The Acts of the Table-Waiters

In the so-called Acts of the Apostles (the traditional name for the 2nd volume of the beginning of the church attributed to Luke "the beloved physician"), one of the interesting things about the volume is its "egalitarian" nature.  By rights, if it were meant as propaganda for the faith, it should ascribe the miracles of Elijah to each of the eleven apostles (twelve minus Judas) demonstrating their heroic status as the men who walked with Jesus.  But most of the apostles don't figure at all in these accounts, and Peter figures in less than half the book.   There is nothing linking Peter directly to Paul, or a direct conferring of divine calling, as would make sense for some 2nd century pro-Paul propaganda.  Peter is prominent at the beginning, especially with the initial outreach to the Gentile believers, but then falls out of the spotlight almost entirely.

What is especially noteworthy before Paul becomes the focus of the early church historian is the people who do come into the spotlight.  The seven servant-leaders (or leader-servants), who Christians have traditionally called the first "deacons," were chosen as men whose character exemplified the qualities of  Jesus, whose job would be to tend to the needs of the growing community of believers and responsibly distributing the communal property of the believers, a job that the chief apostles will describe as "waiting tables."

One of these "waiters" is a disciple named Philip -- not to be confused with Philip of the Twelve Apostles.  Philip quickly moves beyond his humble serving of the church to preach the gospel.  We don't see where he was formally sent out on his mission by church authorities; in fact, he is physically caught away" to remote places without his control.  One of the wonders worked by the deacon is referred to mysteriously as being "caught away by the Spirit."  This sounds uncannily like the power of k'fitzat ha-derech attributed to especially spiritual rabbis in much later centuries (the jumping-through-space that would inspire Frank Herbert's Kwisatz Haderach in Dune), though it is somewhat reminiscent of Elijah being caught away by the chariot.  This miraculous deacon figures later in The Acts with daughters who prophesy.  One of these daughters would later tell Papius (a historian who interviewed acquaintances of the apostles) about someone she witnessed to be raised from the dead.

For The Acts to be decent propaganda for the Church, it should attribute these miracles and wonders to Philip the Apostle, or to one of the twelve apostles such as Thomas or John.  Instead the account of Acts has the apostles follow Philip into Samaria.

Being freed up from the distractions of the service industry to fulfill their higher purpose to seek God, they hear of how the lowly deacon has been taken by the Spirit to Samaria and is doing a mighty work.  And they follow the deacon into Samaria.  Philip the Table-Waiter (whom we now refer to as "Philip the Evangelist" to distinguish him from Philip of the Twelve) is more prominently an apostle than the Twelve, being a "sent one" (the meaning of "apostle") into one of the territories fulfilling the "Great Commission" (to Judea, and then Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth).

Also among the deacons is Stephen, who seems to fulfill Jesus' prophecy to the Sanhedrin about his place at the right hand of God, and whose death plants in Saul of Tarsus a seed that will eventually come to fruition on the road to Damascus when Saul is told, "It must be hard on you to be constantly kicking against the goad."  Stephen's death sets precedent for the term "martyr" or "witness" for those who die for their confession of faith.  Those that hear Stephen testify of his vision, stop their ears in panic at hearing Jesus' prophecy being realized, and give witness to Stephen's prophetic sermon about their hardness of heart.  Saul's hardness of heart will eventually be broken.

Stephen the Waiter seems to draw attention to himself almost immediately after his appointment to serve the church by exhibiting signs and wonders.  He soon after fulfills a major prophecy of Jesus, and sets off a pattern of persecution that breaks forces the Jerusalem church to fulfill its commission and enlarge its borders beyond Judaea.  Congregations will form in proximity to the Gentiles, and the Antioch congregation will be formed.

The rise of Stephen, Philip, Paul, and Barnabas, and the waning prominence of the original apostles (and eventually of even Peter himself) arises soon after the appointment of men to release the apostles from mundane service:  "It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables."  And yet, after announcing the New Covenant in His blood, the first illustration given to them by the Word of God in the flesh was the lowly act of a server:  He washed their feet, and told them that the servant is not above his master. He that shall be first must be last.

The Greek word  ἀρεστός more generally means "acceptable" or "satisfactory" or "pleasing"or "fitting":  "It is not fitting/acceptable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables." It is a curious way to put it.  It sounds a little melodramatic.  Abandon the word of God to wait on tables.  On the one hand, it may be true that the Holy Spirit was leading the apostles to prayer and prophecy rather than to service.  But think about Jesus' gesture of washing the feet of the apostles and disciples.

“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”

Think about Jesus' pastoral directive to Peter to "tend My sheep."  There is certainly more to tending the sheep than waiting on tables, but is there something to this that they didn't say that the Holy Spirit was leading them to devote themselves the prophetic.  Rather, "it is fitting for someone other than ourselves to wait on tables."  Even the description of the menial work of taking care of the mundane needs of the faithful seems almost flippant: "We didn't walk with the Messiah for three years to wait on tables."

I can't help but wonder if there is an element of pride in this.  Do the apostles have a "higher" purpose than waiting on tables?  Were Peter and John so busy giving themselves to "the word" and prayer, without the distractions of table-waiting, that they ended up realizing God was doing something in Samaria after one of their table-waiters started doing radical Jesus-type things there.  Some amazing things happen with Peter in later chapters (but very soon seem to no longer be reported), but the Twelve appear less and less after the "table-waiting" announcement, and soon after we hear almost nothing of Peter.  The soon-to-rise apostle Paul will later write that, though he would prefer to devote himself to preaching and outreach with the voluntary support of the church, he is certainly not above the mundane work of tent-making.

The book of The Acts is known as The Acts of the Apostles, but it should really be called The Works of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is building His church, not the Eleven, not the apostles.  All the believers, not just the Eleven apostles, are the "living stones" that make up His tabernacle, as Peter writes in his epistle.  The builder is the Holy Spirit, and unless He builds the house, they labor in vain that build.  And when the Eleven started to think of themselves as the builders of the church, God made the very rocks cry out in prophecy; for from the very stones he can raise apostles.

The mindset of most modern evangelicals and fundamentalists and Catholics is such that if the year was 45 A.D. they would idolize the Twelve Apostles.  The Twelve were after all in the company of the Son of God night and day for years, and today's Christians idolize mere pastors, popes, bishops, prophets, authors of bestsellers, and leaders of 1,000 member churches.  Yet, the Apostle Paul, who was not considered one of the Twelve and had not walked with Jesus as the Twelve had, referred to the most prominent apostles (Simon Peter, John bar-Zebedee, and the brother of Jesus) as "those who were presumed to be pillars [of the church]."  Paul doesn't say that they weren't pillars, but implies that pillars are as pillars do.  He refers to the most prominent apostles also as "those who were thought to be something (whatever they may have been, it doesn't matter to me since God is not prejudiced)."

God isn't distinguishing the nobodies from the somebodies.  The one who thinks "I'm kind of a big deal" is least in the kingdom of God.

*Note: We don't hear much about Matthias, one of the two long-term disciples of Jesus who were in the lottery to take Judas Iscariot's place among the Twelve, but we do hear of the other one, Joseph Barsabbas.  Papias wrote that the sign of poison-immunity was worked in him by the Holy Spirit.  The only tradition we have of Matthias is his martyrdom.