O: Cornelius, a centurion in
Caesarea, sincerely sought God, and God answered him, sending an angel who told
him to invite Peter from Joppa, 50 km away, which back then in those conditions
took roughly 12 hours to walk, but usually people would take two days.
For Peter, entering a Gentile
home was not a small social adjustment. In our Malaysian setting, it may feel
as difficult as asking a committed Muslim to enter a non-Muslim’s home and
share a meal in a way that could bring criticism from his own community. That
helps us feel the force of Peter’s obedience and the scandal it caused among
the Jewish believers.
So God had to send him a vision –
the animals on the sheet – to persuade him to go with the people Cornelius sent
to invite him, and then when he got back to Joppa, the other Jewish Christians
were scandalised, and he had to go back to Jerusalem to answer their charges.
He managed to persuade them by pointing out to them that if the Holy Spirit
accepted them by giving them the Gift of Tongues, who were the Jewish
Christians to deny them?
Even after this, Paul still had
to contend with the Judaizers. And even Peter backslid and Paul had to correct
him (Galatians 2:11-14). So it was definitely not easy.
A: What prejudices do I still
hold against people different from me? Who is in and who is out?
The Jewish Christians were
demanding that Gentiles had to “masuk Yahudi” before they could become
Christians and be saved. We must not make people feel that they have to “masuk”
our culture before they can come to Christ. They do not need to become like us
in order to be saved.
And, even before they’re saved,
remember how Jesus accepted Gentiles like the Syrophoenician woman and others. What
non-Christians are God calling for me to drop my prejudices against?
And we must be open to others’
correction, like Peter was to Paul even though he was the leader of the
Apostles after Jesus’ ascension.
P: Father, open my eyes to see where my own practice of the faith needs to expand its horizons. And help me to be open to others’ correction. In Jesus’ name, amen.
