Mark 3 / July 25 - there is hope for us!

Today I thought we might take a closer look at the men that Jesus chose, handpicked to be His disciples. These are the men who would learn from Jesus, witness His ministry, death and resurrection. They are also the ones on whom the entire Christian age depends. Who knows what would have happened had these 12…er 11, men decided to pack up and go back to work instead of committing themselves to spreading the gospel. So, let’s take a look at them.

The first guy we see is Named Peter, (Simon or Simon Peter), he is really sure of himself. He’s the kind of guy who acts before thinking, or speaking for that matter. He is bull headed and confident (even when he is absolutely wrong!) and is often sticking his foot in his mouth. He also has a great amount of faith!

James and John these guys are brothers and you get to know a bit about them when Jesus changes their names (collectively) to “sons of thunder.” These guys no doubt were the life of the party. Their father was a fisherman-rough group and they too were fishermen in partnership with Peter. It was the mother of James and John who asked Jesus to grant her a wish, that her sons would sit, one of the left and one on the right when He got to heaven. Now you know where they got their attitude from!

Andrew is next, quite guy, we don’t know much about him. Though he is the one who came to Jesus with the 5 loaves and 2 fish; perhaps that says something about his own faith.
Philip has a brother named Nathanael. When Philip met Jesus he ran first to tell his brother (perhaps we could learn a lesson there). Philip is also the disciple who got to the desert on a horse with no name (or is that a song?!) and when we got there he met a man who was reading the old testament, Isaiah and Philip explained the scriptures to him all the way to Jesus. When Philip finished the man asked to be immersed and there in the middle of the desert was water and bible just says that after he baptized him he disappeared.

Bartholomew not much here, other than the mention of his name we don’t know much about him. Same with Thaddaeus. Sorry there is not more there.

Matthew was named Levi when he was called by Jesus. He was a tax collector which meant that he was a traitor to the Jews and hated by everyone…except other tax collectors. He was a sell out to the Romans and everyone knew it. He was an establishment man. He lived by their rules and took their money no one really liked him.

Thomas gets a bad wrap because of the whole “unless I put my fingers in the holes in his hands and my hand in his side I will not believe.” He was so sure that Jesus, on whom he had put all his trust and faith, was dead that he couldn’t believe beyond that point. But once he saw, there was no doubting left.

James wrote a book (the one titled James) that was almost not made a part of the cannon of Scripture. There were some that thought James dealt so much with deeds and seemed to dump on faith so much that it should not be a book of the Bible. But God doesn’t let good stuff like that get left out!

Do you remember Matthew, or Levi? Remember that he was a Roman supporter? Well, the next guy, Simon the zealot was about as opposite as you can get! Simon had sold out to the militia of his time. Those men who wanted to rid their country of the Roman occupation. He was the suicide bomber group, the die hards, the rebellion. The only thing he hated more than the Romans were the Jews who sold out to the Romans.

Last and certainly least is Judas. The guy who will forever be known as the one who betrayed Jesus. Every traitor is known as a Judas and pretty much in every culture you will find one. Poor guy.

So, here’s what were left with a group of men who would probably be the last group you would ever choose to start a grassroots religious wildfire like Christianity. Not only would you not choose them you would probably avoid them like the plague!

I say all that to say this. There is hope for you and me and for Real Life. We don’t have to be the smartest, the most “spiritual” the best looking or most reserved. We can be a group of thunderous, not perfect, mistake making, sometimes faithless folks as long as we just don’t give up. These 11 men changed the world. What could we do with 50? Have a good Friday.