Acts 11:1-18
There was a council of 12 reputable rabbis having a great argument concerning a
controversial matter. One, who was perhaps the least experience among them, disagreed with the
rest of them. He tried very hard to convince the rest of the group that he was right. Finally, he
told them, “If I am right, let there be a sign from God.” And immediately the table in front of
them was struck with lightning and split in two. And so that rabbi said, “See, I told you I was
right.” The other 11 eleven looked at one another all startled, and finally, one of them concluded,
“Yes, I suppose you are right, but majority rules.”
This is how we are, it’s either you are with me, or you are not. We see this too in our first
reading with the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, notice they are not the Pharisees or the
antagonistic Jews, but it was the very apostles, the close disciples of Jesus, and other Christians
who accused Peter of making himself unclean and thus sinning against God. Of course they are
like that because they have been taught that a good Jew cannot associate oneself with a gentile
and that one would need to avoid them as much as possible because one could become unclean
by contacting various objects. Can you imagine walking through a gentile city and suddenly a
pig appears on the street, you would probably have to run for your life or hide in a box. The
concept of clean and unclean is quite foreign to us now, but it means to be fit or unfit in the
presence of God. It is not so much about the physical hygiene of cleanliness as we understand it
in the 21st century. If you are unclean, you cannot be part of us. There is always the distinction of
“us” and “them”.
Either way, we still hold this framework in our minds. How many of you have talked
with or heard a Christian who thinks that one is closer to God or can become a better Christian
(or more spiritual) if you follow a certain code or pattern or rule (or maybe you think that way
too)? If you don’t drink, smoke, swear, watch pornography, then you are not too far from the
kingdom of heaven. I have heard some that even say a Christian should not dance, or listen to
secular music, or play cards, or watch secular movies. And if you read your bibles, go to church,
pray, and do all sorts of wonderful good works, then you are really up there with God. I have
also heard, from a popular preacher from the states, that if you are successful in losing weight,
then God will really bless you. All these are simply another way of defining what is clean and
unclean, what is fit and unfit to stand before God. It is to define us from “them”.
And then you also have the opposite extreme in that people believe and teach that
everybody is basically equal and good, and so everybody would just go to heaven by default,
(well except maybe those really really bad people who kill thousands of people). Some would go
so far as to say that hell doesn’t really exist. Hell is just an invention of the church to scare
people so that they would shape up and behave the way the church wants them to. And so for
them, there is really no “us” and “them” distinction. If they are right, that there is no existence of
hell, then we are wrong, and by that, they have already made a distinction between “us” and
“them”, knowingly or unknowingly.
In all these, the real problem is not what is clean and unclean, fit and unfit, whether you
belong to a certain group or not, because honestly, we know what is clean and unclean, but we
are just afraid to admit it, that we are not clean. The real question is “how do we define clean and
unclean?” or more to the point, “where do we get those standards?” This was the first temptation
in the garden of Eden, when the serpent promises to the woman (and the man next to her), “you
will not die, you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Or in other words, “It’s an empty
threat from God, in fact, you will be your own gods, because you can make your own decisions,
you can decide what is right and wrong.” How scary this is! Imagine giving this empty promise
to a three-year-old, you tell the little child, “from now on, you can decide what you want to do!”
The child will die in no time. And this is what happened to Adam and Eve, they were the little
children of God, but have gone astray, going their own ways. And now we too make our own
decisions of what is right and wrong, clean and unclean, fit and unfit. By those standards, human
ones, we think we are pretty good before God. So long as you don’t drink, smoke, swear, and
you go to church, be a good spouse, love your neighbor, and you can add your own list of what
you think is good and bad, but notice that these can be achieved by anyone. However we want to
define the standards, we have made a distinction between us and God. However good our
standards and cleanliness are, we are still far from that of God’s, for he demands perfection from
beginning till the end.
The whole point of this Christian religion is not about how to become more clean and
pure or how to stay clean and avoid being unclean through our own efforts. It is always about the
word of God and what he has pronounced or declared. The question that is asked in the bible is
this: “are you clean or unclean?” and the answer that comes from the same bible is “yes!” It is
very clear from the bible that all men has been born IN sin so that we are by nature sinful and
UNCLEAN. But at the same time God declares us, proclaims to us, pronounces to us as clean.
How is this done, how can we be clean and unclean at the same time? The story of Jesus washing
his disciples’ feet is familiar to us. He washed their feet and when he got to Peter, he refused to
be washed by his master. But Jesus says to him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with
me.” And of course Peter had to say something, so he says, “lord, wash my hands and head
also.” So then Jesus answers, “the one who has bathed does not need to wash but is completely
clean, and you are clean…”(Jn13). Then later on when he declares that he is the true vine, he
says, “already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” (Jn15:3) It was
never about fitting into a certain description or group or whatever you think a Christian ought to
look like. There is only one simple distinction, are you part of Christ or are you not? When you
hear his words, you are in him, and you are clean.
To be clean does not depend on us at all. It comes completely from the word of God. And
so here in Acts 11:9, it can be translated as “that which God declared clean, do not make
unclean.” Just as creation was called into existence from nothing, so also faith, life,
righteousness, purity, cleanliness are called into existence out of nothing. Yet the paradox is that
this is obtained through faith, which by definition, is not something we can see, feel, or sensed.
The pig still remains an unclean animal, but God calls it clean and so it is considered clean. The
gentile remains a gentile but he is called to be part of his chosen people. The sinner remains a
sinner till the day he enters the grave, but God calls and declares him clean by his word, so that
he is considered clean in his sight, whether we see it or not.
But in our rebellion and self-centered ways, we do not believe, it sounds too simple, too
abstract, that God would just declare us clean, just like that. That’s why God is not a distant God,
looking down on us far above in heaven and giving us his word that we can’t really grasp, but he
actually acts and do something. His act of cleansing is connected to us in a most definite way.
For he came down from heaven and was incarnate of the holy spirit of the virgin Mary. It was for
our salvation, to die on the cross. That is the definite moment that we can look and point to and
say, “there, he shed his blood to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, sin, and death. His blood is
the lifeblood that give me life.”
But God knows our weaknesses too. Even this great event from 2000 years ago is not
enough to satisfy us, it is too distant, too far away. That’s why he also instituted the sacrament of
baptism by which you can believe, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he has washed you. For in
your baptism you are connected to his death and resurrection (Romans6). You are not just being
poured with some waters over your body, but it is first and foremost the word of God attached to
this physical means, the simple water. It is as if God is saying to you, “see? I want you to know
for certain that I have cleansed you of all your sins. I have called you clean and I even use this
water as a medium for my word. You not only hear it, but now you see it and have touched it
too.”
So then when you hear any voice, whether it be from Satan, from the world, or from your
guilty conscience, telling you how sinful you are, how unclean and unfit to be God’s beloved
child, then you proclaim to them, for you have the word of Christ, say to them, “I am baptized
into Christ!” This is the daily life of the Christian, it is a daily battle, not against flesh and blood,
of the spiritual realm, and our weapon is nothing other than the word of God. For daily we die to
sin through repentance and we also daily rise to new life through faith in Jesus.