In Flannery Conner's famous essay on the grotesque in Southern literature, a beautiful topic to be writing on, a great essay though, if you haven't read it, you should. She writes this, whenever I am asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it's because we are still able to recognize one. If you can't catch the jab at the North there, you should. To be able to recognize a freak, you have to have some conception of the whole man. And in the South, the general conception of man is still, in the main, theological. That is a large statement, and it's dangerous to make it, for almost anything you say about Southern belief can be denied in the next breath with equal propriety. But approaching the subject from the standpoint of the writer, she says, I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. The Southerner, who isn't convinced of it, is still very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God. Ghosts can be very fierce and instructive. They cast strange shadows, particularly in our literature. In any case, it is when the freak can be sensed as a figure for our essential displacement that he attains some depth in literature. Well, let me translate that for you real quick, if you didn't catch all that. The question is, why do you write about all these sick and dismembered, disfigured, grotesque characters in your stories? And her basic point is this, the reason I place them there is because they somehow resonate with us. When we see someone that is ultimately freakish or out of place, we know deep down that there's something wrong with the world, that their lack of wholeness speaks to us about a wholeness that is supposed to be there in all men. And so their lack of wholeness ultimately communicates to us that we too are somehow displaced and disfigured. We too are lacking something. And so she says, I don't apologize for putting these characters into my story, because ultimately the characters are us. even if they obviously take on a larger-than-life or disproportionate figure in order to write about it. Now, why do we bring that up? Because we will encounter in our story this morning something very much along those lines. Why Luke would include this particular conversion story in his recounting of the acts of Christ through the apostles. There are many conversions, and no doubt they're not all recorded, but this one is. So why is it recorded, and how does it speak to us? Let us begin in the text in verse 26. It says, And so he arose and went, and there was an Ethiopian a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, and now he was returning, seated in his chariot, reading the prophet Isaiah." Amazing that in just a few strokes of a pen, metaphorically speaking, Luke can so clearly portray for us a picture of a particular man. We have in this characterization all kinds of information that may not jump right out at us as we're reading the story, but hopefully you'll see as we draw it out a little bit this morning. First we are told that the man in this chariot who is riding along is an Ethiopian. which at this point in history does not line up with where we know Ethiopia as today, but rather as part of the Nubian kingdom, basically equivalent to where modern-day Sudan would be located. It's what the Old Testament calls Kush, which is why we sang that particular psalm this morning. And so this man is from Africa. He's an Ethiopian, but he's not just any old Ethiopian. He's not just your common Ethiopian. He is a royal official. we are told by Luke that this one works underneath the queen of Ethiopia called Candace now Candace is not her proper name as much as we as we read this text may think so but much like Pharaoh or Caesar it is a name that speaks of a succession of queens that all bore this title but needless to say this man is a high official in the royal court and so high that he is in charge of all of her wealth Think about this. He is the chief financial advisor of a nation that has some kind of prominence and surely quite a bit of wealth, and he himself has been entrusted with the whole of it. This man has quite a status in the country that he's coming from. He is a royal figure. But not only does it show us the clout and wealth of the kingdom for which he works in this text, which surely they have, but it shows us a bit of his own clout and wealth, and we see that in two places that Luke points to. This may not, like I said, be immediately obvious, but we are told that he's reading A scroll of Isaiah. First thing that we see is that he's reading. And I know for us, you know, in the modern world, we say, well, of course, everyone reads. That's what we do, right? We become literate, and then we read books, and pretty much anyone can do it unless you're out in, you know, way out in podunk Egypt. Then you wouldn't be able to read. But all good Westerners, any educated person can read. Not so in the ancient world and especially from the far ends of the earth where Ethiopia was located. This was considered almost mythological in Greek writing that Ethiopia or the Nubian kingdom was considered the very farthest reaches of the whole world. And yet this man is educated, he is literate. And not only is he educated and literate, he possesses a copy of the scroll of Isaiah. Now again, we are used to having possession of our own Bibles. They are so easily attainable that people actually give them away. You can go to any hotel and get a copy of a scripture, at least you used to be able to. But not so then. The fact that he owns this shows that he has some amount of means at his disposal, because the only way to get a copy of the book of Isaiah is to have purchased it from an official scribe, someone who had been ordained to the office to transcribe the scriptures letter by letter, by hand, over what we now have as a 66-chapter book, the book of Isaiah. And yet he has the means, the wherewithal, to purchase one. In Israel, for instance, no individual owned a scroll of any book of the Old Testament. Towns would come together, villages would come together, pull their wealth