The Story Begins to Spread
Acts 8:26-40
This story that we read in the book of Acts is a bit of a gray area for the season of Easter, it could really almost be better placed after Pentecost, which of course is the season of the Spirit, the time in which we focus on the Holy Spirit coming upon Christ’s disciples and empowering them to new ministries in his name. We see a lot of the Spirit moving and acting directly in this passage.
But, of course, there is another aspect to this story, which fits into the theme of the Easter season: this Ethiopian eunuch was reading a prophecy from Isaiah that specifically deals with the Passover sacrifice of Christ. It’s Easter stuff, it is good news.
At first glance, I can’t help but wonder how he happened to get his hands on a copy of the Hebrew Bible when he wasn’t even Hebrew. Maybe the Gideons placed it in his chariot!
But then looking a little bit deeper into the text, we see that this Ethiopian eunuch was reading from somewhere in the 53rd chapter of the Prophet Isaiah, so we can assume that he has read all the 52 chapters that come before it as well.
Isaiah just happens to have a few things to say about Ethiopians, and about eunuchs as well, although he hasn’t gotten to that part yet.
Isaiah 11:11 says that Lord will recover his people from Ethiopia, so for a Gentile who is curious about this Hebrew religion, this might just give him cause to continue reading, but we will get into that more later.
In Isaiah 56, which the Ethiopian eunuch has not reached yet, there are some interesting words about eunuchs, which will also become relevant later.
Bt first let’s size up the scene a little bit here. We begin with Philip, not the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip has been sent by an angel of the Lord to travel down a particular road from Jerusalem toward Gaza. Philip doesn’t know why he’s on that road, but he trusts God, and he trusts God’s messenger, so he goes.
While he’s on this road, he is directed by the Holy Spirit to go over to meet a chariot that was passing by on its way from Jerusalem. As Philip approaches the chariot, he still doesn’t know who he will meet or what he will find there, but he hears the Prophet Isaiah being read by someone inside.
In those days, it was customary to read out loud, even if there was no one around to listen. He was also probably reading in Greek, not Hebrew. What we call the Old Testament had been translated into Greek years before the time of Christ.
So Philip climbs in and they have a conversation, the proper way to begin any evangelistic encounter. We cannot evangelize someone by talking to them, we have to talk with them and hear their story.
Anyway, Philip discovers that this man is, in fact a eunuch, something which Luke or whoever wrote the book of Acts reminds us of again and again throughout this chapter. This is important. Deuteronomy 23:1 is very clear about eunuchs, and I am going to soften the language a little bit. “No one who has been castrated shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.” If you don’t know what that means, I invite you to look it up or turn to your neighbor.
Dt. 23:1 prohibits eunuchs from entering the Temple, they are permanently unclean people, they are excommunicated from the church.
Now eunuchs, in the ancient world, were not uncommon, especially among those who served in the royal court as this man did. And Ethiopia, which was called Cush in those days, had already had access to the Hebrew Bible for several hundred years, going back to the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. So that at least explains how this eunuch may have gotten his hands on a copy of the Hebrew Bible and was reading it, but as a eunuch, he was probably identifying with the words that he read from Isaiah’s prophecy, “In his humiliation justice was denied him,” and so he asked Philip, “is he talking about himself or someone else?”
In other words, “might he be talking about someone like me?”
Here is a rather unique situation in scripture. Oftentimes we read about the gospel reaching out to the poor and the destitute, the outsiders, but this eunuch is not an outsider at all in his own culture. He is an official in the royal court of Ethiopia, and in charge of the treasury. If he possesses a scroll of the Hebrew Bible, or of even just the prophet Isaiah, he must be quite wealthy. But his sexual status cuts him off from the Temple, it makes him an outsider in a way that he has perhaps never before experienced.
However, in just a few short chapters of Isaiah, the eunuch will read (56:3-4), “Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say, The Lord will surely separate me from his people: and do not let the eunuch say, I am just a dry tree. For thus says the Lord: to the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”
And that is what it’s all about, being joined to the Lord. Philip probably knew of that passage, we don’t know, but anyway, he wasn’t affected by the eunuch’s sexual status or race, he simply reached out to him with the love of Christ and the good news of the gospel.
“Christ died for the eunuch, too,” Actually we don’t really know what Philip told the eunuch exactly, except that his way of sharing the gospel with him produced immediate results, and the eunuch said to him, “Look, here is water, what is to prevent me from being baptized?”
Again, there were actually a few things to prevent the eunuch from being baptized. He was a Gentile, he was a eunuch, he was uncircumcised, of course if he had been castrated, I suppose that doesn’t really matter.
“Nothing,” whispered the Spirit to Philip, “absolutely nothing.” As a matter of fact, there are ancient sources that add to this passage, in which Philip says to the eunuch, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And the eunuch replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” And they pulled the chariot over, and Philip baptized the eunuch.
Several weeks ago, we asked one another the question, “what are the ramifications of Easter?” Here is one. “Walls of prejudice and prohibition that have stood strong for countless generations (See Note #1 Below)” suddenly came tumbling down when Christ himself came and was denied justice, and died so that someone else who was denied justice, who feels lost and humiliated and outcast might be restored to the fellowship of God’s family. Amen.
Note #1: From an article by Thomas G. Long in "Feasting on the Word," Year B: Fifth Sunday of Easter, p. 458.
