This Easter Sunday text is a scene Luke lifted from the middle of a mission-transforming moment in the life of the church. Through a series of dreams, visions and divine utterances, Peter, an apostle of Jesus but also an observant Jew, has been brought to the home and the table of Cornelius, a good man, but also a Gentile. The author has carefully presented both Cornelius' and Peter's views of the events which had brought them together (10:1-33) a writing, as it were, with no "partiality." With today's text, however, Peter's sermon reveals just how deeply this meeting has affected his understanding of his apostolate.

Scholars point to two major revelations made by Peter in these few verses. The first of these he proclaims in verse 34 "God shows no partiality ...." Some scholars argue that …