(The Nationalist, 17 June 2005)
Jesus called, formed, and sent out twelve disciples with the name of “apostle”, meaning someone sent. A strange group they were, and not the cream of the crop.
Peter was emotional and changeable. He loved Jesus but misunderstood him, and denied him three times. His heart was in the right place, but he forgot his head.
James and John, nicknamed by Jesus “the sons of thunder”, were fiery and forceful. They wanted to make people do what was right. James became the first martyr among the apostles, John the contemplative writer.
Philip was a cheerful cynic. On first hearing of Jesus, he said, ‘Nazareth? Can anything good come from that place?’ He didn’t understand anything, saying to Jesus, even after the resurrection, ‘Will you now show us the kingdom of Israel?’ That wasn’t what it was about.
Thomas was skeptical, but later convinced. If he could believe, anyone could. His doubt confirms our faith.
Matthew, the tax collector, collaborated with the Roman Empire. He lost his job and its security, but gained a mission – with insecurity. He wrote the first gospel.
Simon, called the zealot, was a Palestinian Provo. ‘Romans out!’ was his idea. In other circumstances, he would have killed Matthew.
Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, the official price of a slave. He not only sold Jesus; he sold him cheap.
The rest of the twelve were “also rans”, so obscure we are not sure even of their names.
There’s a story of a rabbi who converted to Christianity during the Renaissance. His shocked friends asked him why. He answered, ‘Any church that can survive leadership like theirs must be divinely inspired’.
The leaders of the church in those times, and in ours, were a motley bag of messers. From the muddled apostles, to the corrupt popes of the Middle Ages, to the bishops of our time, the pattern is the same: ordinary people, foolish and fearful; stupid and sinful; dull and dithering; corrupt and unimaginative. They reflect our-selves, because that is what we are. They and we are the ones whom God has called, formed, and sent to be apostles.
What God wants to achieve in many people, he accomplishes first in one. My job is to become the kind of person I think the rest of the church ought to be.