Today we hear the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26‑40). This Philip is not Philip the Apostle, but another Philip, a deacon in the early church. The eunuch is unnamed in our reading today, but Ethiopian Orthodox tradition names him Bachos. Bachos is a servant in the court of Ethiopian Queen Candace. He oversees all of the treasury. He is a high-ranking official in Ethiopia, however in Jerusalem, from where he is departing, he is an outsider. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship, but he would not have been allowed into the inner areas of the Temple. He was one of the people Hebrews would refer to as “God Fearers”, people who believe in the Hebrew God but were not Jews.
On his way home, he is reading from the prophet Isaiah, struggling with the passage, trying to understand who exactly this servant is of whom the prophet speaks. This is when Philip, led by the Spirit, meets up with Bachos and inquires of the eunuch if he understands what he is reading. The eunuch invites Philip into his chariot, and they ride along as Philip explains to him the story of Jesus, the culmination and fulfillment of the Hebrew scriptures, much like Jesus had done earlier on the road to Emmaus.
Coming to a body of water, the eunuch asks Philip: “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” Philip and the eunuch go down into the water, where the Ethiopian eunuch is baptized, and welcomed into the nascent Church. Philip is then taken away by the Spirit, and the eunuch continues on his way rejoicing. Bachos goes on to become the first Christian missionary to share the Gospel in Africa.
What sticks out the most to me, as I read this passage, is the question Bachos asks Philip. “What can stand in the way of me being baptized?” Is he expecting rejection? He has almost certainly faced exclusion at the temple in Jerusalem. Does he expect Christianity to be the same? Unwelcoming to minorities, both racially and sexually? What is astounding to me is Philip’s (most likely) non-answer. In that space of silence, Philip can think of nothing to prevent Bachos from being baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. Bachos comes as he is and is welcomed into the body of Christ. No temple is needed to worship, no priests are required, simply a believer, the scriptures, and an inquiring heart and mind.
God is already at work in reaching out to Bachos through the scriptures when Philip arrives. We can learn a valuable lesson from this passage. Rather than thinking that we can “take Jesus” places, might our efforts be more fruitful if we trained our eyes to see where God is already at work, and joining that work? Might we be a better example of the Kingdom reality in the midst of the current systems of the world if we stopped excluding people from our fellowship because they, in our arrogant opinion, are somehow different from us?
Another thing that jumps off the page at me is the passage which Bachos is reading as he travels along. “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him.” (Isaiah 53:7), referring to the suffering servant. The humiliation of the servant makes possible the welcoming into a beloved community the Ethiopian eunuch, who in humiliation was excluded from temple worship. We must take notice that the same is true for us. Christ died upon the cross, bearing the full weight of the world’s wickedness, and then in resurrection defeated death. Our sin, brokenness, and humiliation are defeated at the cross, revealed for what they really are, powerless. It is through Christ’s finished work upon the cross and his resurrection that ANYONE can be welcomed into the body of Christ. We join by being baptized into his death and resurrection.
Here we see an opening of the doors. Luke writes that the first non-Jewish convert to be baptized into the faith is a eunuch from Ethiopia. This man, who would have faced exclusion from the religious folks in Jerusalem, finds welcome at the feet of Jesus. May we never be so arrogant as to decide anyone is unworthy of that welcome.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!