GOSPEL MEDITATION # 32

Acts 10:1-16

Peter & Cornelius & Peter’s Vision, part 1

1. Find a quiet place without distractions.
2. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
6. From memory, determine the central points.
7. Caesarea, 30 miles NW of Joppa, given by Julius Caesar in 47 BC to Herod the Great who built it into a magnificent city; the Roman governors, (like Pilate) of Judea lived there.
8. Cornelius, a Gentile, one of the commanders of the Italian Cohort (1/6 to 1/10^th of a legion) commanded 100 soldiers. He was a God fearer; he worshipped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
9. He prayed to God, gave alms, was well respected, and God heard his prayer.
10. At 3pm, one of the three traditional times of Jewish prayer, he has a vision. He is mindful and awake—no trance state. An angel gives him instructions—he is to send for Peter in Joppa.
11. Peter, amazingly is actually staying with Simon the tanner, against all Jewish sensibilities. Religious and cultural walls are coming down.
12. Peter, in Joppa, at noon time, another time of Jewish time of prayer, has a vision also. Again Peter is fully aware, and he sees something like a “great sheet” being lowered with animals, reptiles, and birds in it. This happens three times.
13. Peter hears a voice telling him, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” And Peter protests, much like the Prophet Ezekiel did per Ezekiel 4:14.
14. In both Deuteronomy 14 and Leviticus 11 is listed clean and unclean animals. As a Jewish man, Peter is not allowed to eat certain “unclean” creatures he sees in the vision.
15. Then, in the midst of Peter’s protest, God reveals to him, “What God has made clean, do not call common,” which echoes what we find in Mark 7:19. Cornelius the Gentile, is clean.