The Twelve and the Seven in Acts 6 and the Needy
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The Twelve and the Seven in Acts 6 and the Needy By Norman Nagel The Twelve and the Seven in Acts 6 and the Needy By Norman Nagel With a preface by Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison President, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod 1333 S. Kirkwood Road, St. Louis, MO 63122-7295 888-THE LCMS (843-5267) • lcms.org © 2005 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. All rights reserved. (Reprinted 2019) The Twelve and the Seven in Acts 6 and the Needy By Norman Nagel With a preface by Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison President, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod 1333 S. Kirkwood Road, St. Louis, MO 63122-7295 888-THE LCMS (843-5267) • lcms.org © 2005 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. All rights reserved. (Reprinted 2019) Reprinted from Concordia Journal, April 2005 (113-125). Used by permission. PREFACE Lutheran theology without mercy renders the confession of the faith a clanging cymbal. Mercy without the mooring of a solid confession, and rooted in the church’s life of worship, quickly loses its Christian character. This essay by Rev. Dr. Norman Nagel of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, is offered here for broader distribution. The essay is brief, but carefully packed with insight on the New Testament and the ministry of mercy. In the solid Lutheran tradition, Dr. Nagel notes that care for the needy was a concern of the apostolic office, and continues with the office of the ministry (See Walther’s Pastorale, paragraph 39). The “seven” of Acts 6, argues Nagel, were ordained to the office of the ministry, and specifically tasked with care for the needy. “They are ordained and allocated a verb to do.” “The work involved in caring for the poor was never left unallocated.” Yet, as this essay notes, there is fluidity in the church’s ordering of offices and persons for diakonia, and setting churchly offices against one another, or against the vocation of mercy of all Christians, is not viewing the matter from the perspective of the Gospel. As I have surveyed the diakonic life of the LCMS these past five years, I have found myself particularly struck by one comment by Dr. Nagel: When deacons lose their place in the liturgy and yet are to have a care for the needy, the care for the needy may then also drift elsewhere away from the liturgy and the Lord’s Table. Spot on! (See Fight, Work, Pray! in this series.) Those given the task of caring for the needy must themselves be connected to altars, fonts and pulpits, that is, caring for needy ones in the midst of the congregation. And moreover, reaching to the edges of that fellowship and beyond, they bring Christ’s ministration of the Gospel of forgiveness, and the touch of mercy of the body of Christ. We thank Dr. Nagel and Concordia Journal for their kind consent to have this essay printed in this fashion. Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison Advent 2005 THE TWELVE AND THE SEVEN IN ACTS 6 AND THE NEEDY uke 6 tells of our Lord’s praying and then of His calling His disciples to Him. From among them He chose twelve. These He named apostles. Their names are listed. There is Lno doubt who is an apostle, who is of the Twelve. As apostles they get sent. For their first mission Jesus “gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal” (Luke 9:1–6). There are specifications unique to this mission. Upon their return they reported to Jesus. The crowds came after Him. “He welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing … The Twelve came and said to him, ‘Send the crowd away’ … But he said to them, ‘You give them something to eat’” (Luke 9:11–13). Something they are specifically told to do. They gave out what He gave them to give. When they were at table with Him, He was the one who served (ὁ διακονῶν, 22:27). He gives them to eat and to drink, and thereafter they would give out what He has them there for, for His giving out, specifically His body and His blood. As at Passover and its meal, there was thought and provision for the needy (John 13:29). But sadly, “a dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest” (Luke 22:24). The mission of the Seventy has similarities with the first mission of the Twelve (Luke 10:1–20). Their message is the same and they also are to heal the sick. The Seventy are specified to “where he himself, was about to go” (Luke 10:1). That done their mission was done, as also the first mission of the Twelve, and also the mission of John the Baptist. Our Lord has directions which are unique and specific to each mission on which He sends whom He sends. We are following Luke, most sensitive to the people on the fringes. The Twelve and the Seven in Acts 6 and the Needy | 1 In Luke’s final chapter the message and its mission are based on the Old Testament. On the way to Emmaus Jesus said to the two who report to the Eleven (v. 33): “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25–27). Then in Jerusalem: “Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:44–47). The apostles whom Jesus had chosen through the Holy Spirit were given the charge to remain in Jerusalem to await the promise of the Father (Acts 1:4). They were the Eleven (Luke 24:9, 33; Matt. 28:16; Mark 16:4). Their names are listed(Acts 1:13f.). Judas’s share in this ministry (τὸν κλῆρον τῆς διακονίας ταύτης), his office (ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ , AV: bishoprick) his place in this ministry and apostleship is filled by Matthias—done only here by lot (κλῆρος), by intervention of the Lord. ““He was numbered with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:26). Then there were Twelve. When James, the son of Zebedee, one of the Twelve was martyred, he was not thus replaced (Acts 12:2). 2 | The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod For the Pentecost of Israel there are Twelve. Wind, storm, and fire signal the Lord is having an Israel, a Twelve, as at Sinai (Ex. 19:16; Heb. 12:18–24; Luke 22:30). Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem” (2:14). “Those who received his word (λόγον) were baptized,” three thousand in all. “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship (κοινωνίᾳ), to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:41–42). The apostles appear to be taking care of things. Only two of the Twelve are mentioned, and then as apostles: Peter and John. The Twelve appear only once more in connection with the Seven. “All who believed were together and had all things in common (κοινά). And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need (χρείαν). And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:44–47). Quite a flock if they all went to the temple together and how many houses were needed for doing the other things? “With great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:33 ff.; Deut. 15:4). The generous provision was laid at the apostles’ feet, who then saw to the distribution. How much was done at the same time and in the same place: the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers? Caring for the needy was part and parcel of being an Israelite, one who belongs to such a Lord who “executes justice for the The Twelve and the Seven in Acts 6 and the Needy | 3 fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing” (Deut. 10:18; James 1:27). Among the prophets, “doing justice for widows” was shorthand for covenantal loyalty. In the Rabbinic tradition, “doing justice” (sedeka) was spelled out in terms of organized community almsgiving.”1 This was never just something secular. Un-Israelizing denial of this brought down a curse (Deut. 27:19; Mal.