The Chosen

 


Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’

You may have heard the saying: “God does not choose the qualified, he qualifies the chosen.” We can see the truth of this in the twelve men that Jesus chose to be his apostles.  For the most part they were simple, possibly even illiterate people (Judas was probably the most qualified among them), yet the things that they did changed the entire world forever. How did they do this? Because Jesus qualified them to do so. And how did he do this? First: he called them. The apostles weren’t job seekers. They didn’t hunt down Jesus for the post of apostle. Jesus called them. 

Next: He taught them. They had their apprenticeship under him. And what an apprenticeship it would have been. He was so radical in his thinking, it would have taken them weeks to process the stuff he spoke about, but they eventually got it. The main reason they got it was because he demonstrated everything he taught. He didn’t just teach them theory; he gave them practical lessons as well, so that the lessons became deeply ingrained in their minds. When the Lord of the Universe kneels before you and washes your feet, it is not a lesson you will forget!

Third: He sent them out, giving them the authority to heal the sick and cast out demons. I can’t even begin to imagine how they felt. Nervous? Excited? Apprehensive? Afraid? Possibly all of it. Then, he gave them instructions to follow as he sent them out. He told them to stick to the Jews and leave the Gentiles alone. He told them to proclaim the news that the Kingdom of heaven was near.  He gave them additional instructions, but we will look at those tomorrow. They went out in obedience, returning later with great joy that they had accomplished their mission.

Yesterday, we looked at Jesus telling his apostles to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send laborers into the field. Who are the laborers? Isn’t it us? But you might say, “How do I know?” Have you heard Jesus saying: “Many are called but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14) How are people chosen? Let us imagine I invite all of you to join me for a movie. Who will I take? Only those who accept the invitation, no? God is inviting all of us to be his disciples. We are all being called. But he is not going to force us to follow him. He will choose only those who say yes. These are the chosen. 

I had gone to Burma on mission a few years ago. When I was there I met two wonderful young priests from France. They belonged to the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris, an organization of priests and lay persons dedicated to missionary work in foreign lands. These two men were sent to Burma where they would spend the rest of their lives! This is how the Church operated in its early days, except then they sent people out in the thousands, not in twos and threes. But there is a new revival taking place in the Church today, and it will be greater than anything ever seen before in the history of humankind. There will be people going out again in the power and authority of the apostles of old. 

The only question is: Will you be one of them?

Watch a video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here https://youtu.be/DhIsc92UFls

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