As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?” Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptized him. When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but continued on his way rejoicing. (Acts 8:36,38-39)
The story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (or as the poor lector read in church, the Ethiopian “Unch”) is one of the most important stories for the early church. The eunuch’s question, “What is to prevent my being baptized?” is the essential question for the church then and now (because some folks are always looking to exclude others). The answer to the question, "What is to prevent my being baptized?" is, of course, the Law of God! Because the Bible says:
No one whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may come into the assembly of the Lord (Dt 23:2).
Eunuchs were considered an abomination . . . and couldn’t be part of the community. (The passage tells us that the eunuch had come to Jerusalem to worship . . . but being a eunuch he couldn’t even enter the Temple!) But with the guidance of the Spirit, the church set aside the Law of God in favor of inclusion and salvation, and the eunuch is baptized and “continued on his way rejoicing.”
