I always prided myself on how inclusive I was. When the Twelve first appointed me to assist in food distribution, I served both Hellenistic and Hebraic Jews impartially. After my friend and colleague Stephen was killed on charges of blasphemy and all of Christ’s followers were forced to flee to escape persecution, I fled to Samaria and served those who my people had traditionally hated.
But then one day, the Lord exposed my heart and its limits to me.
An angel of the Lord said to me, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (Acts 8:26) On that road, I met an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading from the scroll of Isaiah. The passage he was reading was this:
“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.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.” (Isaiah 53:7-8)
I explained to him that this passage was about Jesus, feeling proud of my knowledge of Scripture. Then, as we traveled along in his chariot, we passed by some water and he turned to me saying, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” (Acts 8:36)
What can stand in the way? “Well,” I thought, “you’re a eunuch.” If this man knew the Scriptures as I did, he would have understood how problematic that was. The law of Moses says, “No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 23:1)
I was about to say as much when I glanced down and noticed the scroll of Isaiah had rolled open a bit farther:
“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.’
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;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever.'” (Isaiah 56:3-5)
How could it be that the Lord promised a covenant to the very people who are excluded from the temple according to the law?
The Ethiopian eunuch continued to look at me in anticipation of baptism. I closed my eyes and prayed quietly and quickly, and was reminded of Jesus’ teachings. He never excluded anybody. Why would this man be any different?
We walked down to the water, and I baptized him just as I had those many Samaritans. But this time, as my brother in Christ rose up out of the water, I was taken up in the Holy Spirit. I can’t explain how it happened, or even what exactly happened. But I understand what the Lord was saying to me – this man who I had just baptized was a child of the very God I worshiped, and by accepting him, I was accepting Christ.
(Acts 6-8)
Bolz-Weber, Nadia. “Eunuchs and Hermaphrodites.” In Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint, 87-95. New York: Jericho Books, 1989.
Neglected Word 