so they might own one scroll, maybe two at their synagogue that could be read in public. And yet this man as an individual is able to purchase one and to take it home with him. This man has some status. But we are also told in this text just how he obtained the status. We are told by Luke that this man is a eunuch, a very delicate subject on a Sunday morning, but we'll try to transverse it to go through it tastefully. This man has willingly had himself castrated. in order to serve in the royal court. This is not unheard of. You see it all over the Old Testament. Whenever it's talking about a foreign nation and one who works for the king, it always mentions the fact that they're a eunuch. And the reason being is, if you want to work for the king, you must be trustworthy. And the way that they found whether you were trustworthy, the way you garnered their faith in you, was that if you were going to be anywhere near the king's harem, or in this case, if you were working for a queen, you will willingly undergo the knife of castration to show that you won't be any threat whatsoever to the things that the king possesses, in particular the females in the kingdom. And so this Ethiopian, in order to gain this particular position, has willingly placed himself under that sort of operation. Now we may find that just unthinkable or crazy that someone would give up so much just for a position of power. But is it really that crazy? People in our country give up all kinds of things that should never be given up for the sake of power or position, whether it be family or friends or trust or all their moral character. People give up things all the time just to get a place in the world. And that's what this man has done. He gave up much in order to gain this particular status. But we are also told that he doesn't just have a status, but that that status ultimately has left him unfulfilled in some measure. He's seeking. He's seeking more than he has as this royal official. And we know that because he traveled all the way from Ethiopia to come all the way up to Jerusalem for the purpose of worship. Now you've got to wrap your mind around this because we think travel, what's the big deal? You get in your car, you jump on a plane. This man is riding on a cart, a cart that can be caught on foot, by the way. That's the speed that this cart is going. All the way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem with no highways, no freeways, there's no interstate. These are man-made roads that ultimately worsen the nearer he gets to home. And he's made this whole arduous journey for the sole purpose of going to worship in Jerusalem with the people of Israel to find a place with the God of Israel. Something about his current status has left him unsettled or unfulfilled enough to say, I need more. And I think I might be able to find it with this one God in Israel, this true God. Or at least that may be who he is, and I will seek it enough to where I will make this long journey to go find out if that be the case. But what would he have found when he got there? This man of high status in Ethiopia, what would his status have been once he showed up in Jerusalem? I think a lot of us know the story and we think, well, he's from Africa, he's black, he is very visibly Gentile, but then all Gentiles were able to be known by a Jew just by sight. The fact that he's black, the fact that he's Ethiopian, that is not his biggest downfall in this particular text. Yes, he's a Gentile, but Gentiles have a place at worship in the temple. There is a court for Gentiles. And a serious Gentile could ultimately become a full proselyte if he wanted to. He could undergo circumcision and go through a sort of baptism and re-identify himself with the people of God and be accepted ultimately into God's family. But this Gentile has a particular problem. He is an Ethiopian who is a eunuch. He is dismembered, disfigured. He is a distorted creature which the law says can find no place in the worship of God. According to Deuteronomy chapter 23, it says, no one, and this is Scripture, so pardon the insensitivities, whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord. When this man made this trip, in hopes of finding a home with the God of Israel, or at least being able to be included. His purpose was to go into worship. When he showed up, he found very plainly that he would always be worshiping from a distance. He would never be able to come to the assembly of God's people. He would never be fully accepted in the house of God. Whatever they were participating in, whatever festival he had shown up at, he would always be watching as someone from the outside, never being a full participant or member of the people of God. And think of it, in a religion, where descendants are of the utmost importance. It is through your descendants that your inheritance in the land is kept. It is through your descendants that your name goes into perpetuity. It is through your descendants that you have standing in society. Think of this man as he shows he will never, ever have children. And he will never have standing in Israel. His name will never be perpetuated in the generations to come. This is his status in Israel. He may have a high status in Ethiopia, a status that ultimately left him seeking something else. But when he comes to Israel in hopes of finding something else, he finds that all of his wealth and all of his position cannot get for him what he wants. The problem is in his person. There's something so wrong with him that it can't be changed. And because of what's wrong with him, he will always be on the outside. always be looking from a distance. Consider how messed up this man must have felt. How out of sorts with the whole of the world. I mean, if he had ever considered himself freakish before, he surely feels like a freak now. As he's returning home to his place of employ, his place of birth, from a place where he had hoped to worship the God of Israel. Even his attempt at converting to Judaism. All it could do was place a magnifying glass on his situation