THE APOSTLES: HOW COULD THIS PACK OF REJECTS AND SCRUBS BECOME GOD’S ALL-STAR TEAM?

11/25/18

In my sometimes orderly, sometimes not so orderly, exploration of the scripture, I re-read the following passage from Matthew (20, 20-24) the other day:

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.21He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.”22Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking.^* Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.”23He replied, “My cup you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left [, this] is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”24^d When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers.

This is one of the more, to use a word I shared with a former pastor several years ago, dense readings in a book characterized by, among other things, the density of its readings; consequently, I could write on this passage all day.   However, to save my readers, and myself, from the somnolence doing so would induce, I will limit my ramblings to what for me has been, for years, the most salient feature of this reading.

When most people hear or read this passage, they conclude that the other ten guys following Jesus “became indignant” at James and John (here referred to as “the sons of Zebedee”) because the two brothers had clearly misunderstood Jesus’ message; if James and John were “getting it,” why would they be so self-aggrandizing?   While the other ten apostles were right in this assessment of James and John, that’s not why they were indignant.  Each was upset because James and John were asking for something that he thought was rightfully his; they all wanted to be “top dog,” so to speak.   They were asking themselves “How dare these two upstarts assume that they could be the Big Guy’s right-hand man?   Why, that’s going to be MY job!”

James and John come across as quite pathetic in this passage; they indeed missed Christ’s message, as evidenced by their continued insistence on being at the top.   And they didn’t even have the, er, courage to make their request themselves; they sent their mommy to ask for them.  (In their defense on this last matter, however, see Mark 10, 35-41, an earlier version of the same story in which James and John do their own asking rather than asking their mother to do it for them.)   But the other apostles don’t look any better.

The apostles, in fact, were a pretty sorry lot.   Peter, the apparent leader of the apostles and, at least according to Catholics, the rock upon which Jesus built his church (the very controversial Matthew 16, 13-20), was a mess.    He was impetuous (Matthew 14, 22-33), often shooting from the hip (Mark 9, 5-6).   He didn’t think before he spoke (Matthew 16, 22-23, Matthew 17, 24-27, especially verse 25.    This passage from Matthew 17, by the way, is a favorite of mine, not so much because it is fraught with meaning but, rather, is both funny and out of left field.)   Peter was one of the most obsequious characters one could encounter, generally blurting out what he thought people wanted to hear (Again, Mark, 9, 5-6 and Matthew 17, 25) even if it was the opposite of what he had said ten seconds ago (John 13, 5-10).   He was cowardly, denying Jesus (Mark 14, 66-72) hours after denying that he would ever deny Him (Mark 14, 27-31).   When Jesus gave Peter a chance to make up for his denial, Peter, initially, out of frustration and ignorance, made it as hard as he could for Jesus (John 21, 15-19).   Even later in his ministerial career, Peter was hypocritical with an overly developed urge to please people (Galatians 2, 11-14).  

Peter wasn’t alone in not being an exemplar of strength, fortitude, and wisdom.   Philip was a little slow on the uptake (John 14, 8-11), which made him not the least bit unique among his colleagues (Matthew 16, 5-12).  Nathanael was a bigot (John 1, 45-46).   All the apostles abandoned Jesus, in a hurry (Mark 14, 50-52) hours after piously proclaiming that they would do no such thing (Mark 14, 31).

Lest you think that I am being a little overly hard on the apostles, Jesus had essentially the same assessment of the innate abilities of his followers (Luke 10, 21-22).  

So why did Jesus pick this motley crew of underachievers for his followers?    Some would argue Jesus did so to manifest the glory of His Father, to wit, if God could turn these guys into the foundation of a faith that would not only last millennia but will ultimately prove the salvation of the world, He can do anything.   There is certainly something to that argument, but I would make a subtly different one.

Yes, the apostles had very little innate ability; they weren’t smart, they weren’t brave, they were often, or usually, vainglorious, and they had a hard time getting the message.   But they were capable of doing the one important thing, the only thing that God requires of each of us; they were willing to let God work through them.   Maybe they were willing to see and admit that they didn’t have what it took to do what God was asking them to do; indeed, nobody had what it took to undertake this enormous task.  But whether they understood their shortcomings or not, they knew that they needed help.  They needed to let God work through them, to permeate and infuse their souls, their hearts, and their intellects.   They, with their human frailties, had to get out of the way, remove the obstructions, and let God pour His grace into them so that He could work through them.   They had to make themselves instruments of God.

This was no mean feat.   Being willing to let God take over, to hand Him the proverbial wheel, is nearly impossible.   Who wants to surrender his or her will and life to someone else, even if that Someone is God?   Yet that is what the Apostles did and the result was the spreading of God’s word and work of salvation throughout the world…the very salvation of humanity and of each of us.

The lesson for us is simple, though not easy.  God calls us to do the same thing…to let Him have His way with us.    If that sorry band of nobodies could do that 2000 years ago, we can do so today.   To put it in very simple terms…if those guys could do it, we, even with all our faults, weaknesses, and shortcomings, can certainly do it.  And, no, we are not called to the enormous task to which the Apostles were called; being an active believer today, while not by any means simple in our secular world, is not nearly as difficult it was in the 1^st century.   None of us is going to die for our faith as the Apostles did, but we are still called to live the faith and to spread the faith despite the accompanying hardships and derision, as relatively mild as they may, or may not, be today.    Not many of us are strong enough to do what God wants of us, but we have access to the same source of strength as did the Apostles and many brave, holy people of many beliefs through the millennia.   We only have to call upon that strength, that presence of God, and accept it as God wishes to give it to us.  And when we do, it will make all the difference.   But, again, making that decision is not an easy one; what person, and especially what adult, wants to turn his or her will and life over to anyone, even to God?  It’s damn difficult.

Over the years, I have developed an alternate, though perhaps complementary, theory of why Jesus picked this seemingly very unsuitable lot to be his closest companions and co-workers.   A lot of the story of Jesus is not written in the New Testament.   Maybe Jesus originally asked a more obvious crew, people of great intellect, fortitude, insight, position, and wisdom, to be his first team.   And they said “No.”   They had too much going on, too much to give up, and were too smart to drop everything to follow some itinerant preacher who spent most of His time fighting with the religious establishment of the time, with which these “first choicers” were comfortable, or at least had an “in.”   Maybe the first, and perhaps the second and third, round draft picks refused Christ’s offer to join the team, so Jesus was forced to go to the scrubs, who didn’t have much going on and who certainly were counted for little by the big shots and the religious insiders of the time.  

Of course, I could be wrong in this supposition; maybe it was always Christ’s intention to call these twelve equivalents of undrafted free agents (John 6, 70.  You’ve noticed, by the way, that we haven’t mentioned Judas Iscariot here; he is grist for another mill.)  But if this theory has some merit, the lesson for us could be even clearer:   It might be okay to acquire wealth, position, or power in society, but don’t let it get in the way of what is really important.   Our attachment to worldly things, not limited necessarily to material things, should not become so important that we miss our calling from God to do that which is most important, the very reason we are here…to do our part in His work of saving not only our souls but the souls of many and to facilitate the coming of God’s kingdom on earth.    More simply, don’t let the small stuff cause us to say “no” to God; think of all we would miss by saying “no” to all God wants to do for us.

All God’s blessings now and always.