Peter’s Second Three-Fold Denial

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)

Food and Drink #2

“On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven. Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate, and called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there” (Acts 10:9-18).

On a previous occasion, the Lord had spoken to Peter about the Gentiles using the image of food. Peter had been a fisherman, the Lord promised to make him a fisher of men (Matt. 4:19-20). On this occasion, Peter got very hungry while he was praying (vv. 9-10). While they were getting the food ready, Peter fell in to a trance (v. 11), and saw a vision of a giant sheet, tied at the corners, and descending to earth (v. 11). The sheet contained all manner of beasts, and Peter was told to rise, kill and eat (vv. 12-13). Peter demurred because he had never eaten anything common or unclean, and whatever the contents of that sheet were, they were not kosher (v. 14). It also reveals again Peter’s tendency to put two words together that don’t really belong together—no and Lord. The Lord responded by saying that it is the Word of God that makes something clean or unclean, and that what God has cleansed, we should not call common or unclean (v. 15). This happened three times, meaning that God told Peter to rise, kill and eat three times, and Peter declined three times (v. 16). This was not in Jerusalem, and it was not at Christ’s trial, but it is striking that in this vision Peter denied the Lord three times. After the third time (with no animals killed or eaten), the vessel was received back up into heaven. As a result, Peter “doubted in himself” what the vision meant. He was not just scratching his head as though he had a theological puzzle. He was unsettled in himself about the meaning. While in this quandary, the men that Cornelius had sent knocked at the door below (v. 17), and they asked for Peter (v. 18). The subsequent story shows that Peter did not deny the Lord again—on the fourth opportunity he rose (10:20), killed (10:48) and ate (11:3).

With the coming of Christ, and the establishment of the new covenant, the dietary regulations given under Moses (which had been a type of the separation between Jew and Gentile) were now abrogated. What God declares clean must never be treated as unclean by us. Now because the sign is less than the thing signified, it is inconsistent to believe that God was signifying that Gentiles were clean, but that the pork remained unclean. God does not work at cross-purposes with His signs like that. We are not baptized in mud to show that our sin has been removed. A bride does not declare her chastity by wearing a defiled dress. And so we may conclude from all this two things—the first is that the gospel is for the world, and the second is that Christians declare their solidarity with Peter’s obedience here by accepting all foods as clean. Every bowl of clam chowder, every BLT, every ham for Easter . . . they all declare a message of grace for the world. And every attempt to restrict the types of foods that Christians may eat is an attempt at some level to restrict or bind that grace.