Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
Acts 10:34-44
Things are always easier when we create the Messiah into our own image, when we neuter the power of the Gospel by trying to wrap things up in nice, neat little packages and formulas. It is much more comfortable to sit cloistered in our buildings, to remove the mystery of God, and to create formulas that we count on our five fingers.
Before the crucifixion, the disciples had a myopic view of who Jesus was; they suffered from a severe case of tunnel vision that led to the power of a throne in Jerusalem. After Easter Sunday, they finally began to understand about how the kingdom of God had broken into the world through Jesus Christ. But even though encountering the resurrected Lord transformed the way they viewed the world, old habits died hard, and they continued to put the mystery of God’s grace in a box, limiting his action to what was comfortable to them.
But then, one afternoon when Peter was napping on a roof, the pretty wrapping paper and nice little bow were ripped off of the box. God came to Peter in a vision and shattered his worldview. Peter wanted to believe that the grace of God was limited to the Jews, but God’s kingdom is much bigger than and much more wide open than he could have imagined. Peter believed that it “unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile” (Acts 10:28). But the untamable kingdom of God was continuing to break into the world. “God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.”
The Spirit of our Resurrected Lord breaks into the world in surprising places. It continues to transform our own understanding of who Jesus is, of how the kingdom of God is breaking into the world, and of what it means to be the church. “God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” This Easter season, may we crucify our limited visions of who the Messiah is and open ourselves to the transformative resurrecting power of the God who refuses to be kept in the tombs of our traditions and poor understanding of who the Messiah is. May he resurrect in us and in his church a new understanding of who the Christ truly is and how he is continuing to break into the world.
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