Jesus and Race Prejudice
While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."
Peter went down and said to the men, "I'm the one you're looking for. Why have you come?"
The men replied, "We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say." Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.
The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along. The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. "Stand up," he said, "I am only a man myself."
Talking with him, 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 a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?"
Cornelius answered: "four 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."
Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right."
Acts 10:19-35
You cannot discuss Christian relevance without talking about people. There are two great commandments upon which, we are told by Jesus, "hang all the law and the prophets": "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matthew 22:37-40).
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love works no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:9-10).
The beloved Apostle John declared in his first epistle, "Every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God; for God is love . . . If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us" (1 John 4:7,8,12). And in his strongest words, "If a man says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar: for if someone does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" (1 John 4:20). Godliness issues in mutual respect and love. No fact is more manifest in the Scriptures. Christian faith dissolves human prejudice. Faith that does not do so, whatever its profession, is not just sub-Christian; it is a contradiction.
Peter's experience with Cornelius dramatizes this basic fruit of Christian faith, for it represents the surgery of the Spirit on the last vestige of racial prejudice in Peter's heart. Peter said, "You know that it is an unlawful thing for a
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man who is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation" (Acts 10:28). Never has prejudice been more deeply embedded in the human heart. History has never known stronger racial prejudice than Peter is talking about here. It is impossible for us today to imagine the contempt with which Jewry held the non-Jew in Peter's day. Juvenal says that the Jews were taught by Moses "not to show the way except to one who practices our rites, and to guide the circumcised alone to the well which they seek." They would not even give directions to a non-Jew. Tacitus said of the Jew that "among themselves they are inflexibly faithful and ready with charitable aid, but hate all others as enemies. They keep separate from all strangers in eating, sleeping and matrimonial connections." Edersheim, in his Jewish Social Life, says that "on coming from the market an orthodox Jew was expected to immerse himself to avoid defilement." He might not enter the house of a Gentile, for "he looked upon it to be ceremonially polluted." The Gentile was an abomination. His touch was defiled; his customs were abhorrent; his religion was a blasphemy.
One interesting fact about this is that
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there is no Old Testament regulation forbidding such social contact. These regulations were added by the rabbis and became binding by social custom. Here is an insight into the human tendency to reduce authentic faith to the traditions of men and to social custom, thereby in effect arriving at a Godless religion which has all the form but none of the substance. In the words of Jesus, "Well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God you hold the tradition of men . . . You have a fine way of rejecting the commandments of God that you may keep your own tradition' " (Mark 7:6-9).
Peter was committed to this tradition. He said, "It is an unlawful thing for a man who is a Jew to keep company or to come to one of another nation." hence the possibility of an apartheid policy based upon human tradition which has been elevated to the status of divine authority. It is not uncommon to hear segregation defended on what is assumed to be biblical grounds; and thus, to her terrible shame,
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the church has been called the most segregated institution in America!
But Peter had come a long way by this time. He had heard himself (I say that advisedly because he seems to have received his message direct from the Spirit) at Pentecost, he had heard himself say as he preached on that unforgettable day, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh . . . and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:17,21).
Peter knew of the great spiritual awakening which had come to the despised Samaritans through the anointed preaching of Philip. He was, in fact, at the time of this experience, dwelling in the home of one whose vocation was held in contempt but who must have been a brother in Christ — Simon the tanner, in Joppa. The trade of a tanner was held in such supreme contempt that if a girl was betrothed to a tanner without knowing he followed that calling the betrothal was void. A tanner had to build his house fifty cubits outside the city. Nevertheless, even though Peter had been baptized with the Holy Spirit, had preached that Pentecostal
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sermon, knew of the revival in Samaria, and now dwelt with a tanner, an extraordinary act of God was required to break the back of prejudice in his life.
Peter was on the housetop praying at the ninth hour, mid-afternoon; he was hungry; he fell into a trance. It was as though "heaven was opened and a great sheet knit at the four corners was let down to earth wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And a voice from heaven said, 'Rise, Peter; kill and eat' " (Acts 10:11-13). Now God had given the Jews very strict rules concerning their eating habits. Obviously they could not eat the food served by non-Jews, but they had projected this beyond food to the non-Jews themselves, and considered them to be unclean. Observe the tremendous and inflexible hold religious tradition can get on a man. Peter responded to the command, "Not so, Lord" (v.14). Religious tradition can even make a man say "no" to God! Religious tradition, without the love of God, can become the most intolerable influence in life. In Acts 11, verses 2 and 3, it is recorded, "When Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision
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contended with him, saying, 'You spent time with uncircumcised men and you ate with them.' "
Then, of course, there was the element of self-righteousness and pride. Peter said to the Lord, "I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." God's answer to Peter's obstinance was, "What God has cleansed, don't call it common" (vv. 8,9). Three times did God do this, leaving Peter puzzled as to its significance, but he would soon be enlightened.
The lesson Peter learned, and which was transmitted to the apostolic church, leaves no ambiguity: "God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean . . . Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation whoever fears Him, and does what is right, is accepted by Him" (10:28,34,35). This is the glorious fact about the true church of Christ. This is the thrilling relevance about authentic Christian faith. All races and colors and languages are united in Christ, in one inseparable, indivisible bond of love and mission. Paul wrote to the Galatians, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither
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male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). To the Colossians, "There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision. Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:11).
This is not just a sociological or humanitarian matter. This is a Christian issue, a decidedly spiritual matter with eternal significance. Peter had to learn, as did his Jewish brethren in the apostolic church, that God's redemptive purpose was not exclusive, but universal. It was not nationalistic but worldwide. It was for all men: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord" (Acts 2:21). It is fairly obvious that the apostolic church learned that lesson. The deplorable tragedy is that the church in subsequent generations could so easily unlearn and become as prejudiced and inflexible and obstinate as Peter and his colleagues were in that first generation. Hence the accusation by the world that the church is irrelevant.
Now if you have been angered by this message, or disturbed, or if at this moment you resent the writer, I urge you openly to seek God's will for yourself concerning this. This is not something to criticize the church about; this is something
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about which to examine your own conscience before the clear teaching of the Word of God! If you have trouble with this teaching because of your background, the culture in which you have been reared — traditions and customs — just remember Peter and ask Christ to help you. The Word is very clear. "God is not a respecter of persons." No man is to be called common or unclean. Whosoever is born of God loves. He that loves not knows not God, for God is love. We have committed to us the mission of reconciliation; we have been ordained to be ambassadors for Christ. What an exciting prospect is ours today when race is such a potent, explosive issue worldwide, to prove the authenticity of our faith by our love for all, and our acceptance of all who are acceptable with God. Whatever our attitude toward marches and demonstrations is beside the point; the real test is our relationship with others personally. This is our grand challenge, I believe, in the name of Christ and for the sake of His kingdom and lost men. God help us, each of us, to take it seriously in obedience and love. This is relevance.
