Wednesday, Oct. 5

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Wednesday

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.  So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.  Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”  This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.  So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.  – Acts 6:1-7

Sometimes, just when everything seems to be going great, trouble comes in the most unlikely of places.  The problem here in Acts 6 comes from within, it is an internal conflict between two of groups of Christians.  The Grecian Jews were Jews that believed in Jesus Christ and spoke Greek because they lived outside of the region of Jerusalem.  The Hebraic Jews were also Jews that believed in Jesus, but they spoke Aramaic and Hebrew and lived in or near the city of Jerusalem.  In other words, these two groups had a shared faith in Christ and background in Judaism, but they had a cultural and language barrier between them.  The Grecian Jews had a complaint about the way that their widows were being treated, they claimed that the Hebraic Jews were overlooking them and playing favorites.  It might have been that the Hebraic Jews looked down on these Greek speaking Jewish Christians.  It might have been a completely unintentional oversight, either way it was a real problem.

Notice how these Grecian Jews handled their complaint; they did not leave the church in order to form a purely Greek speaking church of their own.  They did not start any rumors or try to stir up trouble.  They simply brought their concern to the leadership of the church and asked them to consider how to handle it. 

It would be easy for us to assume that in the big picture of the growth of the church, this issue is really not that big of a deal.  I mean what does it really matter if a few Greek-speaking widows get a little less food?  The truth is that this is a problem that, if not dealt with, could undermine the very message of the Gospel.  The Roman world of the first century was one of extreme social hierarchy and division.  The message of the Gospel proclaimed that in Christ, all of the social, economic, racial, and cultural barriers were done away with.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  – Galatians 3:28

If the Apostles simply ignored this issue, the Grecian Jews would eventually come to believe that the message of the Gospel was just talk and that the church was no different in the way that it treated them as the rest of the world.  To ignore this seemingly small complaint, would be to betray a central conviction of the message of the church.  The Gospel message of freedom in Christ Jesus sought to break down barriers, and the church is supposed to incarnate that Gospel reality. 

I remember meeting with a man who was a frequent visitor of our church.  We met for coffee and he peppered me with question after question about what our church believed and about what our church actually did in the areas of service and compassion for the poor.  At the end of our conversation I asked him what was behind all of his questions.  He told me that he thought most churches were “all talk” and he just wanted to know if our church was any different from all of the others he had visited. 

Our mission must match our message!  None of us can perfectly live up to the standard of the Gospel, but we must always strive to live our lives more and more in line with the truth we profess.

Jeff Frazier