This is the Lenten mid-week devotional for the week of February 28, 2024
Lent is a time of self-reflection, repentance, and preparation as we accompany Jesus to the cross and ultimately the empty tomb.
Our Lenten series is based on the theme of “Altered by the Spirit. As we go through our Lenten journey, we will contemplate how the Holy Spirit is always one step ahead of us, nudging us, leading us where we need to go, altering us to conform ourselves more closely to the image of Jesus Christ our Lord. Last week we discussed being altered by the creativity of God – who helps us listen and hear each other, and find unity in our diversity.
Our theme for this week is Altered on the Edge of Belonging. Our reading is taken from Acts 8:26-39:
26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south[a] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) 27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32 Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”[b] 38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip[c] baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing.
Our passage from Acts tells us of an Ethiopian Eunuch, who had come to Jerusalem to worship, now returning home to Ethiopia via Gaza. Although this Ethiopian is unnamed, there are several important pieces of information about him.
First of all, he was a man of power and of wealth. He was a court official of the Queen of Ethiopia, in charge of her entire treasury. The fact that he could read, in Greek, and that he had a scroll of Isaiah, and a nice chariot to boot, are clear indicators of his privilege and prestige. Not many people had any of these things in the times of Jesus. Second, the Ethiopian eunuch was Jewish. The text tells us he is returning from worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem. Judaism had been a presence in Ethiopia for many years. Indeed, Ethiopia has been noted as the first center of monotheistic worship on the African continent.
Mighty man though he was, the Ethiopian was a eunuch. Emasculation was common in some pagan rituals, with slaves, and in many royal positions, especially when dealing with women. No matter how much power a eunuch accumulated, he was always set apart, an outcast. Jewish law in Deuteronomy made clear that “No one who has been castrated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD” (Deut. 23.1) The severity of the laws obliged him to withdraw in the hours for common prayers, yet he was allowed to go alone into the Temple and there offer his sacrifice. Even though he was looked down up - denied full membership in the assembly- also on the edge of belonging - this wealthy, faithful man still made the 1,600-mile dangerous, difficult trip to Jerusalem.
Our text also introduces us to Philip, one of the first deacon/evangelists named early in Acts. Philip ministered in the despised country of Samaria. There Philip gets the call – to go south to the road that leads to Gaza.
Philip obeys. The Spirit leads Philip up to that fancy chariot and says something remarkable to Philip: go and join yourself to it. A powerful word here is used in the Greek for join: a word that implies a cleaving, a gluing, a connection that produces a deep, lasting and abiding relationship –to have a soul-knitted kind of friendship.
With that context in mind, Philip hears the Eunuch reading the text from Isaiah 53, and so he asks, do you understand this? Philip assists this prestigious man who actually owns a scroll if he understands this text from Isaiah, to connect to the text. Intrigued, the Eunuch invites Philip into the probably very spacious chariot and asks for guidance. Who was this man, like a sheep led to slaughter? Who is this man who was silenced? Who is the man who was humiliated? Who was this man who was denied justice? Who was this man whose life was taken away from the earth? Who is the prophet speaking about? The eunuch asks these questions, because we can imagine, that resonate deeply with him. Even with all his authority and power, he was not able to go into common prayer in the Temple; he was excluded, he had no voice, he was denied, because as a child, he was forcibly castrated.
But this is not a barrier for Philip. Philip tells him. He tells him the good news about Jesus. How he came about to do good; to preach repentance of sins, and the kingdom of God. How Jesus too was rejected, humiliated by the authorities, left to die on a cross. How they found the empty grave. How he was Risen. How Jesus gave them a new commandment: that we love one another as he indeed loves us. Philip helps the eunuch to connect his life --- to join, to cleave, his life to Jesus through the act of baptism.
Imagine finding Jesus on your road to Gaza. Gaza tragically today represents that place of tragedy, exile and profound conflict in us and around us. It is that wounded place where you have been rejected or hurt by the world. That’s where the spirit finds us this Lent. What troubles keep you isolated? What hurts pull you down? Where do you feel ostracized - on the edge of life?
God’s good news to you this Lent is that in Jesus there is the power to heal, to connect, to belong. You belong. You are whole. You are joined – to Jesus, to the great assembly – the church. So, claim your baptism – claim your connection- and join yourself to Jesus. Be whole. Belong. There in the midst of Gaza, is the Lord. He will find you there – amidst the rejection, the isolation, the brokenness you might have experienced – Jesus finds you there and make you his own. There is nothing to stop you. Cleave to Jesus – and go on your way, rejoicing. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.