Read Acts 10 and notice where Peter is when God speaks: Joppa, at a house “by the sea.” Every Jewish reader knew that town. Jonah 1:3 says Jonah “went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.” That’s where a prophet ran from God’s call to the Gentiles. Now the man Jesus called Simon Bar-Jonah stands in the same port and gets the same kind of call. He argues too: “By no means, Lord.” But when the Gentile messengers knock, the Spirit says, “Accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” And Peter goes. Jonah ends with a question God leaves hanging. In Acts 11:18 the church answers it: “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” Jonah got on a boat. Peter walked up the road to Caesarea. So here’s the question: when God’s mercy heads toward people you’d rather it skipped, which way are you walking?
