You're a What from Where?
Year B: Fifth Sunday of Easter
The reign (or kingdom) of God does not consist of a place, a form of government, or even of the rule of God over our actions and interior life. It is not an organization into which we are supposed to fit. It generally introduces itself by an event (or a series of events) that changes our lives.1 —Thomas Keating
Year B, Fifth Sunday of Easter, April 28, 2024
First Reading: Acts 8:26-40
Psalm: Psalm 22
Second Reading: 1 John 4:7-21
Gospel: John 15:1-8
Sermon - You're a What from Where?
This sermon is from last year that was well-received. Since I won’t be speaking the next two weeks, I’m preaching next week’s reading this week, but I will post it at the usual time.
Before Jesus ascended to Heaven, he told his disciples to go preach the gospel to all nations, to every creature, and to the whole world. This universal gospel call was bound to ruffle some feathers. At first, the disciples stuck to Jerusalem just as Jesus said, but persecution led the church to flee Jerusalem and take the gospel along with them.
In Acts 8, Phillip took the good news to the Samaritans. After he passed the baton to Peter and John, the angel of the Lord told him to go into the wilderness.
Anytime someone goes into the wilderness in the Bible, you know it’s going to be good.
And there he found an Ethiopian eunuch, who was a court official of the queen of the Ethiopians. He had been to Jerusalem to worship, possibly as a proselyte or a God-fearer. Now, he was headed back to South Egypt.
To emphasize the significance of this story, Craig Keener wrote, “The Greek term Aithiopia (“Ethiopia”) referred not specifically to modern Ethiopia, but to Africa south of Egypt. Ethiopia figured in Mediterranean legends and mythical geography as the very end of the earth (sometimes extending from the far south to the far east).”2
In other words, Phillip was given the privilege of taking the gospel to the end of the earth!
The man’s identity as a eunuch is also significant. Eunuchs were traditionally excluded from the assembly of Israel (Deuteronomy 23:1). And as Keener observes, the five-fold repetition of the word “eunuch” in this passage is intentional and alerts us to the universal nature of the gospel.
As Phillip joined himself to the chariot, he found him reading Isaiah. The eunuch was confused about the suffering servant passage in Isaiah 53 and wanted to know the identity of the servant.
Phillip began at that passage and preached Jesus to him.
But why was the eunuch at this passage anyway?
Here’s my theory: the eunuch had been worshipping in Jerusalem. As a eunuch and an Ethiopian, he would not have been able to fully participate in the worship like a man from Israel would have. He would have witnessed other men submitting to the washings and worshipping with other followers of God.
As a eunuch, he would have been familiar with Isaiah 56, which says,
Do not let the foreigner joined to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people,” and do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.” For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Isaiah 56:3–5
After reading this question, the eunuch’s question would have naturally been, “Who is the suffering servant that will fulfill these promises? When will I be given a place within the house of God?”
Phillip, starting with Isaiah 53, proclaimed the good news about Jesus. Jesus is the one who fulfilled this role and gives everyone, foreigners and eunuchs included, a place within God’s house.
Overcome by the joy of being included, the eunuch wanted to do what everyone did when they entered the house of God in Jerusalem: he asked to be baptized!
And then he went on his way rejoicing.
The Spirit was with Phillip when he went to Samaria, but the Spirit was also with Philip in reaching a lone eunuch on his way home. Sometimes I think we get discouraged (or overly encouraged) by numbers, but this story shows us that God is interested in the salvation of all, regardless of the scope of our ministry.
Psalm: He Did Not Hide His Face From Me
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” These words of Jesus on the cross are actually a quotation of Psalm 22:1. In citing this psalm, Jesus was saying way more than what these nine words could convey; he was invoking the entire psalm. We do the same thing when quote an opening line from a popular fable like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”
In this psalm, David says that he was despised by the people: they mocked him, they sneered at him, they shook their heads at him (Psalm 22:7). Like those at the foot of the cross, they cried, “Let the Lord deliver you!” (Psalm 22:8). David had been circled by evildoers. They divided his clothes among themselves and cast lots for his clothing (Psalm 22:18).
Despite all of this, though, the answer to David’s question in verse 1 is found in verse 24: “For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me but heard when I cried to him” (Psalm 22:24).
When Jesus cried out these words before his death, he was telling a story about where he had been, where he was, and what the end result would be. God had not forsaken him, but there was a plan in place that would lead to a blessing for the poor and those who seek the Lord (Psalm 22:26), the hearts of people from every end of the earth would turn to God (Psalm 22:7), and people from every family in every nation would begin to worship God.
Had God forsaken Jesus.
Not at al. The Father did not despise Jesus, and God did not hide his face from him.
Thanks so much for keeping up with this blog. If you have any suggestions, recommendations, or critiques, you can always comment here or reach out through my website: https://danielr.net.
Keating, Thomas. The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience. New York: Continuum, 2008. Print.
Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Second Edition. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2014. Print.