not logged in
Acts 8:36 & 38
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?"And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
Sometimes God asks us to to do strange things. Like a mad dog or an English man, Philip is asked by an angel of Lord to travel down a desert road at noon.
We might wonder who is in charge here. Philip obeys the angel without saying a word, he preaches the gospel on the request of the Ethiopian, and, once the episode is finished Philip disappears and reappears in Azotus.
Who was the Ethiopian Eunuch? Popular opinion is that, as an attendant of the Ethiopian queen, he would have been castrated to remove the possibility of being sexually inappropriate. This castration would have meant that he would not have been able to enter the Temple in Jerusalem according to the regulations in Deuteronomy 23:1 . This is not necessarily the case, although the Eunuch would certainly have been an important man, an advisor to the queen, perhaps a Jew or someone interested in the faith of the Jewish people. He was, however, unable to get to grips with the prophecies of Isaiah.
The Ethiopian listens to the explanation of Philip, and responds to the message that is preached, wanting to know what is hindering him from being baptized immediately?
The assumption is that the gospel is available for all with no qualification. The Eunuch has already proven that he does not understand everything, and even after Philip’s sermon (and what did he preach? what did he consider to be the core message of the gospel?), there would still be a great deal that he does not know. However, baptism is available for all who know enough that they want to respond to Jesus Christ.
Philip, we should remember, is a servant in all this: it is the prompting of the Holy Spirit that resulted in the Ethiopian asking to be baptized. Baptism is not something that Philip can claim as a demonstration of his own power and influence. The Spirit has led him here, he has been able to share the gospel when asked, and then the Spirit prompted the Ethiopian to respond in a public way.
Where might the Spirit be leading us, and are we ready for the request for response of those who come from a long way off our own places of worship? And are we humble enough to get out of the places we think we should be and the things we think we ought to do, and go to the places that God wants us to be and serve the needs of the people we find there?
