Sunday, May 29, 2011

Look Beyond Differences

As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?” He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down to the water, and Philip baptized him.” -- Acts 8:36-38

The missionary and the eunuch came to meet one day on a desert road between Jerusalem and Gaza. Philip was following the prompting from an angel of the Lord. The Ethiopian treasurer was on his way home after worshiping in Jerusalem.

Philip and the Ethiopian didn’t really have anything in common. At least on the surface. Philip was likely light-skinned. The Ethiopian was likely dark-skinned. Philip’s home was the Greek Empire. The Ethiopian was from Africa. Philip was a poor refuge. The Ethiopian was a rich traveler. Philip was a father of four. The Ethiopian was, well, a eunuch.

 But the Ethiopian wanted to understand the book of Isaiah. And Philip wanted to share his knowledge of Jesus. So they talked and the Ethiopian came to understand that Jesus was the one the prophet Isaiah had spoken of all those years before.

They came upon some water and the Ethiopian wanted to be baptized. As Max Lucado pointed out, basically what the Ethiopian was asking Philip: “Is there any reason I can’t have what you have?”

What if Philip had told the Ethiopian that baptism and the Holy Spirit were only for Jews? Or only for light-skinned people? Or only for the poor? Do we sometimes want people to get rid of their baggage (as defined by us!) before we welcome them into our Christian world? Yeah. I think we do.

It gets back to that wanting to surround ourselves with people like us. We build up walls -- many times without even realizing it -- that allows us to define what is acceptable and what isn't.

We didn't get it from Jesus. He repeatedly sought out those who were on the fringes of society. Look at Matthew the tax collector or Peter the fisherman. Remember the Samarian woman at the well. Not only were Samarian's considered second-class citizens and people to be avoided, but Jews went out of their way to not travel through Samaria. Yet, Jesus traveled through Samaria and offered this woman -- a woman who had had five husbands and was living with a man not her husband -- living water.

Jesus sought out those cast aside by others. How can we do any less? The next time you're tempted to pull back from someone who's different from you, reach out instead. Who knows? Maybe you'll be able to offer living water to another of God's lost children.