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[a] eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “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 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “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. What can stand in the way of my being 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. - Acts 8:26-39 NIV
This story comes at a point when early Christians in Jerusalem start to scatter. They are leaving because Jerusalem is no longer safe. Christians are headed out of Jerusalem, taking the Good News with them, and seeking safer cities and towns. They are headed to new places and experiencing new things that probably feel like “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In this process we meet a fellow named Philip. His name comes up a few times in the book of Acts. In Acts 6 we are told that he is one of the people selected to care for the poor. In Acts 21 he is said to have four daughters who are prophets in the church. In this story Philip gets told directly via an angel from God to go to Gaza.
That is interesting. Because the city of Gaza, at the time of Acts, was more than likely a pile of ruins due to past wars and battles. From what archaeologists tell us the city of Gaza will not be rebuilt till about 30 years after the events we read about. Effectively Philip is being asked to go to a pile of rocks, a ghost town. Going to Gaza will require walking about 50 miles from Jerusalem which equals about 2 full days of walking. This does not sound like a good plan.
We are told that Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch on his way to Gaza, who is in the service of the Queen. The story makes it clear that this is no happenstance meeting. We are also told that this Ethiopian has been to Jerusalem for worship in the temple. Perhaps he is a “God fearer” yet more than likely he would not have been allowed in the temple. We also know that somehow he has acquired a copy of the book of Isaiah. We don't know how much of the book of Isaiah he has yet the portion that he does have comes from Isaiah 53. And we also know that he is a eunuch.
There is no real delicate way to discuss what has happened to this Ethiopian eunuch. He has been castrated. Either by voluntarily cutting himself and removing his male sexual organs or by crushing his testicals. This person is from Ethiopia which was ruled by a series, of what historians call, Nubian Kings. The Nubuian Kings were male and were viewed as the offspring of the Sun god. Among other things, this meant that they were too holy to do things like . . . work. Since the males could not be bothered with work then much of the work of ruling was left to the female Queens. She had a lot of responsibilities, after all she was governing the nation, and thus needed all kinds of servants and workers to help get things done.
If you were a male servant working for or around the Queen then that often meant castration. Castration emilnated male servants and workers as threats to the Kings line of succession and their political power. The act of castration removes the source of male hormones. This lack of male hormones can create a host of physical changes such as a higher pitched voice. Other changes can occur as well. It was not uncommon for male eunuchs to take on more socially feminine ascribed attributes such as wearing makeup and dresses.
In modern day India eunuchs, known as the hijra, are recognized as a third gender. They are considered a person who does not fit into the categories of male or female. Biblical scholars have pointed out that Jesus seems to recognize this in Matthew 19:11-12 when he states: 11 Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
Here in Matthew 19 Jesus is recognizing that there are humans that exist that do not fit neatly into the categories of male and female. Jesus recognizes that there are people who were born eunuchs (possibly some kind of physical deformity), eunuchs made so by others (castration or self-mutilation) and those who live like eunuchs (those who don’t seem to fit into a male or female category). Eunuchs, in Pliny the Elder’s (Roman philosopher AD 23-79) words, belonged to a “third class of half-males.”1 The Greek satirist Lucian from Syria concurred, classifying eunuchs as “something composite, hybrid and monstrous, outside of human nature.”2 The Jewish author Philo was quick to degrade eunuchs as a detested class of gender-ambiguous people who were able neither “to disseminate seed nor to receive it.”3 Since eunuchs were unable to procreate (and thereby pass on their patrimony), they were not regarded as true men in the Roman world and were not always assigned all the legal rights of adult men.
Similar is true for this eunuch from Ethiopia. There is not a nice neat social category that this eunuch fits into other than outsider. When you don’t fit into a social category it means that people don’t know what to do with you. When people don’t know what to do with you they can become anxious, angry and confused. You become an oddity. You become someone who lives on the margins of society. You become something seen as strange and disgusting and treated accordingly.
As shocking as this story is so far it takes another turn when you add the book of Deuteronomy which states . . . Deuteronomy 23:1 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.
If you have done what this eunuch has done to themselves (or someone to did to you) you will not be allowed into the temple. God made male and female to be co-creators and when you take that away from yourself then God doesn’t want you in the assembly. It is highly interesting then that after Philip and the eunuch talk, the eunuch asks “what would prevent me from being baptized?” The answer is simple. You don’t. You should have thought about that before you did what you did or put yourself in a position to have it done to you. This is not exactly something that you can undo. There is no surgery to repair the damage done. Sorry, it sucks to be you. You have made your bed and now you get to lie in it. That is what Philip could have said. Yet when the eunuch asks, “What would prevent me from being baptized?” Philip's answer is absolutely nothing. You want to be baptized? Great! Here is some water, let’s do this.
Can you imagine what would have happened if social media was around at this time? Can you imagine the videos? The comments? The calls to protest Philip’s actions would have been loud. There would be calls to ostracize Philip. Books, blogs and videos would be created questioning Philip’s theology, our culture and the horrendous implications of his actions. This is scandalous! The Bible says this is strictly prohibited and yet you, Philip, baptized this eunuch. One of Christianity's most sacred rites has been mocked and ruined. Philip, what were you thinking! What have you done! This is not okay!
Not only was this eunuch touched by the story of Jesus he heard from Philip he also desired to be baptized. Something that I assume, since the Ethiopian asks, he and Philip have talked about baptism and its meaning and implications. This eunuch wants to claim Jesus as Lord! We are told that this eunuch is reading a scroll of Isaiah. What would be interesting is if the scrolls picked up in Jerusalem included Isaiah chapter 56.
Isaiah 56:3-5 3 Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” 4 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— 5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.
Some 2,000 years plus since the time of Acts has passed. Currently the modern day nation of Ethiopia reports that about 65% of its population are Christian. While there is some debate about the identity of this Ethiopian eunuch I would like to think that this "dry tree" is the reason for Christianity in Ethiopia today. The one who was considered disgusting got an everlasting name and went on to share the story of Jesus with others. The one who could have no offspring created thousands of sons and daughters!
This brief story in Acts 8 is a reminder of the story of God. Across scripture there is story after story that remind us that God is no respecter of our human artificial boundaries. Time and time again, in the Bible, we read how the outsider becomes an insider. Those that were excluded get included. This story challenges our notions about who is in and who is out of God’s Kingdom. It is an uncomfortable reminder of the ways the church is known more for its exclusion then its inclusion of those considered outsiders. This story is suggesting that our attempts to approach our culture with a sense of us versus them is misguided at best. This story is just one of many telling us something about what God desires. The question before us all is how we will respond.
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