On Being an Apostle Today

By today’s standards, the apostles were failures. Jesus chose to surround himself with a ragtag group of men from the working class. Four were fishermen. One was a tax collector. None of them had experience in marketing, public relations and management. Consider what happened to them. (Nowadays, this would be called a performance review.) 

Peter, whom Jesus called “Rock,” became the leader, and Roman Catholics have always considered him as the first pope. He founded the church in Corinth, baptized the first Gentile and, if you read his first epistle, helped bring the Good News to Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and Asia. Eventually, he came to Rome, established a new church there, and was put to death by the Romans in upside-down crucifixion – at Peter’s request because he considered himself unworthy to die as Jesus died. 

Andrew, the brother of Peter, preached to the Gentiles in eastern Greece and was sentenced to die by X-crucifixion. 

Philip went to Phrygia, now central Turkey, and was martyred there. 

James, the son of Zebedee, was put to death by Herod in the year 42. 

James, the cousin of Jesus, eventually became the first bishop of Jerusalem and converted many from the Jewish faith. He was martyred in the year 62. 

Bartholomew and Thomas are said to have brought the faith to India, where they were both martyred. 

Matthew, in whose name one of the gospels is attributed, preached in Syria, Ethiopia and Persia. He, too, died the martyr’s death. 

So did Simon, Jude Thaddeus, and Matthias, who was elected to replace Judas Iscariot. You see the pattern here. With the notable exception of Saint John, every one of the apostles were put to death. That should have been the end of their mission. By today’s standards, news of all these deaths would be the most demoralizing thing that could happen to a company. It doesn’t do the corporation any good if the top field men consistently get themselves killed while selling the product. 

But this isn’t just any corporation we’re talking about. This is the early church. And it isn’t just any product, not a hot NASDAQ prospect or a startup Internet opportunity. The “product” is simply Jesus Christ and his promise of eternal life. Think about it. We moderns are pre-conditioned to the message of Jesus. For most of us, our faith is handed on to us from our parents, for better or for worse. But at the time of the apostles, there was no organized church, no inner governing or marketing structure. 

The birth, life and death of Jesus did not even warrant any mention by the historians of the day. He lived and preached in an obscure country in the backwater of the great Roman Empire. He arrived in Jerusalem at the age of 33 for the Passover. In three days, he was arrested, tried and convicted for treason, and executed like a common criminal. That should have been the end of that. 

But something happened. Jesus rose from the dead. Of course, there was no network coverage of this singular news event. There were no paparazzi buzzing around with iPhone cameras and in-your-face microphones. None of the apostles could really prove that this common criminal had defied death and was alive again. The only evidence was an empty tomb. And if this man were truly alive again, where was he? Why was he not present to prove his point? If Jesus truly rose from the dead, why did he not go straight to the Roman emperor and show himself, proving once and for all that he was indeed the Son of God? “Give me proof,” the logical Greco-Roman mind was asking, as the early Christians were routinely put to death. 

Something happened. The apostles attracted and gathered around themselves people who were intrigued with three aspects of their message. First, there was the belief in eternal life. In the ancient world, only the gods lived forever: Zeus, Mercury, Aphrodite, and all their band. After death, the human consciousness survived in the dim underworld of Hades. But according to the apostles, when Jesus accepted his death he conquered death and opened up eternal life to ALL who believe. This is the reason the Roman authorities were dumbfounded by the Christians’ ease and willingness in being put to death, either by crucifixion, the sword, or in the lion’s den. After all, if you believe you are going to live forever then you gain the strength to face any challenge to your beliefs, even death. 

Something happened. The Romans threw people out into the streets at the first sign of contagious disease because they were afraid of dying, but the Christians welcomed the sick and nursed them back to health. Aristotle taught that prudence, courage and temperance were the virtues proper to the good life, but Jesus emphasized humility, patience and peacemaking. In Roman times, Christian compassion was manifest in special concern for widows, orphans, the aged, and the infirm. When Saint Lawrence, a deacon and early martyr, was arrested by the Roman authorities and ordered to reveal the church’s treasures, he showed them the hungry and the sick. 

Something happened. The third thing that appealed to people curious about the Christians was their unabashed love for each other. In a world where revenge often defined honor, the message of Jesus was “Turn the other cheek; pray for your persecutors.” There must have been some very tangible sense of care and belonging in the early Christian communities, something that was very real and appealing to outsiders not accustomed to such treatment. The Christians truly lived these words of Jesus: “By this shall all people know that you are my disciples: through your love for one another.” 

Something very definitely happened. As the apostles willingly marched to their deaths, the Good News of Jesus Christ did not die with them. Their message of eternal life, compassion, and love for one another seized the imagination and heart of the ancient world and spread across the empire like wildfire. In just 300 years, Christianity conquered Rome not by war and violence but by faith and love. When Constantine issued the Edict of Toleration, the faith of the apostles of Jesus became the official religion of the empire. Very impressive for a ragtag team of working-class fishermen from an obscure backwater country. 

What does this all mean for Christians today? Through our baptism, each one of us is called to share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, to be an apostle. With Christianity so firmly established, we might not be called to bring the message of Christ to the outer reaches of the world. God willing, most of us won’t be called to die for Christ. But I do think that our apostleship is a calling to bring the Good News to the people who live with us and interact with us every day. Jesus is depending on us to make his message real in our families, in our friendships, in the workplace – not as soapbox preachers but simply as apostles.

We can be apostles in the way we reach out to our family and friends and support them at the time of death. We can be apostles when we really listen to each other and not take our families and friends for granted, when we celebrate the joys and victories and hold each other up in the setbacks and disappointments. We can be apostles when we look for ways to reach out to those less fortunate than ourselves. We can be apostles simply through our genuine love for each other. 

The story goes that during World War II, a little village in Bavaria was virtually wiped out by air raid bombings. Among the casualties was the parish church, and the large statue of Christ in the church yard was badly damaged. After the war, parishioners set about restoring the church but they could not find the hands for their beloved statue. The pastor advised his people to let it go. He placed a sign at the foot of the statue that reads: “I have no hands but yours, to bring help and healing to a broken world.”