When God seeks change, God calls persons in ways they can understand. Along with the other disciples, God charges Peter with the daunting task of changing a religious culture.

In the past, those seeking to follow God completely went through a long process that led to being a proselyte. Then they were circumcised, lived by a dietary code, and strictly observed Sabbath. In this passage we notice a shift: God’s only criterion is “the repentance that leads to life.”

Peter goes to Jerusalem to explain what has happened, and he meets keepers of the old culture. Their first concern is not about the new faith of the Gentiles but about Peter’s eating with them. Often critics of change will protest new ways with minutia of the old ways. Peter knows their true quibble so he tells his own story step by step. He doesn’t begin with “I’m Peter the Rock, listen to me. I know better than you.” So that they will know he has had a holy experience, he starts by telling them he went up on the roof to commune with God.

In his vision, a blanket comes down with all kinds of animals, some of which are considered unclean. When he is told to take and eat, he responds with the proper reply of the old culture. But God says, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” God says this three times so that Peter will understand.

Visitors arrive while Peter is still puzzled. These Gentiles want to know about Christ. He goes to Caesarea with other believers and there they bear witness of the presence of the Holy Spirit as the Gentiles repent.

And so the church now knows that God welcomes all persons—regardless of position, past religion, or ethnicity. No one is unclean.