Simon Peter and His Very Hard Day

AM Psalm 18:1-20 • PM Psalm 18:21-50
Job 8:1-10, 20-22 • Acts 10:17-33 • John 7:14-36

If you begin reading Acts 10 from verse 1, the story describes a rough day for Peter—a day of theological, moral, and social upheaval that will change everything.

Simon Peter had long understood (both in his thinking and in his gut-level instincts) not to eat strange food or to keep company with foreigners—restrictions celebrated and required by the religious company he had always kept.

Then one fateful day God speaks to Peter in a disturbing vision and then later more clearly by voice—thoroughly scrambling Peter’s comfortable understanding of things. Peter tries to process what he has just seen and heard—God seems to contradict everything Peter believed and what was expected of him. What should Peter believe? Upon what authority? Is this God? Who IS God? What is going on? Peter wonders what the weird vision means and then, without nearly enough explanation, is told to break his rules and visit Cornelius—a Roman military officer.

Still confused (How could he not be?), he welcomes a small entourage of foreigners into his home. They stay overnight and in the morning they take him to visit this Roman stranger and his household. Peter complies with unnerving calm. In spite of confusion and danger, some part of him was able to hear, listen, and take this risk. By the end of the chapter, Peter, Cornelius, and many others who were hanging around are drawn up into the Holy Spirit and are celebrating Christ’s new reality together. And somewhere water is found to baptize what had been unbaptizable.

So what just happened!? While Peter’s life was now upside down, these new events were looking more and more like expansion, healing, and grace. The ripples through history are still messing with us.

Written by David Orth

David is reading a recent book on Owen Barfield’s sweeping ideas concerning the evolution of consciousness: A Secret History of Christianity by Mark Vernon. Barfield was one of the Inklings and a profound influence on C. S. Lewis.