Acts 8:36

This verse comes from the story of Philip, one of the early followers of Jesus, who was traveling through the desert when he met a high-ranking Ethiopian official — a eunuch (a man who had been castrated, likely as part of his royal court role) who served the queen of Ethiopia. The man had been to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home, reading the prophet Isaiah in his chariot. Philip explained that the passage Isaiah wrote was about Jesus. As they traveled together and came to some water, the Ethiopian man immediately asked to be baptized. His question — "Why shouldn't I be baptized?" — is stunning in its simplicity. Under Jewish law, a eunuch would have been barred from full participation in temple worship. He had likely felt those closed doors in Jerusalem. Here, in the middle of the desert, he asks if this new thing includes him.

God, thank you for a gospel that moves faster than our gatekeeping. For every person pointing at the water and asking "why shouldn't I?" — let your answer come quickly, and let it sometimes come through me. Give me the courage to stop the chariot. Amen.

"Why shouldn't I be baptized?" It is one of the most tender questions in the whole New Testament. Because for this particular man, in that particular world, there were real answers to that question — and he probably knew most of them. Jewish law had restrictions. His physical condition would have placed him outside the inner courts of the temple. He was a foreigner returning from a city that had, in some ways, not fully welcomed him. And yet he asks anyway, pointing at the water like a child who has spotted something wonderful. What he is really asking is: does this include me? And Philip does not hesitate. There is no committee meeting, no waiting period, no quiet suggestion that he come back when things are more settled. They stop the chariot. The man is baptized. The gospel has a way of moving faster than our gatekeeping. If you have ever sat near the edges of a faith community wondering whether your story, your past, your questions, or your body makes you too complicated — this Ethiopian man is asking your question. And the answer, then and now, is the same.