Acts 8:34-40: a reflection

34The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?” 35Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus. 36As they went on the way, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?” 38He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him any more, for he went on his way rejoicing. 40But Philip was found at Azotus. Passing through, he preached the Good News to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.

Philip, sent by the Spirit to a searching Ethiopian official, finds him reading Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering servant, and, beginning from that passage, tells him the good news about Jesus. The man believes, and when they pass some water, he asks to be baptized. Philip baptizes him, and then the Spirit carries Philip away. And the last we see of the Ethiopian is this: he went on his way rejoicing.

Notice how the encounter ends: rejoicing. The man had been searching, reading a Scripture he could not understand, hungry for its meaning. Philip pointed him to Jesus, he believed and was baptized, and the result was joy. He went on his way rejoicing, carrying back to his own country not just new information but a new joy, the joy of one who had found Christ. Coming to Jesus filled him with gladness.

That joy is the natural fruit of genuinely finding Christ. The Ethiopian had been earnestly seeking, and when he found the One the Scriptures pointed to, the result was not merely intellectual satisfaction but rejoicing. Finding Christ is meant to be a joyful thing; the good news is, at its heart, good, glad news. If you have found Christ, is there joy? And if your walk with him has grown joyless, return to the wonder of the good news that made the Ethiopian rejoice. He went on his way rejoicing, because he had found the One his heart was seeking. May the same joy mark your walk with Christ.

Lord, the Ethiopian official, having found Christ through the Scriptures Philip explained, went on his way rejoicing. Thank you that finding you is meant to be a joyful thing, that the good news is, at its heart, glad news. Where my walk with you has grown joyless, return me to the wonder that made him rejoice. Let the joy of having found you, the One my heart was seeking, mark my life. Fill me with the gladness of the gospel, and let me, like the Ethiopian, go on my way rejoicing.