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Acts 8:26-39
Philip and the Ethiopian
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 The eunuch was reading this passage of scripture:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
For years, I read this story and then went on with a kind of “That’s nice” response. An Ethiopian guy becomes a Christian and gets baptized. But then one year when it came up in the lectionary for Sunday worship and I was preparing to preach on it, the Spirit kind of clubbed me over the head with it, and I couldn’t miss how much theological depth it has. Since then, I’ve had a growing sense that it should probably be getting a lot more attention than it does. Probably even more in today’s church than in the past, because there are connections with issues in the church of our time that make it more relevant than ever.
In the story, Philip is directed to travel south toward the territory we now call ‘the Gaza Strip’ the site of so much fighting today. The main road to Egypt and the rest of East Africa passes through that area. As he travels along the road, Philip comes upon an Ethiopian, an important official who was the keeper of the queen’s treasury. This Ethiopian is returning home after having been in Jerusalem to worship. He isn’t a Jew, but rather is a person who would have been called a “God-fearer.” That was the name for a gentile who worshipped the God of Israel and studied the Hebrew scriptures, but who had not formally converted to the Hebrew faith.
This Ethiopian official is sitting in his chariot reading a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, when the Holy Spirit directs Philip to cross the road to the chariot. Apparently the man is reading aloud, because we’re told that Philip hears what he is reading. The Ethiopian is puzzling over a passage that includes a prophesy about one who would be persecuted and killed unjustly, but who would not open his mouth in protest. Philip explains that the prophesy refers to Jesus, and then goes on to tell the story of Jesus’ life and of the mighty work God has done through him. Hearing this good news, the Ethiopian official decides to be baptized, and goes on his way to live a new life in Jesus.
The reason I say this story is more relevant than ever is that it’s a story about breaking down walls that might keep people from being brought inside the family of God. The Ethiopian man was an outsider – someone considered ‘other’ because of his race. But also by the fact that he was not a full convert to the Jewish faith. As a matter of fact, the Ethiopian man could never become a convert to the Jewish faith, because he was a eunuch. Eunuchs were forbidden to enter the temple or to be admitted to the Hebrew people. Under the laws of Moses, this man would have had permanent outsider status, because of his race and because of his sexuality.
But here’s something else that’s particularly interesting about this story – and this is the part I missed for years. If you start reading at the part of the Book of Isaiah the Ethiopian had been reading, and then read a little further, you’d find that the passage said that the time would come when no foreigner would be excluded from among God’s people. And the very next thing that passage says is this:
“And let no eunuch complain, ‘I am only a dry tree,’
for this is what the Lord says:
‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant –
to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters.’”
So to this Ethiopian man, the good news about what God had done in Jesus was even better news than it would have been to most people. Here was a man who had been excluded from the people of God because he was a gentile. But who had found a prophesy in the word of God that said a Suffering Servant would come and by his suffering, would open the gates of the Lord to gentiles as well as Jews.
But even further, this man had also been excluded from the people of God because of his sexuality – because he was a eunuch. But here was a prophesy six centuries old in the Hebrew scriptures that said the suffering servant to come would open the gates of the Lord to eunuchs as well as to gentiles.
In this story, the Holy Spirit sends the apostle Philip to this Ethiopian eunuch to share with him the good news that the suffering servant prophesied in Isaiah had come. That suffering servant had suffered a horrible death, and by that death, had opened the way for this outcast to come into the assembly of the people of the God he honors.
So by embracing new life in Jesus, and confirming that commitment by undergoing baptism, this permanent outsider was brought into the family of God. He was granted the privilege of calling on the God of the universe as Abba, ‘Father,’ just as every other follower of Jesus can. In Jesus, this outsider had become an insider in the family of God. And that, it seems to me, is the most important message of this story of Philip and the Ethiopian.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you that in Jesus, you broke down the walls between the covenant people and the rest of humankind, and you opened a way for all of us to come into your own family. Let everything we do as your people express our gratitude for that great gift. Amen.
Blessings,
Henry
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