Outsiders Brought In
The Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen opened in late 2016. It tells the story of Evan Hansen, a high school senior with extreme social anxiety. His therapist has him write motivational letters to himself each day as a way to work up the courage to interact with his peers at school… something he finds immensely challenging and scary.
His first introduction to the audience is through the song “Waving through a Window.” The chorus goes…
On the outside, always looking in
Will I ever be more than I've always been?
'Cause I'm tap, tap, tapping on the glass
I'm waving through a window
I try to speak, but nobody can hear
So I wait around for an answer to appear
While I'm watch, watch, watching people pass
I'm waving through a window, oh
Can anybody see, is anybody waving back at me?
I think all of us have felt the same way… on the outside looking in…
Which is how the African official feels in Acts 8:26-40. This man is the treasurer of the Kandake, the high queen of the Ethiopians.[1] The eunuch is a person of power, of privilege, of position.
He is wealthy—he is being chauffeured in his own chariot. And he is a God-fearer, a person who believed in and worshiped YHWH but hadn’t gone through the full rites and rituals to join the Jewish faith fully. And that was because… he couldn’t. He was forbidden. Deuteronomy 23:1 explicitly forbade eunuchs from becoming a part of the people of God; it also prohibited them from being able to worship in the Temple. Rabbis argued about what this meant, especially since Jewish heroes like Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego were probably eunuchs in Babylon. But in the end, to be safe, they would err on the side of caution and keep them out.
Now, eunuchs were allowed to go to the synagogues. They could enter into the Temple courts as far as the Court of the Gentiles, but no farther. That was the extent. They weren’t permitted to be circumcised, they couldn’t offer an atoning sacrifice, and they couldn’t unite themself with the Jewish people. Eunuchs are on the outside looking in…
Yet he was a person of deep faith. How do we know? Because he had traveled more than two months one-way to come to the Temple just to be there, to worship as much as he could! And he had bought a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, which he is studying on his way home.
I have to wonder… What is his story? How did he get to this point of faith? Where did he first encounter YHWH and come to this point of wanting to worship? We have no idea! I wish I knew!
But it also makes me wonder… How would it feel to be developing a relationship with God only to be told you couldn’t be a part?
Philip is told by an angel to go down to the road running to Gaza, and when he arrives, the Spirit tells him to go to the eunuch’s chariot. As he approaches, he hears the eunuch reading from Isaiah 53, the passage we often call “the Suffering Servant.” Isaiah tells about a Servant of the LORD who is coming to his people to redirect their hearts back to God. This passage specifically speaks about how that Servant will suffer on behalf of the people, punished for their sins to bring peace.
And I just want to stop and say… How amazing is it that the Holy Spirit arranged all of this? How amazing that God was at work through the Scripture itself and through the eunuch’s situation? How amazing is it that God had been preparing the eunuch’s heart all of this time?!?!?
As it says in v. 35, “Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.”
And I can just imagine Philip working through the scroll with the eunuch, showing him all the places where God says that salvation is for any- and everyone!
As Isaiah wrote in 49:6,
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
This is BIGGER than all that! This is a message for the whole world!
Maybe Philip also moved ahead in the Isaiah scroll to chapter 56, showing the good news specifically about the eunuch’s situation—that eunuchs and foreigners are not just tolerated, but fully accepted by the Lord! They are no longer cut off; they are brought into the full worship of God! (Isaiah 56:1-8).
What an amazing joy must have overcome him!
The story’s finale goes like this:
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
“What prevents me???” Because the eunuch has been on the outside looking in for all this time! What prevents you? NOTHING! The Good News is for everyone! Jesus' forgiveness and grace is available to anyone and everyone who believes!
As ministers of the Gospel, may we always remember that no one is too far from God’s love and forgiveness! He is not far from each one of us, and he is at work through his Spirit, drawing all sorts of people towards Godself.
May we never forget to open our eyes and see where God is at work, bringing outsiders in!
