think it’s a secret that the food industry knows how to create cravings in us for salties and sweets.

If we are not purposeful, we will increasingly ignore healthy but overlooked broccoli because it doesn’t trigger desire like an Onion Blossom does. If you are like me, I select vegetables because I know that they will lead to better health, not because I necessarily want them. But the more we keep them in the rhythm of our diet, the more we begin to desire those instead.

I’ve noticed this with salad. I was driving back from downstate the other week and I stopped at Ponderosa in Clare - FOR THE SALAD BAR. How did this happen? After my heart attack, I started eating salad not because I wanted to but because I had to. Lo and behold, I picked up a hankerin’ for salad. With ranch dressing, obviously.

In the same way, once you begin to "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8) it changes your palate. You develop a spiritual dietary momentum that allows you desire more and more of the healthy while avoiding more and more of the unhealthy.  

One more thing about selection. We need variety. Biologically, if we only eat a small variety of food we will deprive our bodies of necessary fuel. We need a range of carbs, fats and proteins to get everything we need for a healthy body. The same is true with how we study Scripture. We need to read the depth and breadth of the Bible. It tells a unified story.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

In addition, I think it’s important to study widely in church traditions throughout history and across nations and denominations. I have been challenged and enlightened so many times as I have broadened the community input in my study of the Bible.[6]

Effort: Fast food is a microcosm for a reality in the United States: convenience in king. It’s easy (and delightful) to swing by Pizza Hut to get a deep dish thin garlic-coated cheese-filled crust with all the meats.  It takes work, time, and commitment to make a healthy meal at home.

This is just as true in the spiritual sense.  The classic disciplines are the spiritual foundations for health:

·      Worship (not just a lifestyle, but focused times of praise)

·      Studying God's Word (in depth, in community)

·      Prayer (don’t overthink it. Just do it J)

·      Service (setting aside time to practice agape love)

·      Fellowship (honest, transparent life together in Christ)

These are the staples of the spiritually healthy diet. 

These things take effort.  The nourishment is life-giving, but it takes purposeful effort on our behalf.  And since God will equip us for what that to which He calls us, God's spirit will empower this effort (II Timothy 3:16-17).

The Word you read has to "become flesh" in you. It has to become part of you. As it nourishes you, it will change you by changing the way you see yourself and the way you see others.

This, I think, is the path to freedom from hypocrisy. If we really consume the Word of God, it will change us.

 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. (James 1:22-25)

_________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] “A variant reading, however, has a… participle that would modify the noun “latrine” immediately preceding it. If this is the original reading, the statement affirms that the food has become clean in the process of elimination. This reading surprisingly fits the rabbinic laws of clean and unclean. According to the Mishnah, excrement is not ritually impure. Rabbi Jose is said to ask: “Is excrement impure? Is it not for purposes of cleanliness?” This startling judgment may be the key to Jesus’ argument. Jesus, with droll humor, may be exposing the illogic of the Pharisee’s arguments. If food defiles a person, as the Pharisees claim, why do they not regard it as unclean when it winds up in the latrine? Defilement must come from some other source than food.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Of The New Testament)

[2] NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[3]  “Jesus will keep using the image of food to talk about what feeds our hearts; soon, we will see his warning to avoid the impure “yeast” that defiles the hearts of Herod and the Pharisees.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[4] “What Our Physical Diet Says about Our Spiritual Appetite.” Abigail Dodds

[5] I found this at “The Healthy Spiritual Diet.” http://www.newhopefree.org/viralfaith/2011/06/healthy-spiritual-diet.html

[6] Start with Reading While Black by Esau McCauley for a great example of how this works, or Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes: Patronage, Honor, and Shame in the Biblical World, or Misreading Scripture Through Western Eyes, both by E. Randolph Richards and Richard James. If you use Bible Gateway to study, be sure to check the Orthodox Study Bible or the Africa Bible Commentary for some global variety.