What God Has Made Clean

What God Has Made Clean

How far away do you feel from God right now? It’s as far as it ever has to be. You can close the gap starting now. Saul had to have felt a world apart from God during his three days spent blind, hungry, and alone. But he didn’t stay that way. Immediately after “something like scales” fell from his eyes, he began again on his mission. Only his mission had changed. Yet Saul leaped into his new role as passionately as the one that drew him to Damascus. After he spent several days with the disciples there (the ones, remember, he had sought permission to persecute!) Acts records for us, “At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.” (Acts 9:20). So effective was his preaching and testimony that there began a conspiracy to kill him. How quickly things come full circle. Saul escaped the city with the help of newly found friends, who lowered him in a basket over the city walls away from the watch of those that wished him harm.

Undeterred, he traveled then to Jerusalem to meet with the disciples there. And Acts records for us that they were too frightened to let him. It was a man by the name of Barnabas who brought Saul forward to meet the apostles. Take a brief moment to contemplate - alongside the miraculous presence of a post-ascension Jesus on the road - there were a number of humble people that were also instrumental in setting up Saul (eventually Paul) to do the things we’ve read about him. Two of which are named Ananias and Barnabas. Ananias walked into the presence of a killer, one who was likely responsible for the imprisonment, torture, or death of people he knew, and greeted him as a brother. And Barnabas had enough faith to bring a man once described as “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (Acts 9:1) into the congregation. Barnabas knew the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives and that even someone as opposed as Saul of Tarsus could not overcome it.

The balance of Chapter 9, verses 32-43, deals specifically with Peter and his time spent in Lydda and Joppa. We see the performance of two miracles, the healing of a paralyzed man named Aeneas and the resurrection of a woman named Tabitha. In both instances, we see Peter mimic Jesus in every way. The first example we have is of the paralyzed man whom Peter instructed to “Gather up your mat and walk.” We see again the story of Tabitha and her miraculous resurrection. Peter cleared the room and, upon his knees, prayed in Jesus’ name that she awake. What we see here is not the heroic faith of Peter nor the miraculous nature of the Holy Spirit. What we see chiefly is humble obedience to Jesus. In these examples, we see Peter imitate the words and actions of his Lord. Peter knows that he is not responsible nor even halfway capable of the feats performed. His only hope is that his dogged insistence on mimicking Christ will bring him closer in his walk with God.

  But it is in chapter 10 that we understand how much further Peter still has to go. The stoning of Stephen seemed to be a watershed moment in the history of the early Church. It was as clear a picture as could be painted to illustrate that the message of Jesus was not only limited to the Jewish people. The persecution that followed solidified this and made clear that the Message was to spread to every tongue and tribe, and nation. And we as Christians should understand what Peter was so hesitant to grasp. There is no barrier Jesus cannot overcome. There is no person that the Gospel is not intended to reach. A timely lesson, even if an old one.

  There is an increasing obsession within our culture surrounding the word “identity.” There is much hand-wringing as to the way in which we identify ourselves and how that “persona” is to be viewed by society as a whole. It may revolve around a male/female dichotomy, a race or culture, one of class privilege, or any other affiliation or characteristic, or any combination thereof. This insistence on the granular details of a person’s personal life being used to determine their social worth, standing, or reputation is missing pretty far from the mark. What Peter learns here, repeatedly, is that there are only two classifications according to a Biblical worldview. You are either Lost or you are Found. Jew or Gentile, white or black, rich or poor, male or female, doesn’t matter. There is one central question, “Have you accepted Christ?” The answer to that determines everything. All other distinctions pale in comparison. And this choice has a profound practical implication.

For example, as we turn the calendar over this week, we will find ourselves at the beginning of what many in our society refer to as “pride month.” And although the specifics of what is being celebrated would have to be explored in another newsletter, it is suitable enough now for our purposes. (**Tangent- Side Note: It’s worth pointing out that, regardless of intent, setting aside a month to be prideful is a sin in and of itself. Our Catholic brothers and sisters refer to Pride as a “deadly sin,” which is a meaningless categorization, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Any sin separates us from God and is in that way deadly. Although it excels as a literary device -seriously, read the Divine Comedy- it is codswallop as theology.**) The practical application for our purpose is clear, however. If the central question of life is, “Have you accepted Christ?” then the practical question that directly follows is, “Whom do you serve?”

It is in approaching this question that our current events shift into deeper focus. In the past twenty years, at least in America, we’ve witnessed a mad scramble to shift social morals and values to an ever-changing baseless standard. Every development and nuance designed to cater to the personal whims of those making the demands. Please understand this is not a right/left phenomenon. It is everywhere. It is all the time. It is insistent and incessant. It is driven because people are putting themselves at the center of their own worlds. What happens when we occupy the top spot or premiere place of importance is that we find ourselves unfulfilled. And in the struggle for meaning, there is desperation. And now, we are reaching the far-flung corners of human imagination to find that missing fulfillment. All preconceived notions or reality itself must be made to bend to the futile grasping for meaning, importance, or significance. Ours is a society that is well and truly lost. 

Whom do you serve? If you serve yourself only, then to what end? If you serve God, then those petty concerns of acceptance and importance vanish in the light of God’s glory, mercy, power, and love. “Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem?” (Isaiah 2:22) If we should not hold people in particularly high esteem, then neither should we denigrate them! All of us are lost. It is our foundational state. We all wander in darkness until His light illuminates our path. To those of you who are found, understand your duty to your brothers and your sisters who are not. Why fault them for not understanding yet what had to be explained to you? There is a relentless desire toward division in our world today, in the mistaken belief that segregating oneself from the general public somehow elevates one above it. But there is no above and below; we all fall short. The early church was able to overcome this social programming due to the incredible strength of their faith. It was aided by close fellowship with other believers as they lived and breathed the Word of God day by day. We must strive to do the same.

We must understand that the only differences of import between people in this world are whether they are lost or found. This does not reflect a difference in the person because it is not anything we achieve on our own. It is God’s love and Christ’s sacrifice that creates the distinction. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) We should understand that for the Christian, there is no “us vs. them.” “They” are not enemies. They are not the opposition. They do not even constitute a “they.” They are us, not different, not separated, not distinct. Only lost. And lost people become desperate. And desperation can lead to, well, just about anything. Peter struggled to learn the lesson presented to him by God in a vision (it had to be repeated three times!). “The voice spoke again a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (Acts 10:15) We will never understand just how tremendous a sacrifice it was so that God could make us clean. What little we do comprehend, we would do well to take seriously. Anytime we judge someone as beyond help, outside grace, or unwanted by the church, we diminish our Savior. It’s easy to look at the world and see the muck, the filth, and the dirt. But there is so much more. A world of sin, paid for by the overwhelming sacrifice of our Risen Messiah. We, like Saul and like Peter, have been saved, already made clean. There is work to do. “Now go.”

Jordan Williamson