and say, you are a mess. You don't fit in. You are a misfit. And you won't find a home here. The law, interestingly enough, had no answers for him whatsoever in what he was seeking. It could only magnify his problem. As Flannery O'Connor has already instructed us this morning, it's much easier for us to see this in the eunuch's life. And yet it's not merely his life that is being put under the magnifying glass, but even our own. We should find ourselves sitting in this cart, leaving the place where God dwells, finding that we were unacceptable there. We are ultimately in this story, in one sense journeying with this man, unfit and unable ever to make ourselves fit enough to find a place in God's home and in His family. And the problem lies squarely with who we are, not our position or our place of birth or anything else like that. It is our solidarity ultimately with this man in the fallen condition of Adam that we see that we too find ourselves here. His condition is ultimately a result of the fall. He too is a son of Adam. He too can't find a place with the Holy God and you too. also in Adam's fall have become a sinner of such extent, disfigured to such an extent, that you will never find a place with God according to the law. And yet our story continues. And notice what it tells us in verse 29. It says, the Spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you're reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and to sit with him. And now the passage of Scripture that he was reading was this. Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before his shearers is silence, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life is taken away from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you? Does this prophet say this? Does he speak of himself or someone else? And Philip opened his mouth and beginning with the Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. Interesting. We see in these first verses a man of status seeking status. He's ultimately trying to find something else that will gain him a place. And now we see in these verses a servant's substitutionary status. Notice, as we read this text, there is a glimmer of hope, if you will. It may not be immediately obvious, but let us look at it. As Luke returns to his narrative, we see Philip, once again, introduced to the situation by the Spirit originally. The Spirit says, okay, I want you to go all the way down the road to the desert, out in the middle of nowhere, from the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza, and when you get there, I'll tell you what to do. He doesn't obviously even tell him that, he just says, go, and Philip goes, obediently. And so there he is, and he sees the situation transpiring. A guy rides by in a cart, and the Spirit says, all right, I want you to go catch the cart. He doesn't tell him what he's going to do when he gets there. And so Philip, on foot, starts to jog along. I've street witnessed many times in my life, and never once have I ever chased down a cart to do it. But Philip, in the leading of the Spirit, is willing to chase down this guy's chariot to do whatever God will instruct him to do when he gets there. And we are told, as he nears the chariot, he can hear out loud, which is what reading is, as much as we moderns do it silently most of the time. He's reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah. And Philip can hear it. Now it's interesting. He's still searching. He's still wanting. And he's sensing that somehow he can find his answers in the Scripture. And we're told that he's reading Isaiah, and we are told specifically Isaiah chapter 53, the text we read this morning. Now, why Isaiah? Of all the scrolls that he could have purchased, and surely there are other ones, why did he choose Isaiah? Surely not because it would be cheaper. I mean, this is a large book, and he's paying for the man hours involved in the making of this book, plus materials. And so it's not because it's on sale. And it's not because it's simple. I mean, if you ever read the book of Isaiah, we normally wouldn't, you know, we have these traditions in Christianity, and a lot of times when we witness to people, and they say, you know, where should I read in the Bible? We say, well, start in the book of John. If you ever studied the book of John, I mean, that's as good a place to start as any, but there's some difficult things in the book of John. Nothing nearly as difficult as he's going to find in the book of Isaiah, though. And so he's not going to the book of Isaiah because, well, surely this is what you do if you're seeking God. You go read one of the more complex prophets. That will help your situation. And so what would have attracted him to this particular scroll so much that he would have put out money to purchase it, and that he's reading it, and why in this particular place? The text doesn't tell us specifically, but I believe there are enough hints there that it's hard for me to believe that it's not intentional by Luke. He tells us the book of Isaiah, he tells us the chapter he's in, and we know of his situation. He is a eunuch. And there is only one Count them with me. There is only one Old Testament prophecy that gives any hope to eunuchs. And where do you think it might be found? In the book of Isaiah. And not just any place in the book of Isaiah. In chapter 56, three chapters after the section that he's reading. And so it's very hard not to believe that this man somehow has knowledge that there is this promise, and he wants to understand how it works for him in the situation that he's in. What does it mean for him, a eunuch, who has ultimately found no home in Israel at this time? Listen to what Isaiah says to eunuchs. