Just Like You and Me

Do you know the names of the twelve apostles?

When I was a kid, way back in the day, that was one of the things we memorized in Sunday school, along with the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the 23rd Psalm and a few other things. I think there was a song about their names, too, but to be honest, I don’t remember it. It’s also doubtful, if you asked me today, that I could come up with all twelve names.

Don’t judge me, please, I’m just terrible with names. Faces, I’m pretty good with, but that’s not helpful since we have no idea what they looked like. Their names we have, though, listed in each of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the eleven in Acts. Judas Iscariot was gone by then, of course. Him I remember.

Only a few of them have back stories elsewhere in the gospels, but the list of their names appears in the context of Jesus commissioning them to go and spread the good news, heal people and cast out demons. There are so many in need, Jesus sends them out to be Jesus, basically.

Whenever we talk about the gang as a group, we try to emphasize that Jesus chose ordinary, everyday people. Some were fishermen, there was a tax collector, even the ones who don’t have a story seem to be just ordinary, everyday people. As far as we know, Jesus didn’t choose theologians, religious leaders, academics, people with specific special gifts, not doctors, warriors or politicians. Ordinary, everyday people who were imperfect, sometimes struggled to understand, had egos and tempers and didn’t always get along. You know, ordinary everyday people - just like you and me. 

And that’s the point we try to make: ordinary, just like you and me.

I wonder, though, if there isn’t another reason Jesus picked them, specifically, rather than just anyone. I think he picked them because they were extraordinary in a particular way.

When Jesus commissions them to go out and be Jesus to people - share the message, heal people, offer compassion and grace - he’s not sending them out to behave or put on a show. They can’t “Jesus” for others if they’re aren’t authentic, sincere and true to the divine spirit that’s in them, too, just like in Jesus. To be that, they need to risk being vulnerable and opening their heart to others with both empathy and compassion.

They aren’t perfect at it. (Sidebar: Jesus wasn’t either. Read the stories.) They’re just starting out, still learning and growing into their true selves, still figuring out how to balance that divine spirit within them and the earthiness of their creation. But it all begins with an open heart, the greatest tool they have with which to engage people. Jesus doesn’t send them to show how much better they are than anyone else because they’re from Jesus, he sends them to have empathy, to offer grace and healing. He doesn’t send them to show how smart they are or how super religious they are, but to simply share the good news: the kingdom is near. The Good Road is there to be travelled and we can travel together. 

I imagine Jesus would then point them out to people and say “look at these guys. They’re extraordinary. Just like you.”