The Dream That Tore Down the Fence

With Saul no longer hunting them, the believers had peace, and Peter traveled to Joppa. He stayed with a leather-maker named Simon, whose house stood by the sea.

A day's walk up the coast, in the Roman city of Caesarea, lived Cornelius, a captain over a hundred soldiers. He was not Jewish, but he loved the God of Israel. He prayed every day and gave money to the poor.

One afternoon an angel stood in his room. "Cornelius!"

Cornelius stared, terrified. "What is it, Lord?"

"God has heard your prayers and seen your gifts to the poor," said the angel. "Send to Joppa for a man named Peter. He is staying with Simon the leather-maker, in the house by the sea."

Cornelius sent two servants and a soldier off at once. The next day at noon, while they were still on the road, Peter climbed onto the flat roof to pray. He was hungry, and lunch was cooking downstairs. Then he saw heaven open. Something like a huge sheet came down, held by its four corners, full of animals, birds, and creeping things. Many were creatures God's law called unclean, which meant Jewish people must never eat them.

"Get up, Peter," said a voice. "Kill and eat."

"No, Lord!" said Peter. "I have never eaten anything unclean!"

"Do not call anything unclean that God has made clean."

Three times the sheet came down, and three times hungry Peter said no. While he sat puzzling, the Spirit said, "Three men are looking for you. Go with them. I sent them."

Peter let the men stay the night. The next morning he set off with them, and some believers from Joppa came too. In Caesarea, Cornelius had filled his house with family and friends. When Peter walked in, Cornelius fell at his feet.

"Stand up," said Peter. "I am only a man." (At the Temple in Jerusalem, a stone fence had signs warning foreigners to come no farther.) "You know our law says a Jew should not even visit a foreigner's home," he told the crowded room. "But God has shown me I must not call any person unclean. God does not play favorites. In every nation he welcomes anyone who honors him and does what is right."

Then he told them how Jesus was killed on a cross and how God raised him on the third day, and how everyone who trusts him is forgiven. Before Peter could finish, the Holy Spirit came down on everyone listening, and Cornelius and his guests began praising God in languages they had never learned. Peter's friends from Joppa were astonished. God had poured out his Spirit on people who were not even Jewish!

"They have received the Spirit just as we did!" said Peter. "Who could stop them being baptized?"

So the whole household was baptized, and Peter stayed several days and ate at their table.

Still, it was one house in one town by the sea. The lesson on the roof had come from Jesus first. He once taught that what goes into a person's mouth cannot make the person unclean, and Mark's Gospel says that by this he called all foods clean. Then Jesus died on the cross for Jews and everyone else alike. Paul later wrote that by his death Jesus broke down the real fence, the wall of hatred between them, and made them one people.

The sheet from heaven held every kind of animal. The table Jesus is setting holds every kind of person, and in Caesarea the first guests from the nations had already sat down.