Bag Ladies, Eunuchs and Us

       “She usually arrived midway through the morning worship service,” writes Dennis Sawyer of Chicago , “attired in three or four dresses, an apron and a coat.  Her red wig, often off to one side, was usually secured by a tight-fitting cap, even in summer.  She resembled an older, slightly frail Munchkin from the mythical Land of Oz.

       “Stealthily, she would seek a seat near the back of the sanctuary.  As she did, coats and Bibles would seem to sprout alongside the other worshipers, occupying any vacant seats.  Undaunted, Katie would keep looking, the large shopping bags dangling from each hand, until she found a row with an empty seat, usually near the front or beside a first time visitor.  Setting her two bags in the aisle, she would kneel, cross herself, then pick up her bags, rustle past the other parishioners, and nest.

       “During the remainder of the service, she would gesture eccentrically and mumble comments either to her neighbors or toward the pastor.  At the conclusion of the service, she would strike a pose of reverent prayer before leaving quickly and quietly.

       Then came the Sunday with a special program and communion.  The church was nearly full.  Katie could find only an aisle seat in the second row from the front.  She proceeded with her gesturing, rustling, and mumbling until communion.  At that time, she became very reverent and still.

       “The deacon serving her row extended the tray of bread past Katie to the next person in the pew – from whence it proceeded toward the other end.  Katie looked around, bewildered, then shrugged, reached into one of her shopping bags, and pulled out a load of bread.  She offered some to her neighbor – who politely refused.  But Katie insisted.  ‘Take it,’ she loudly told him, ‘it’s for sinners.’”

       I wonder if Katie might not have been an angel in disguise, sent by God to remind His church of a very important fact – that despite differences of education, material goods, and lifestyle; we are all the same before God.  As Paul declares in Ephesians, we are all sinners saved by grace through faith – and not because of any merit of our own.

       This means that God doesn’t need our wealth, our job titles, our degrees, or the certificates on our walls – and he doesn’t honor us because we have these things.  In fact, those precious distinctives can actually be barriers to receiving the one thing we really do need – the broken body of Jesus Christ handed to us with the words: ‘take it.  It’s for sinners.’

       Who are our Katies?  Who are the people who, if they came to worship, would cause us (at least mentally) to put hats, coats, Bibles and hymnals on the seat beside us and draw back.  This is the crucial question in God’s word to us this day.  Listen to the word of God:

          Acts 8:26-38

       The story takes place in what is today the Gaza Strip.  Verse 27 introduces a man who is on his way home from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem .  He is the treasurer of the court of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia.

       The King of Ethiopia was worshiped as a child of the sun – much too sacred to actually rule.  So the rule was exercised on his behalf by his mother who always went by the dynastic name “Candace.”  I’ll bet you didn’t know that.

       Now you may be wondering what this Ethiopian official, probably a black man, is doing making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem .  He sure doesn’t look Jewish.  He’s not Jewish.  But he is seeker after the God of Israel – like a number of other Gentiles we will meet in the pages of Acts.

       We can picture this African leader riding in his stately chariot, surrounded by the tokens of position and power.  But all of the outward signs of success do not satisfy the longings of his heart.  His hunger for truth brings him into contact with Judaism – perhaps through Jews who had traveled to Ethiopia to trade.  They introduce him to their belief in Yahweh and an ordered life based on the Law of Moses.  What a contrast this was to the false gods of the Greeks with their petty jealousy and immorality.  What a contrast to the pointless, empty lifestyle of the worshipers of these gods.  He learns that the God of Israel is different from the gods of the nations.  But is there room for him, a foreigner, in the worship of such a God?

       Maybe he reads the words of Isaiah 56: “And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve Him, to love the name of the Lord and worship Him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant – these I will bring to My holy mountain and given them joy in my house of prayer.”

       He hears and responds to the promise of God through Isaiah.  He travels from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship at the temple – God’s house of prayer on the holy mount of Zion .  There he looks to discover and embrace the truth.

       But everything Luke tells us about the Ethiopian indicates that he is not a satisfied pilgrim when he leaves Jerusalem .  The temple, the sacrifices, the ancient customs, have not fed his deep spiritual hunger.  But God had promised: “if with all your heart you truly seek Me you shall surely find.”  And God keeps His word.  God brought him to Jerusalem , not for what he could experience there but for what he will experience on the way home.  The disappointment in Jerusalem is about to be superseded by the Lord’s appointment in Gaza .

       Now this was a time of unusual blessings on the church.  The revival in Samaria is still growing.  Philip is the front-line man.  He seems utterly indispensable.  But  it is at precisely this moment that God calls Philip to leave the area and go down to the desert road that stretches south to Gaza on the way to Egypt .

       If I were in Philip’s place, I might very well have raised objections.  I can think of the kinds of objections I might have raised.  I might have said, “All right, Lord, but not now.  We can get to that region, and no doubt we will – in the proper time.  We are in the midst of great blessing here in Samaria , and it would be a great mistake to turn our backs on it.”      

       Or I might have said, “Not me.”  I might even have said it humbly.  I might have said, “Lord, I’m not the only Christian around.  I am involved in work here.  Look at all those apostles sitting around in Jerusalem .  They received the Great Commission too.  In fact, they received it from Jesus directly.  Why don’t they go?  They’re not doing anything except checking up on my work to see if I am doing it right.”

       Or I could have said, “All right, Lord, but not there.  Not to that desert area.  Nobody even lives down there.  The place to be is where the people are, like right here in Samaria .”
       I do not think Philip had any of those thoughts at all, because Philip knows something we need to know and that will be very helpful in our lives: God’s ways are not our ways; his thoughts are not our thoughts.  How do we know this?  We know it because God tells us this in Isaiah 55:8. 

