Thursday, May 5, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Baptism on the road to Gaza
Seated in his chariot, the Ethiopian eunuch in charge of the queen’s treasury was reading the prophet Isaiah.
Jesus’ disciple Philip ran up and asked the eunuch if he understood what he was reading. Then he jumped up beside him and told him the story of Jesus.
The high Ethiopian official ordered his chariot to stop and went down into the water with Philip, where he was baptized. Then the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more, but continued on his way rejoicing.
This man listened to the Holy Spirit speak through Philip. He must have been already converted to the Jewish faith, and now he took the next step and became a Christ-follower. In the next years Ethiopia became one of the first regions in the world to officially adopt Christianity.
Isaiah had written:
Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity? For his life is taken from the earth.
Philip heard the Holy Spirit’s guidance – before, during and after his meeting with the eunuch. And Philip became the one who would “tell of his posterity.” He testified that the life of Jesus was strangely NOT taken from the earth. In the presence of the Spirit, the eunuch found it right to believe him.
Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Who was this Jesus, anyway? He fed multitudes with a few loaves, then he walked across the Sea of Galilee at night to meet his terrified disciples, and the next day he offended everyone who would listen by telling them to stop eating loaves and fishes and begin eating his own flesh and blood, “the food that satisfies.”
I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever. The bread I will give you is my Flesh for the life of the world.
And in tomorrow’s conclusion of John 6, his language gets much more explicit. Jesus (or John) didn’t even try to explain. Ever since, people in the Church have disagreed about whether Jesus spoke in parable and metaphor, or literally.
But in the next weeks Jesus died, was resurrected, and ascended into heaven. The body and blood of Christ are not like any other body and its blood. Now Philip carries a message to the Ethiopian which inspires and instructs him with the living words of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
No more talk about cannibalism, although lots more talk about the body and blood of Jesus, brought to us through the bread and wine of our everyday lives, and the body of Christ, made up of all who hear and believe. Like Philip and the eunuch, we too can rise into peace that passes understanding as we are blessed by the Holy Spirit.
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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