“One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names:
Simon (whom he named Peter), Andrew (Peter’s brother), James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (who was called the zealot), Judas (son of James), Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).”
A disciple was a learner. An apostle was a speaker; literally, ‘one who speaks for another.’ We would say ambassador.
Bartholomew is mentioned in all 4 of the gospels, but only as a name on the list. He is mentioned nowhere else, and there are no reliable traditions concerning him. Simon is called a zealot. The zealots were radical Jews who sought the violent overthrow of the Roman regime in Judea. Some were assassins, killing Roman officials and poisoning soldiers. Judas, son of James, is called Thaddeus in Matthew. The first James mentioned was the brother of John, the sons of Zebedee. Their mother, Salome, was one of the women who discovered the empty tomb after God raised Jesus from the dead. James the son of Alphaeus gets no more New Testament ink than Bartholomew, and Judas the son of James is mentioned only one other time.
These are the men who will be closest to Jesus. He will spend extra time with them and will send them on missions in behalf of the Kingdom of God. Some will do better than others, but in the end, at the time of his greatest need, all but one will abandon him in fear for their own lives. As we track them through the gospel, it seems at times that they have as hard a time believing as anyone in the crowds. At other times they come through brilliantly.
But strong or weak, these are the men who will provide the leadership, the teaching, and the examples for the early church.
Peter overcame his early weakness and in his strength defied the Roman emperors. According to tradition, he was crucified head downward by Nero. Andrew was a man of courage, traveling through present-day Turkey preaching Christianity. Most historians agree that his career ended tragically at Patrae, where the Proconsul, Aegeas, outraged by Andrew’s preaching, ordered him to offer a sacrifice to the pagan gods. Andrew refused and was crucified. In Acts 12:1-2 we find that James, the son of Zebedee, was arrested on orders from King Herod Agrippa in the year A.D. 44, and was beheaded. A 5th century church historian relates that Matthew was martyred in Ethiopia, where he had gone as a missionary. Some ancient sources say that Jude traveled and preached in Arabia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia. Of the others we know little.
What we do know is that they scattered, that the church sprang up where they went, and that they spoke for Jesus. In the book of Revelation, as the New Jerusalem, the eternal city is described, are these verses of narrative: “…and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel…the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”
At the end of history we will find them again, at the foundation of things, because they fulfilled their calling and spoke for Jesus, ambassadors for the Kingdom of Joy.
Prayer: “Creator of heaven and eternity, grant us too, the courage to speak for you. In this noisy, self-absorbed nation, give us a voice of confidence. Use us wherever and however you wish. We trust you. Amen.”