Unexpected Welcome
Study on Acts 8:26-40
Luke tells the story today of a lonely man. The Ethiopian eunuch is a man by law excluded from membership in Israel. He is a gentile, a foreigner, and perhaps most offensive of all, he is considered to have questionable sexual credentials – he is a eunuch. Gentiles were allowed only in the outer most parts of the Temple; eunuchs were not allowed in the Temple at all. Even in his position of service to the queen of Ethiopia, he is different. He has to be different so that he cannot be a threat to her.
He had come to Jerusalem to worship. Perhaps he attempted to enter the Temple to that end he would have certainly been turned away. It is likely that he watched as others were admitted and remembered yet again how much he was different. Additionally, he would have been denied instruction from a religious teacher. So, he is searching on his own, trying to experience spiritual growth. He is reading and reflecting on the Greek version of Isaiah – the suffering servant songs to be exact – “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth” (Isa 53:7-8).
His position, the chariot, and his possession of a Greek scroll of Isaiah tell us that this man is wealthy and person of importance. Yet, he is denied a full life. There will be no children who will remember him in future generations. Then along comes Phillip who overhears this man reading and asks, “Do you understand what you are reading?” “How can I without someone to guide me?” (Acts 8:30-31). Phillip is willing to guide him and enters into relationship with him as his teacher. Phillip tells him about the new thing that God does in Jesus Christ and all that means including that he is no longer an outsider; he is welcomed into the body of Christ – all the way in, full membership, invited into the holy of holies. He is offered hospitality.
The hospitality of this story is striking. After all, hospitality is one of the reasons Jesus ran into trouble with the religious authorities of his day. He had the audacity to welcome the stranger, those who were different, those who were living at the margins. He sat at table with those considered irreligious, unclean, to be avoided by good upstanding citizens. Jesus just kept inviting the outsider to the table, over and over. Hospitality toward the stranger, to one who is outside the bounds of our definitions of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ is a virtue that can lead to some of our societies’ greatest controversies. We must remember though that hospitality toward the stranger is also exactly how you and I got here.
Reflection Questions:
How do you approach the strangers in your land or the marginalized in your town?
Think about the promise and hope that God gives you. How do you proclaim those things?
How do you practice loving brothers and sisters who are different from you?
Share a time when you experienced God living in you when you loved another.