| |
(page 2)
SERVANT (diakonos and
doulos)
In the New Testament this service is expressed in several
ways:
1) "your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Cor. 4:5);
2) "service of the word" (Acts 6:4);
3) "service of the New Testament" (2 Cor. 3:6);
4) "service of the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:8);
5) "service of righteousness" (2 Cor. 3:9);
6) "service of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:18);
7) "service of the God/Christ/the Lord" (2 Cor.
6:4,11:2; Eph. 3:11, 1 Thess. 3:2; Col. 1:7, 1 Tim. 4:6)
In Matthew 20:20-28 Jesus describes the basic servant
relationship of the pastor to the people:
"Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus
with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.
'What is it you want?' he asked. She said, 'Grant that
one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and
the other at your left in your kingdom.' 'You don't know
what you are asking,' Jesus said to them. 'Can you drink
the cup I am going to drink?' 'We can,' they answered.
Jesus said to them, 'You will indeed drink from my cup,
but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant.
These places belong to those for whom they have been
prepared by my Father.' When the ten heard about this,
they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called
them together and said, 'You know that the rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials
exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead,
whoever wants to become great among you must be your
servant (diakonos), and whoever wants to be first must be
your slave (doulos)-- just as the Son of Man did not come
to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many.'"
Another passage which illustrates the servant to servant
role is Luke 12:42-49 (Matt 24:45-51):
"The Lord answered, 'Who then is the faithful and
wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his
servants to give them their food allowance at the proper
time? It will be good for that servant (doulos) whom the
master finds doing so when he returns. I tell you the
truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
But suppose the servant (doulos) says to himself, 'My
master is taking a long time in coming,' and he then
begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to
eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant (doulos)
will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an
hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and
assign him a place with the unbelievers. That servant (doulos)
who knows his master's will and does not get ready or
does not do what his master wants will be beaten with
many blows. But the one who does not know and does things
deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From
everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded;
and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much
more will be asked. I have come to bring fire on the
earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!"
A few brief comments about this parable. First, it seems
to be a neglected parable. How many times have you heard
this parable? Neither Trench [7] nor A.M.
Hunter [8], two significant books on parables, mention
this parable. This is surprising because this is one
parable where Jesus clearly talks about what we call the
pastoral office and its relationship to the priesthood of
all believers. I have also heard this text preached in
such a way as to apply to the priesthood of all believers
but not to the pastoral office. I will come back to this
passage under the title of "steward/house manager,"
but for now we want to use this parable to stress the
servant to servant role. In the parable it is clear that
one servant is a servant to other servants "to give
them their food allowance at the proper time." The
Greek word, sitometrion, is a hapex legomenon. It is a
compound word from sition which means "eatables,"
"provisions,"[9] and the word metron which means
"portion".[10] A
sitometrion then is a "measured portion of grain or
food"[11]. Food on estates was measured out on a
daily, weekly, or monthly basis.[12] Here we have
a clear allusion to a pastor serving God's people with
the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments. This
imagery of the pastor giving his fellow servants their
measure of food is seen in other passages such as Jesus
telling Peter to feed Jesus' sheep. Jesus Christ, of
course, is the supreme example of a servant serving
servants. His foot washing at the Last Supper and his
death on the cross are Jesus' statements about service to
others. Thus, the pastor is depicted not as a person who
rules with power and force, but as one who serves other
servants patterned after Jesus' example, feeding them for
eternal life.
SHEPHERD (POIMAN)
In his letter to the Ephesians Paul says that pastors (shepherds)
are one of Christ's gifts to his Church: "It was he
who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some
to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers"(4:11).
This divine placing of pastors is also recorded in the
book of Acts: "Keep watch over yourselves and all
the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
Be shepherds of the Church of God, which he bought with
his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves
will come in among you and will not spare the flock"
(20: 28,29). In this text we have both concepts of "overseer"
and "shepherd". At the present time we are
emphasizing the word "shepherd".
