Back story of the Eunuch makes the good news of Jesus even better!
Acts 8:26-40 includes some significant transformative moments for the eunuch. Starting with the passage from Isaiah that he is reading, Philip proclaims to him the good news about Jesus. Then as they come to some water, he asks what is to prevent me from being baptised?

Some significant transformation has happened here. Something very powerful has happened in these moments. I don’t think we grasp the gravity of what is going on for the eunuch if we simply read over the words without pausing to wonder. To wonder: what is it in this encounter that means this man’s life becomes so captivated by Jesus that he jumps at the chance to be baptised.

Let’s slow down, and pause, and wonder, and build a picture of the back story of the eunuch into which Philip speaks. A back story that means the news of Jesus is such good news that the eunuch immediately wants to be part of the story, to join it, to be initiated into it, and is baptised.

What might be his back story? He may have been taken as a young boy to become a eunuch. He had no choice in the matter, and he probably didn’t know what was happening to him. To become a eunuch his testicles were crushed to stop him producing testosterone. Because he had no testosterone, this altered his growth and changed his appearance. His voice never broke, so as an adult he still had the voice of a boy. His body had little hair, and his body grew in disproportionate ways – reduced muscles, but increased body fat in abdomen, and he developed breasts. His bones would be weaker and more likely to break. He would also be lethargic and depressed.

All of this meant that he looked unusual, and people would recognise him as a eunuch just by looking at him. He was different. He looked strange. He sounded strange. He felt strange.

And he is reading from Isaiah about one who like a sheep, was led to the slaughter. One who in his humiliation was denied justice. One whose life was taken away. The surrounding parts of the passage from Isaiah 53 go on to further describe this one as having an appearance so marred to be beyond human semblance, wounded, crushed, despised, rejected, a man of suffering.

With the eunuch’s backstory, can you imagine him thinking: this sounds like me. This is my story. Who is the prophet writing about, because this one walks in my sandals? This one is in my place. I must know, who is the prophet writing about?

Hold that questioning for a moment.

At the time of these events in the first century, because of passages of Scripture like Isaiah, there was an expectation that God would act through the suffering of a particular individual in who the sufferings of all people were focused; that this suffering would carry liberating and life giving significance, and be a light to the whole world.

The eunuch wants to know who it is. Who is this suffering one, because he’s already taken on my suffering. He’s already in my place. My story is joined to his story.

Philip tells him the good news of Jesus. Jesus is the one. Jesus is the suffering one. All the suffering of people was focused on him in his life, in the injustice of his trial, his disfiguring persecution, his crushing crucifixion. And, according to the expectations of the time, the suffering of this one, the suffering of Jesus carries liberation and life for the whole world.

No wonder this is such a transformative moment for the Eunuch. No wonder that the Eunuch wants to be baptized into Jesus. Can you see how what Philip told the Eunuch about Jesus met the Eunuch in his back story, in the deepest parts of who he was. In this moment he felt seen by God. He felt known by God in the suffering Jesus. He felt God was in his place with him because of the suffering Jesus. He felt his story was intwined with Jesus’ story, for his own sake, and for the liberation and life of the whole world. He was all in, and was baptized.

What amazing, good news about how Jesus was good news to the Eunuch.

This rendering of the account of Philip and the eunuch highlights the importance of people’s back stories in how the good news of Jesus might become good news for them. Our readiness to be part of God mediating that good news grows and expands as we listen deeply to the back stories of people, and as we listen to the story of Jesus Christ. We stand to be amazed at how the Holy Spirit will work those stories together.