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate me from His people. Let not the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree. For thus says the Lord to the eunuch who keeps My Sabbaths, who chooses the things that please Me and holds fast to My covenant, I will give in My house and within My walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name and they will never be cut off." Hear those words. Hear those words that this man will read three chapters from now in the text that he's in. Hear God's promise to this man who feels displaced and freakish. He feels as if he's a misfit and ultimately the off-scouring of the earth. He hears these words, don't let the eunuch say, I'm a dry tree. Now that is a weird expression. The eunuch was probably walking around saying, well, I'm a dry tree. What does that mean? What is he saying by that metaphor? The one thing the eunuch cannot do is bear any fruit physically. And the promise of Isaiah from God to the eunuch is, don't say of yourself that you're a fruitless tree. Don't say that you don't have any offspring or children. Don't say that of yourself anymore, even though it's your physical condition. But he also says, to the eunuchs, I will give in my house, and listen here, within my walls, the one place where he couldn't enter in Israel, within the walls of God's meeting place. He says, I'm going to give you within my house, within my walls, a name, a name that will be better than physical sons and daughters. I'm going to give you a lasting inheritance. I'm going to give you a heritage in the kingdom, and you will have a name that will never be cut off. in a nation where your name is ultimately extended through the generations by your children. He's saying, you don't need children. I'll still give you a name. You'll still have a place within my house. You won't be a dry tree. You will have a brand new identity. Don't think of yourself in the terms that you've viewed yourself all of your life. View yourself differently. This is my promise. You will have a home, you will have a place, and you will have a name. You will have a brand new status. And that is good news. That is good news to someone who is ultimately downtrodden because of his condition and can do nothing to change his condition. He can try as hard as he wants and nothing's ever going to change. And yet God says, I will change your condition. I will change your status. I will give you a new name and a new position. Well, how is God going to do that? I mean, that's good news. But how does that good news come about? What is the hope for this eunuch? Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter. And like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation for his life was taken away from the earth? The text he is reading is about another one who suffers. One who ultimately is rejected, humiliated, cut off from the people, and who ultimately, like this eunuch, will go childless. Your text and many of your readings say, who can describe his generation? It can be translated, who can speak of his descendants, NIV? Or more literally, who will narrate his family line? Who's going to speak of the family tree that comes from this guy? Nobody. Why? Because he's cut off from the earth. Now if you don't think that that's what Isaiah is talking about, Isaiah supports this reality that this one who's coming as a suffering servant will have no children because in his vindication when God finally says, you are just and righteous and therefore here are your rewards, one of his rewards is what? You will see your offspring. You will have children and you will ultimately have a prolonged life. That is the promise to the suffering servant. And so here this eunuch is reading about one who is like him in suffering, who is humiliated, cast off from the people, who will have no children, who has a very similar predicament to the eunuch himself. He has no standing. And the eunuch wants to know, who's he talking about? Is the prophet writing about himself? I want to know who this man is! And you can almost sense how he's resonating with the story. And I would just say, you know, if the Holy Spirit said to you audibly, chase this car, and the person in the car is reading Isaiah about a suffering servant who's like a sheep being crucified, and the guy says, who's he talking about? I mean, if you can't present the gospel then, then there's just no hope for you whatsoever in evangelism. This is, you know, a two-foot putt for Philip, if you will. He has been given a prime evangelistic opportunity. And so what does he do? Philip, in this fruitless place, in this barren desert, speaks to this fruitless tree, and brand new life comes forth from ultimate barrenness and death. He preaches to him about one who came and joined to his human condition. He preaches to him one who, though he was rich beyond all splendor, for the eunuch's sake he became poor. though he ultimately was the creator of all heaven and earth and had all inheritance and creation as his possession and right, lowered himself to humanity and joined in their Adamic problem and curse, and ultimately found himself homeless and rejected, humiliated. Ultimately, he became the greatest misfit of all of history. He joined in the situation that the eunuch himself was experiencing in order that he might for him grant him a life that he could not achieve on his own. He took on rejection, the pain of injustice, and he was cut off in order that unfit ones like the eunuch and like you and I might find a home with God. They might find a place of acceptance. They might find a brand new identity, one that they could never achieve on their own. He did it so this man could have a place within the walls of God's house, a family that would never fade away, a name that was better than the physical sons and daughters that this man was missing out on. Christ has taken on our guilt. and our judgment that was due to us as sons and daughters of Adam, but He has also taken on the pains that come with our fall. He's experienced the turmoil of this life, the hardship of this present creation in order that He might make a way for us to find new life and a new identity in Him. You see, there was a great exchange that day in this desert. all the pain and all the guilt and all the judgment that led to that pain from the curse that the eunuch is having a first-hand experience with in his life, all of that we