Deuteronomy 23:1 says “No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.” (NIV) This was generally assumed to mean eunuchs, men who were castrated for various reasons. The Bible “clearly said” they were to be excluded from the assembly. Yet if we turn to Acts 8, we see a different story. Philip encounters an Ethiopian eunuch on the road to Jerusalem. The unnamed eunuch is reading from the book of Isaiah and asks Philip to explain a passage to him. Philip ends up sharing the gospel with him. The story then continues:
“As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?’ And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.” (Acts 8:36-38, NIV) |
Although the Bible “clearly said” eunuchs were to be excluded from the assembly, here is a story of a eunuch being baptized, a sign of entrance into the Body of Christ. This isn’t the only example either. The Bible “clearly says” Moabites and their descendants are not allowed in the assembly (Deut. 23:3), yet Ruth, the great grandmother of David and ancestor of Jesus, was a Moabite.
God continues to extend grace and welcome to those that the Bible “clearly” excludes. Perhaps it’s time we stopped using the Bible to determine who to exclude, and start using the Bible to determine who to love. If you’re not sure where to start, try Luke 10:25-37 and go from there.
The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program provides a daily lectionary of scriptures based on themes of peace and peacemaking. Over the course of 2019-20 I’ll be basing some of my blogs on one or more of the scriptures from each week’s lectionary. If you would like to follow along in the lectionary with me, here are next week’s scriptures:
Sunday – Exodus 21:18-19
Monday – 2 Chronicles 7:11-18
Tuesday – Isaiah 38
Wednesday – Psalm 30
Thursday – Mark 7:24-30
Friday – Acts 8:4-25
Saturday – James 5:13-16