One day at about three in the afternoon [Cornelius] had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius! … Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.”
- from Acts 10:3-5

Cornelius was a man with authority. He commanded a division of 100 Roman soldiers stationed at Caesarea, the Roman capital in Judea. He had wealth and servants. He would be considered respectable. He would be obeyed.

The Roman government ruled Judea with an iron fist. An enforced peace settled over the land, but rebellion bubbled beneath the surface. Roman soldiers used swift and violent military actions to keep uprisings from spreading. There would have been little love lost between Romans and Jews.

In today’s passage we see that Cornelius had men at his disposal to send on an errand 30+ miles away. He sent his servants and a trusted soldier to collect Peter in Joppa and bring him back to Caesarea. And he fully expected to be obeyed.

What would it have been like for Cornelius to receive this command to send for Peter? Though there are clues in this passage that Cornelius might have had a better than average relationship with the Jewish populace, it couldn’t have been comfortable. Jews and Romans maintained their distance so that Romans could keep their power and Jews could keep their purity (more on that tomorrow). In reaching out to Peter, in a very real way, Cornelius would have been interacting with someone who was several rungs beneath him on the social ladder.

Power dynamics often come into play when breaking through the walls that divide us. Cornelius could send for Peter. Peter certainly couldn’t have sent for Cornelius. This is called “social privilege.” Social privilege is (according to our friends over at Wikipedia) “a special right or advantage available only to a particular person or group of people.”

When you think about power dynamics in your relationships, how do they come into play? How do you find yourself using your social privileges to tear down walls of division? How do you find yourself propping them up?