|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman Who
Benefits Who? In
Luke 22:24 some of Jesus' disciples are arguing over who among them will
be the greatest. Jesus
responds in verse 25 by saying, "the kings of the Gentiles lord it
over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves
Benefactors. But you are not
to be like that." (NIV) The
NIV says that Gentile kings "lord it over them."
The KJV says that they "exercise lordship over them."
The word "them" refers to the people the kings exercised
authority over. We learn
from history that the way in which Roman authorities exercised authority
over their subjects when Jesus said these words was by harsh military
dictatorship. Jesus
goes on to say, "those who exercise authority over them call
themselves Benefactors." (NIV) The
word "Benefactors" is capitalized in the NIV, probably because
it was often used as a title for a king, as in "King Henry".
The NIV states that these kings "call themselves
Benefactors." Other
translations state these kings are "called or known as
benefactors". Whatever
the case, kings were supposed to be benefactors, but were they?
Kings
had the title of "benefactors" because they were supposed to
"benefit" those in their nation.
The reason why they existed was for the good of the people, but
that wasn't the case in Jesus' days, and it's not always the case today.
Kings in those days "lorded over" their subjects in a
dictatorial fashion. Kings
were the ones being benefited, not the people.
Therefore, even though they were called "benefactors",
they weren't. The people
kings lorded over were really the "benefactors" because they
were the ones benefiting the king by being forced into authoritarian
style submission.
Jesus
told His disciples, "you are not to be like that." (NIV)
Other translations put this
even simpler by saying, "but you, not so."
That is to say, "you're not to be manipulative dictators
like the Gentile kings." As
soon as Jesus says this, He shifts the discussion away from the Gentile
kings and their abuse of authority to His disciples who would eventually
become Christian leaders. Christian
leaders have one job, and that is to be "a benefit" to those
they lead. When this gets
reversed, as it often does, Christian leaders become the
"beneficiaries" of those they lead.
At that point, church leaders fail to do God's will.
They become like the Roman kings.
In
today's church, that often looks more like a Fortune 500 company than
the Body of Christ it should be, we
need to ask, "who is benefiting who?"
Are church leaders benefiting from those they lead, or are those
being led benefiting from church leaders? I'm
not anti-leadership. I'm pro
servant-leadership. Decades
ago, my friend Robert Bailey wrote a song entitled, "Servant Of
All". The point to the
song was simple. We are to
serve Jesus and anyone He sets before us at any given time.
The song did not sit well with our pastor.
He was in the process of teaching us to serve those in authority
over us in the church, which included himself.
The Biblical mandate for us is to serve.
All of us, including church leaders, exist to benefit others.
That is what being a benefactor means.
|