The uppermost places in the synagogues

 

By Job Anbalagan

 

“Woe unto you, Pharisees! For ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the market” (Luke 11:43). 

 

The above warning of Jesus to the Pharisees is very much relevant today.  The uppermost seats in the synagogues are like the prominent positions being held by the New Testament ministers in the Vineyard of God.  It may be a pastoral or an evangelistic ministry. There is nothing wrong with ministers holding prominent places in the Vineyard of God because it is God Who has appointed them to such positions.  But they should not “love” the uppermost seats.

 

These days, we find people who claim to serve God vie with one another in a church or in an evangelical organization to occupy prominent places. The elder evangelist who has established the evangelical organization always wants to be at its top and browbeats or brushes aside his junior colleagues.  Even if he becomes old, he does not want to give up his position because he loves the uppermost seat. Moses, when he grew old, chose Joshua in his place.  Elijah, when he was about to leave the world, chose Elisha in his place.

 

The New Testament ministry is a body ministry or a team ministry, which consists of many ministers, each performing his individual role as assigned by the Holy Spirit. All the team members are equally precious in the sight of God.  None is either superior or inferior to each other. Under the New Testament, every one who is saved through the Blood of Jesus Christ is a priest in the Temple because “the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matt.27: 51). Every one, now a priest in the Temple, has entered the Most Holy Place in the Temple to serve God because the veil of the Temple was rent in twain the moment Jesus died on the Cross.  He/she is not only a believer but also a minister of God. Nowadays, majority of the Christians are treated as believers and are taught as such.  The ministers who treat them as such thus love the uppermost seats in the synagogues because they do not want the so-called “laity” to occupy the position of “clergy”.

 

Secondly, they love “greetings in the markets”.  They would covet praises of men or publicity for their ministries when God  performs miracles through their hands.  They want themselves to be praised and greeted by men.  They want their names to be prominently advertised. In the words of Jesus, all these ministers are Pharisees.