THE MOST IMPORTANT SEATS

“…and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.“(Mk 12:39)

The synagogue is the Jews’ gathering place for having religious activities and ritual services. From here the Jews read or study the Bible or celebrate those festivals such as Passover. The religious activities are not sacrificial offering. A sacrificial offering can be performed only by the priest in the Jerusalem temple. In the synagogue meeting the ruler of synagogue and Rabbi sit at the seat of honor while the general public sits at the lower below. Seating arrangement at the synagogue meeting is similar to that of the Christian worship service in which the worship leaders sit in the platform and the congregation sits along the pews below.

We cannot arrange the seats in a uniform level in the meeting of synagogue or worship service. It is always better to separate the seats of the leaders from that of the congregation for the sake of mutual convenience in the worship service. Some criticize it as clericalism. For example, there is no fixed order or form in the Quake. They are sitting around and those who are impressed by the Holy Spirit pray, reading the word of God and preach. Such fundamental and dismantle position can be an alternative but it is hard to employ in the center of Christian tradition.

The word ‘watch out the teachers of the law who wants to sit at the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets’ does not mean to abolish the formality altogether. It is a warning against human love for fame. The love for fame is the desire to be recognized by others. Everybody has this natural instinct though the degree of one’s desire varies from one person to another. Therefore this natural tendency cannot be attributed to the teachers alone but it applies to everyone.

Such trend of psychology predominates even in the church. Most of elderly people in the church want to be an elder. It sounds a little ridiculous. If he a true Christian with deeper spirituality, he would certainly refuse to be apart of the elders. An attempt to be in the spotlight is an irritable thing in the real search for spiritual truth. How about our spiritual status?