Written by Scott Fiddler
The Word
10 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter.
21 And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?” 22 And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” 23 So he invited them in to be his guests.
Acts 10:1–5, 21–23a
Reflection
There was no love lost between first-century Israel and the Romans, particularly the Roman army. Pompey had conquered Jerusalem in 63 B.C. after a brutal three-month siege that ended with Pompey entering the temple and the Holy of Holies. Israel lost its independence and was subjected to Roman rule.
In 6 A.D., the Romans took a census as part of their newly imposed direct administration of Judea. This spawned a rebellion led by a Galilean named Judas and a Pharisee named Zadok, who taught that payment of taxes to the Romans was disobedience to God. In the end, Judas perished and his followers were scattered (Acts 5:37), but hostility toward Rome and the payment of taxes to them persisted.
For the ordinary Jew, the ever-present reminder of this despised foreign occupation and oppressive taxation was the Roman soldier. I imagine Peter felt this as intensely as any of his Jewish countrymen. Roman soldiers had come in the night with Jewish religious leaders to arrest Jesus. Peter had struck a blow with his sword, but Jesus rebuked him. Then, within 24 hours, Roman soldiers had crucified Jesus.
This passage of Scripture presents representatives of both sides of this conflict: Cornelius the centurion and Peter, a Jew.
Application
The world offers solutions to such conflicts: toleration, diplomacy, and mediation are examples. And none of these are bad things, but ultimately they are, at best, ways to achieve peaceful coexistence.
As this Scripture demonstrates, God’s solution is significantly more elegant: the gospel. The gospel would do more than just create the possibility for peaceful coexistence between Peter and Cornelius; it would make them brothers (Acts 10:48; 11:1).
It can do the same for the world.
Prayer
Lord, help me always to see the gospel as not just a solution for changing people but as the solution for changing the world. Amen.
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