God seeks the man on the lonely road

A rich, poor man is on his way back on a lonely road. He has tra­vel­led 3850 km try­ing to find God and has fai­led. God then sets out to find him, rede­em him and give him a new per­spec­ti­ve on life. At the end of the sto­ry, the man has come to know and accept Jesus, has beco­me hap­py and tra­vels his road full of joy. Would­n’t we like that too?

Initial situation

The­re is an influ­en­ti­al man, the finan­ce minis­ter of Ethio­pia. He has tra­vel­led 3850 kilo­me­t­res to wor­ship in Jeru­sa­lem. He seeks God in the reli­gious cent­re of the time, the temp­le – but does not find him. He is a for­eig­ner. He was only allo­wed into the fore­court of the women and pagans. And – even worse – he was a eunuch – a cas­tra­ted man. Accor­ding to Deu­te­ro­no­my 23.2, he was always excluded from the assem­bly of the Lord. In the under­stan­ding of anti­qui­ty, a man lived on «etern­al­ly» in his child­ren. For this man, the­re was no con­ti­nua­tion of his life. When he died, ever­y­thing was finis­hed: rich and yet poor. The­re is some­thing else that makes the sto­ry of the eunuch sad. He reads the word of God, but does not under­stand it. His assess­ment: How can I under­stand the word if no one explains it to me?

The finan­ce minis­ter of Ethio­pia is a pic­tu­re of the unsa­ved peo­p­le of today. Many are rich, but have no hope of eter­ni­ty bey­ond this world. They seek God, but can­not find him becau­se they fail becau­se of the reli­gi­ons of this world. Ever­yo­ne talks about spi­ri­tua­li­ty – but who can real­ly explain God and his pur­po­se, whe­re is the good news?

God seeks man

Accor­din­gly, our sto­ry beg­ins on this man’s way back to his old life – on the lonely road – on the way to Gaza – into mise­ry – wit­hout redemption.

Then God inter­ven­es: The finan­ce minis­ter seeks God, but does not find him. Now God seeks the man and sends Phil­ip. God sear­ches for lost peo­p­le. Only the bibli­cal God does that. 

Phil­ip should walk along­side the path. He is to «accom­pa­ny» the finan­ce minis­ter. He gets to know this man. He hears the Ethio­pian rea­ding the Bible and asks the right ques­ti­on at the right time: Do you under­stand what you are reading?

No – come into my car. Phil­li­pus does­n’t ambush the finan­ce minis­ter, he waits for the invi­ta­ti­on to beco­me part of this man’s moment in life.

Christ understands us in everything

What does the Finan­ce Minis­ter read?

«He was taken like a sheep to the slaugh­ter.ueled. And as a lamb befo­re the shea­rer falls silent, so he did not open his mouth.He was humi­lia­tedHe was not jud­ged fair­ly. Who can speak of his des­cen­dants? For his life was taken away from the earth» (Acts 8:32–33, quo­te from Isai­ah 53:7–8 NLB).

What a text for this finan­ce minis­ter: Isai­ah speaks of a man who expe­ri­en­ces some­thing com­pa­ra­ble to our finan­ce minis­ter: led to the slaugh­ter…, our man was also ope­ra­ted on, or rather his abili­ty to give life was taken away. The man in Isai­ah can­not have off­spring, our man can­not have off­spring. Who are we tal­king about here?

Phil­ip enligh­tens the finan­ce minis­ter: In Isai­ah, Jesus is spo­ken of as a pro­phe­cy. Logi­cal­ly, he found no respon­se from the Jews in Jeru­sa­lem. They reject Jesus.

But Jesus is the man the Ethio­pian is inte­res­ted in. Becau­se Jesus knows his needs.

«Now that we have a gre­at High Priest who has pas­sed through hea­ven – Jesus, the Son of God – let us hold fast to our con­fes­si­on of him.15 This high priest under­stands our weak­ne­s­sesHe was not guil­ty becau­se he encoun­te­red the same tempt­a­ti­ons as we do.16 Let us the­r­e­fo­re con­fi­dent­ly approach the thro­ne of our gns mer­ciful God. The­re we will recei­ve mer­cy and find grace that will help us when we need it» (Hebrews 4:14–16 NLB).

Christ went through hea­ven and came into the world. He made hims­elf the most des­pi­sed human being for all of us, he allo­wed hims­elf to be kil­led, he suf­fe­r­ed all tempt­a­ti­ons and chal­lenges – just so that we could find life. Only so that we can be pardoned.

This Jesus did not remain in death. Jesus is risen, Jesus lives and so the out­cast from Ethio­pia can also live. Our man can also find eter­ni­ty, he can recei­ve des­cen­dants (spi­ri­tu­al child­ren). From the out­cast he can beco­me a child of God, he does not have to seek the way into a temp­le that is actual­ly bar­red – no – he can beco­me a child of God. he hims­elf can beco­me a temp­le for the living God. What a chan­ge. What a sud­den new per­spec­ti­ve for this man! What a grace, what a gift from God.

Make things clear

The Ethio­pian has unders­tood the gos­pel. He imme­dia­te­ly seeks bap­tism, the con­fes­si­on that he now belongs to God, is rede­e­med and wants to live his life under the Lord­ship of Christ.

When he has done this, he utters one of the most beau­tiful sen­ten­ces in the who­le Bible: «But he con­tin­ued his jour­ney full of joy» (Acts 8:39 NLB). The man has found joy – hap­pi­ness – that which we all seek.

His jour­ney has taken a dra­ma­tic turn.

All peo­p­le can have this «chan­ge» if they come to God, accept the redemp­ti­on of Jesus Christ, allow them­sel­ves to be recon­ci­led, and give Christ domi­ni­on over their lives. If you seek this life, do not hesi­ta­te. Do it like the Ethiopian.

 A few final questions for us

Phil­ip is at the start. The angel of the Lord says «do» and Phil­ip does. The Holy Spi­rit says, accom­pa­ny the man – Phil­ip accom­pa­nies the man. Phil­ip takes his time. Phil­ip can explain the gos­pel. When the mis­si­on is finis­hed, the next mis­si­on comes, which he also ful­fils faithfully.

Are we at the start like Phil­ip? Are we wai­ting for God’s orders for each day? Can we explain the gos­pel, do we know the word?

Do we enjoy our jour­ney, or are we sim­ply rela­tively rou­ti­ne in our rela­ti­onship with Christ. Like an old mar­ried cou­ple who have arran­ged it but no lon­ger have any gre­at ambi­ti­ons. You’­re so old that you can’t phy­si­cal­ly have any more child­ren – so, if you’ll excu­se the com­pa­ri­son, you’­re almost a bit cas­tra­ted…» Do we still have the fire, like the Ethio­pian who is phy­si­cal­ly cas­tra­ted but has rea­li­sed that he is a child who expects eter­ni­ty, that he can have many «spi­ri­tu­al» child­ren? Do we still have fire for discipleship?

I long for Ethio­pians like that. I would also like to be such an Ethio­pian: a jour­ney with joy: what a past and what a future.

Possible questions for the small group

1. What is the start­ing posi­ti­on of the finan­ce minis­ter from Ethiopia?
2. What moti­va­tes the man to take Phil­li­pus into the car?
3. Why does the Ethio­pian get bap­ti­sed immediately?
4. What makes the Ethio­pian hap­py and allows him to con­ti­nue his jour­ney with joy?
5. What do you think about Phil­ip – are you a Philip?