An Epiphany.
There is a currently popular TV series that presents a fictionalized but emotionally accurate story of Jesus’ life. What makes it so interesting is that the series focuses primarily on the people who surround (or are affected by) Jesus rather on Him or His message. Through the series, the viewer is brought to a new understanding of Jesus’ Apostles and some of the key figures with whom He interacts.
As I was watching an early segment, I was struck anew by how “ordinary” the Apostles and other people who were drawn to Jesus were.
A Picture of the first Apostles.
Scripture doesn’t provide the original occupations of all the Apostles, but we do know that Simon (later named Peter) and his brother Andrew were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. We also know that James and John were fishermen. We know that Simon was a “Zealot.” (Not necessarily an occupation, but rather a strong vocation.) And we know that Matthew was a Tax Collector.
Scripture gives us few clues as to the other Apostles’ occupations, but that they were of the “common” socio-economic classes can be inferred from the fact that none of them (with the possible exception of Matthew) seem to have brought any money or wealth to Jesus’ enterprise.
Carpentry was a respected trade, but not one that typically garnered any wealth for the practitioner. The same could be said about fishing. The status of fishermen was only slightly above that of shepherds in the Jewish society of the time. Zealots were seen as impractical “hotheads.”
Most of the Apostles seem to have been uneducated. And with many of them having come from Galilee, they would have spoken a dialect of Hebrew that was derided by the Jews in Jerusalem. They were poor, uneducated, ill-spoken “hicks from the sticks.”
And, a tax collector!! Next to lepers, tax collectors were the most despised people in Jewish society. They worked with the hated Romans to extract ruinous taxes from their own people. Almost no-one in Jewish society would be seen with a tax collector, much less breaking bread with one.
Not a distinguished or notable group of people were these Apostles. It would have been hard for Jesus to have picked a more ordinary group of men upon which to found His church.
God’s Wisdom.
But that is the point. God doesn’t typically pull His prophets, His teachers, or His leaders from the ranks of society’s elite. Moses had been a prince, but when he received God’s call, he was a shepherd with a speech impediment who’d committed murder. David (the second-most revered person in Jewish history) had begun his life as a lowly shepherd. Joseph was the second-highest person in Egypt when the Jews migrated there to escape the famine in Palestine. But he had begun his “career” in Egypt as a slave sold to traders by his own brothers.
Certainly, people from the “better side of the tracks” can worship, relate to, and love God. But the wealthy, the sophisticated, and the more “refined” people of society are vastly outnumbered by those who are far “below” them on the social ladder.
That is why God pulled the founders of His church from the “lower classes.” These people make up the vast majority, and they have provided and always will provide the greatest number of believers and converts to His cause. If Jesus was going to have any hope of getting these people to listen to Him, He was going to have to be one of them. And not only was it necessary for Him to be of a lower class, the majority of His Apostles had to be from that group as well.
Dislike and Distrust.
Many ordinary Jews disliked and distrusted the religious leaders of their day (possibly a lesson current religious leaders might want to keep in mind). In the Jewish society of Jesus’ time, there was no separation of “Church and State.” The church was both the religious and the civil authority for the region, and the leaders of the church were the people who governed that society. The Sadducees and the Pharisees were seen as hypocrites who controlled and administered the Jewish religion, not for the glory of God, but for their own aggrandizement and benefit. The general populace saw them as collaborators with the Romans and disliked them for it.
If Jesus and His followers had come from this group of people, they’d never have had a chance to speak to or win the hearts of the common Jew. The trust and faith necessary for people’s conversion could only be given to people of their own “rank.” The fact that Jesus and His followers were derided and hated by the elites of Jewish society only added to their appeal.
By being “one with them,” Jesus and His Apostles were able to relate to and win the hearts and minds of thousands of Jews (and later Gentiles). Because they were “ordinary,” people flocked to see them and to hear them. And because of their “ordinariness,” when the people heard their message, they trusted in them and believed them.
And because they were trusted and believed, thousands of people were converted, and the Apostles were able to establish the most important religious movement of all time, Christianity.
The Point.
There is a lesson for us today in this bit of history. The fact is that while Jesus came to save ALL of mankind (the rich and the poor alike), He came first to those despised by “better” society. He came to the People, and He was effective because He modeled modesty, humility, and grace to everyone He met; qualities that drew people toward Him and did not push ordinary people away.
Do we mirror Jesus in our daily lives? Is our humility as visible to others as His was? Does our humility and lack of pretense earn the trust of others? Does our faith shine from us in such a way as to pull others to that faith?
Or do we because of our fine houses, big cars, and extravagant lifestyle appear as modern-day Pharisees? Is it possible that when people look at us and hear us professing to be Christians, they’re turned away from the church and not toward it?
I pray that we all will take a careful look at ourselves and our relationship with God and His people. And I hope that when we see the picture our lives are painting for those around us that it is one of peace and harmony with God and our fellow man, not one that glorifies the world and our material society.
I hope that it is outstanding in its “ordinariness.”
God’s Blessing On You All.
Richard