       Whenever it comes to a choice between our way of thinking and what God says, you know as well as I do that there is no real choice.  We must do what God says.  If you read the Bible and what you read does not seem to make sense to you but you understand what it is telling you to do, well, you had better do it.  

       Verse 28 describes the Ethiopian sitting in his chariot reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah.  At the Spirit’s command, Philip runs up to join him.  As he does, he hears him reading from Isaiah 53:

       “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearers is silent, so He does not open His mouth.  In humiliation and judgment He was taken away.  Who can describe His generation?  For His life is taken up from the earth.”

       The passage gives Philip his cue.  “Do you understand what you are reading?”  Literally he asks: “Do you understand what you are continually reading?”  We should picture the Ethiopian reading the verse – and then reading it again.  Looking at it one way and then another – trying to make it fit.  His answer to Philip’s question betrays his frustration: “Well how could I unless someone guides me?  You seem to know what you’re talking about.  Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this?  Of himself or of someone else?

       Philip knows the answer.  Beginning here with Isaiah’s prophecy of the suffering servant, he tells the Ethiopian the good news of Jesus Christ – how Jesus had given His life as an offering for sin and how God had raised Jesus from death – just as Isaiah had foretold.

       Apparently Philip also includes some teaching about baptism.  For, verse 36 tells us, “and as they went along the road they came to some water – probably Wadi el-Hesi near Gaza – and the Ethiopian said: ‘look! Water!  What is to keep me from being baptized?”

       This is the crucial verse in this text.  Philip answer is crucial for the church of Jesus Christ .

       You see, Philip has a big choice to make, right now.  He can respond to the Spirit prompted longing in the Ethiopian’s heart by saying, “there is nothing to prevent you from being baptized.”  That’s what we’d expect him to say.

       But there is a problem, a land mine, buried in the text.  It is possibly a big problem. 

       Luke points out several times that this Ethiopian, is a eunuch.  Now there is nothing surprising about this.  It was common in many oriental courts for boys to be emasculated and then schooled to serve as royal officials.  It was the way they would be trusted around the women of the harem and of the court.

       But the fact that this Ethiopian is a eunuch is possibly a big problem as far as the extension of baptism. As a Jew, Philip is expected to respond to the Ethiopian’s request something like this: “You may not realize this but you are a eunuch.  You probably know that.  But you may not know that according to the Law of Moses in Deuteronomy 23:1, ‘No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off, shall enter the assembly of the Lord.’ I’m sorry.  But because you are a eunuch, you can never fully become a proselyte to Judaism and take full part in the service at the temple.  And if you can’t be a part of the assembly of the Lord, how can you be baptized into His church?”

       Do you see how crucial the Eunuch’s question is?  “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”  Will I be accepted?  Will I find a place with Jesus Christ and his people?”

       And do you see how crucial Philip’s response is?  “How big is the circle of the church of Jesus Christ going to be?  Are we going to put hats and hymnals on the seats next to us to reserve them for our kind and us?  Or is the church for all who put their trust in Jesus Christ and who intend to live according to His word and call?”

       In other words, what is Philip going to do with the law set down in Deuteronomy?  It seems pretty clear,

       Perhaps Philip is helped in his decision by recalling these words from Isaiah 56 where God says: “Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, ‘the Lord will surely exclude me from His people,’ and let not any eunuch complain, ‘I am only a dry tree.’ For this the Lord says: ‘to the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who chose 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; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.” (53:3-5)

       Now eunuchs were not admitted to full privileges in Israel – despite these words.  But these words open the door for Philip to respond to the Ethiopian with wholehearted welcome.

       And the way Philip makes his decision is a model for us.  He listens to the movement of the Holy Spirit within him.  But he tests and proves his subjective sense of the Spirit’s leading against the Word of God.  That’s the way to do it.

       Philip orders, “stop the chariot!”  “And they both go down into the water, Philip as well as the Eunuch; and he baptizes him.”

       “What is to keep me from being baptized?  What is to keep me from being part of the people of God?”

       That is a question we must all ask and answer as we meet together as a church. What are the qualifications we set down – consciously or unconsciously – for being “part of the group”?  Not just part of the congregation in a formal sense but “part of the group.”

         Verse 37, the verse in brackets, is interesting.  The reason that it’s in brackets is that it wasn’t originally a part of the text.  It’s not in the oldest manuscripts.  At an early date, sometime in the first part of the second century, it was felt that the story as Luke tells it was incomplete.  Someone decided that Philip should have made certain of the Eunuch’s profession of faith before administering baptism so they added this verse.

       Now I don’t doubt that Philip did satisfy himself as to the genuineness of the Eunuch’s faith.  But there are some minds that can’t be content to leave such things to be inferred.  So they added a response by Philip: “If you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized.”  And then they had the eunuch affirm: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

       Now I don’t believe in adding to scripture.  But at least the addition does point out to us the one and only test we may use as to whom we will receive as brothers and sisters - a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.  There is, and there ought to be, no other standard.

       We should not measure whether their “vibes” agree with our “vibes”.  We should not be concerned that they use some accepted Christian jargon – or even if they use words we don’t understand.  It is not important that they be willing to subscribe to our political agenda – be it slow-growth, no-growth, wide open growth, Republican, Democrat, or whatever.  Certainly it should never be race, education, profession or economic class.

       When people come to worship beside us, we need to remember God’s command to us given through the Apostle Paul in Romans 15:7.  You should remember it because I say it every Sunday after the benediction.  “Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”