are told as Philip presents the Gospel, he says, has been laid on this one, this lamb who is rejected, this suffering servant, in order that you might have all that he was given to you. that His inheritance, His vindication, His offspring and family, His name, Son of God, might be placed on you, dear you. That you might finally have a home and a place, a status that will not leave you empty or void or seeking more. And that, of course, is the very promise of the gospel. The suffering servant seeks the wandering and lost sheep. He seeks and finds Him all alone on a desert road. Because before the foundation of the world, He said of this one, you will be My son. And you will have a name that goes on forever and ever. And you will never be cut out of My family. It is that same Gospel, that same Good News that comes to you even today, this morning, who Christ Himself comes through the preaching of His Word to speak to you this very good message, that you might find hope and a new identity in Him. He speaks to you telling you that all of your sin, all of your fallenness, and all of the ramifications of the curse from sin and fallenness, all of the damage that you've experienced, whether it be emotionally or physically, all of it has ultimately been borne by Christ for you on the tree that someday you might be freed once and for all and be made whole. that you might truly image the heavenly man and no longer bear the pains of this particular life and though that day we wait for in resurrection. We can already experience the blessings of it now as we believe the Gospel. We can know now that our sins have been forgiven us. We can know now that we have a promise that will be true of us in the day of resurrection. We have a brand new identity. We are already seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, full inheritors of His Kingdom, as He's given us the deposit of the Spirit as a guarantee of that day. And because we know that now, That can change the way and should change the way we view every situation that is presented to us in our present existence. because it is our identity now, not just then. It is our identity now so that all of those things that present themselves to us and remind us, you are broken and you are a misfit. You don't fit in God's house. You don't fit in his kingdom. Think of your sin. Think of all of the emotional ruin that you've gone through. Think of all of these providences that have come into your life that have shaped you to be a messed up human being. You can say with the eunuch, that is no longer my name. That is not my identity. That is not who I am. No longer will those things define me so that all I can concentrate on is what I lack, but instead I can say even now, I am wholly accepted in God's sight, a member of His family, an inheritor of all the good blessings that He will bestow upon His own Son, Jesus the King. So when they say to the eunuch, you are childless, he can say to them, no, I have a family. that defines me. It's not my physical condition. When they say of Him, You are unacceptable, He can say, no, I'm accepted. I'm accepted now, maybe not by you, but by the King of all heaven and earth. When they say of Him, You are deformed, He can say, no, I'm whole. I'm whole in Christ who has come to save me. Can't you see it? Ultimately, that is what's happened in this text. Look at how it concludes. After He's heard Philip preach the Gospel, He says, they came along the road and he saw some water and the eunuch said, see, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? You may not seem like it, but this is the climax of the story. And as we conclude, hear me here. This is the climax of the story. Why? Because he has just come from a place where all he has experienced is hindrance. You can't come in because of your deformity. You can't come here. You are a Gentile. You are unclean. You are unfit. He has been hindered from coming into the presence of God and being accepted into His people. And he's heard the message of the good news and he sees the water and he wants to put it to the test. And he says to Philip, what hinders me? from joining with Christ, in union with Him, becoming a full member of His family, being clothed with Him, being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, bearing His name, becoming a full member of the people of God. What hinders me from being baptized? And by Philip's actions, the answer is nothing, my son. Nothing hinders you at all. In Christ you are acceptable. Come." And they walk down to the waters of baptism, and that day the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is bound to him forever. As the words are pronounced to him, you are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And a brand new identity is given to him, and he now has been united once and for all to his King, his new family, his new name, his new place of acceptance. Don't you see, sinner? Nothing can hinder the Ethiopian, but nothing can hinder us either. Not according to the message of the Gospel. The good news is that nothing can keep you back, even broken sinners like ourselves. Our background can't hold us back. Your current financial situation does not hinder you from being acceptable to God. Not your past sins, not your greatest current sin. Not your crooked heart, not your deformed body, not your messed up emotional baggage. None of those things can keep you from being acceptable to God. Nothing can hinder you from being accepted into His family. All that He calls you to do is to believe. So what hinders you? Come and be whole. Come and live for the first time ever. Come and receive a new identity. And dear Christian, those of you who already believe, come and remember the good news of the Gospel that identifies you now above all else. This is who you are. A beloved Son, righteous and whole. No longer a misfit. No longer grotesque. But glorious and beautiful in the sight of God your Father who has sent Christ to endure your pains and join in your situation that you might finally and fully join in His at the resurrection.