This image of shepherd and flock for the pastor and the
people repeats the servant's responsibility to feed
Christ's people, but we hear also of the additional
responsibilities of defending them from wolves and also
leading them. The shepherd does not drive the sheep but
leads them to green pastures and quiet waters (Ps. 23).
At the end of John's Gospel Jesus exhorts Peter to feed
his sheep (John 21:15-17). Jesus is the supreme good
shepherd. The sheep follow his voice. And the sheep
follow his voice through the voice of the pastor as Jesus
says: "He who listens to you listens to me; he who
rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him
who sent me" (Luke 10:16).
STEWARD/HOUSE MANAGER (OIKONOMOS)
Paul compares ministers of the gospel to stewards or
house managers in his first letter to the Corinthians:
"So then, men ought to regard us as servants (huperetes)
of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things
of God" [kai oikonomous mustarion theou] (4:1). In
his first letter to Timothy Paul makes a connection
between managing one's own family and managing another's,
specifically, the family of God: "If anyone does not
know how to manage his own family, how can he take care
of God's Church?...If I am delayed, you will know how
people ought to conduct themselves in God's household...."
(3: 5,15). In his letter to Titus Paul makes a close
connection between overseer and steward: "Since an
overseer is entrusted with God's work [13], he
must be blameless--not overbearing, not quick-tempered,
not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing
dishonest gain" (1:7). It is clear that an overseer
is a synonym for a steward/manager of God. The overseer
is a servant of God to other servants of God.
Here we can again make reference to Luke 12:42: "The
Lord answered, 'Who then is the faithful and wise manager
(oikonomos), whom the master puts in charge of his
servants to give them their food allowance at the proper
time?'" The last time we referred to this passage
was for its emphasis on a servant serving other servants.
This time we refer to it for its use of steward to
emphasize the servants accountability to his master i.e.,
the Lord, as we heard in Luke 12:48: "From everyone
who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from
the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will
be asked." The steward serves the welfare of the
other servants in the name and by the authority of the
owner of the house to whom he is accountable. Ultimately,
every pastor is accountable to Jesus Christ in
relationship to the people of God.
In the house of God Jesus is not a servant by nature, but
the Son of the owner: "For every house is built by
someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was
faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to
what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful
as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we
hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast"
(Hebrews 3:4-6). Yet, as a son, Jesus was conscious of
his responsibility to fulfill his Father's will: "'My
food,' said Jesus, 'is to do the will of him who sent me
and to finish his work'" (John 4:34). So, then even
as steward Jesus is the supreme example for all stewards,
for even though he is a son in the owner's home, he made
himself a servant.
OVERSEER (EPISKOPOS)
In Acts 20:28 we already saw that the overseer was
mentioned in connection with the image of a shepherd:
"Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be
shepherds of the Church of God, which he bought with his
own blood". An overseer was also mentioned in
relation to the steward in Titus 1:7: "Since an
overseer is entrusted with God's work [i.e., a steward]),
he must be blameless-not overbearing, not quick-tempered,
not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing
dishonest gain." The qualifications for an overseer
are listed in 1 Timothy 3. These qualifications stress
not only skills such as "apt to teach", but
also relationship skills as Paul says the overseer must
be "above reproach, the husband of but one wife,
temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable"
(v.2); "not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome"
(v. 3); "He must manage his own family well and see
that his children obey him with proper respect" (v.4).
As we have see from the pattern established so far, Jesus
is the supreme example, not only of a servant, a
shepherd, and a steward but also of an overseer: "For
you were like sheep going astray, but now you have
returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls"
(1 Peter 2:25).
_____________
7. R. C. Trench, Notes
on the Parables of our Lord, (Baker book House: Grand
Rapids, MI, 1975).
8. Archibald M. Hunter The Parables Then and Now, (The
Westminster Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1971).
9. John Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon, (Evangel
Publishing Company: Wheaton, IL, Martinsville, IN, 1974).
10. Thayer, p. 408.
11. Thayer, p. 576.
12. A. Plummer, St. Luke, The International Critical
Commentary, Driver, Plummer and Briggs (New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1951), p. 332.
13. The Greek text has "steward of God," Theou
Oikonomon.
on to page 3
|