Rowing the Ship

The Apostles were pretty important people, weren’t they? What words would you use to describe the faithful ministers who first preached Jesus and founded the early churches—remarkable, significant, maybe vital? Think about it: where would we be without those original missionaries who passed on what they had seen and heard when they walked with Jesus?

 

As much as we might elevate that group, the New Testament writers chose to undersell them. Consider what Luke said to Theophilus in the introduction to his Gospel: “…just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us (1:2)…” It doesn’t jump out at us in English, but that word ministers is interesting in Greek. The word literally means “under rowers,” and it referred to the people who sat in the lowest part of the ship and paddled the oars. That was not exactly a glamours job. In fact, most people that boarded the ship had no idea who was doing the rowing; that was not their concern, and they just took it for granted. 

 

The role of under rower was such a menial job that it was often reserved for the lowest servants that could do little else. These galley slaves, as they were called, had no rank. They were coequal, and they were equally last. No young Jewish boy hoped to become an under rower when he grew up. This job was filled by the lowest of the low. Yet that is the word that Luke chose to describe the eyewitnesses that passed on their testimony of the life of Jesus. Is Luke insulting the Apostles? Hardly; that is the same word that the Apostle Paul used to describe himself in I Corinthians 4:1 (translated as servants in that verse). 

 

That is the reality of all believers. We should view ourselves as galley slaves for Christ. He is in charge, and we just follow orders. Among the slaves there is no rank. The senior pastor is no more important than the youth pastor, and neither are more important than those not in vocational ministry. We do not want people to know our name, we want them to know the name Jesus. 

 

The under rowers move the ship from point A to point B. Passengers relied on those rowers, even if they didn’t realize it. In the same way, the unsaved rely on Christians to keep faithfully passing on the gospel message until the whole world hears. For some that happens in the pulpit, but for most it is conversations at work, the grocery store, or the classroom. Don’t think for a second that what you do is not as important as what Charles Stanley does. He is an under rower, and so are you and I. Together we will keep rowing this ship, moving the gospel from point A to point B, telling the world that Jesus saves.