At school, I've often felt somewhat over-restrained by the rules. Everyone's forbidden water bottles. Everyone must attend health class, attend gym class, do math homework, and eat in the rowdy cafeteria. Regardless of its actual benefit to us as individuals, we are expected to conform in this way, limiting our personal expression. It makes us easier to handle. Sometimes, I feel that "they"'ve kept me under their thumb.

The Ethiopian eunuch from our first lesson knew better than I what it is like to be under "their " thumb. Servants at that time were often made eunuchs, castrated to make them safe and harmless, in an attempt to neuter their spirits as well as their bodies.

But such violent methods cannot squash the soul. And this eunuch, by becoming Christian, just became as unsafe, as un-harmless, as possible for those who would maintain a status quo of injustice. By becoming a Christian he rises above the limiting, arbitrary, and often misguided rules and protocols of humanity, and becomes responsible solely and directly to God.

It is interesting to note the manner in which God's awesome power reversed those who would de-humanify this eunuch, treating him as a servant, a tool, rather than as a person. Rather than smiting his oppressors, or reversing their physical actions, God makes the eunuch whole in a manner "they" can't affect.

Similarly, Jesus did not comply with popular expectations of a political, militaristic messiah. Although he was expected to overthrow the Roman government, it was not the system of government in Israel that was in greatest need of reform, but the more eternal, and more neglected, souls of the inhabitants.

So while Jesus does not write me the Ultimate Hall Pass, He does make the restrictive rules of the school seem inconsequential next to the power He lends my soul.