Acts 9:43

Growing up I didn’t know I was autistic. However, I did know that I had a hard time fitting in, and sometimes I said things that offended others. Being fairly intelligent, I began to create rules that would allow me to function better in a normal world.

I didn’t know that most people pick up social cues that allow them to avoid being offensive to others. One of my rules was never to say anything out loud that might be offensive if accidentally overheard. Not everyone has this rule. I used to sit in front of a rude couple at church. I sat there so that visitors could not, because I didn’t want visitors to hear some of the things the couple said aloud.

I am about to say something (2,000 years after the fact) that is rude, yet true. “Simon stinks.” This is important, and is the reason that Luke tells us Simon was a tanner. Tanners worked with dead animals in a hot climate turning their skin into leather. The smell was horrible, and it clung to them. There was never enough water or soap to wash it away. The smell was so bad that most cities and towns would not allow tanners to live inside the city walls. The Jewish rabbis passed a special law that allowed the wives of men who became tanners to divorce them because of their odor. To make matters even worse, most serious Jews would have nothing to do with tanners because they were religiously unclean. They worked with dead things and were impure. Despite this though, this is who Peter chose to stay with in Joppa.

Just imagine; I bet the tongues were wagging. “What is Peter thinking?” “Doesn’t he have any standards?” “He is a fisherman; they stink almost as bad as tanners.”

Peter was thinking, “People are more important than appearances.” “Smelling good is not a substitute for being good.” “A Christian’s cleanliness starts on the inside not the outside.” Peter was thinking like Jesus.