An Unlikely Bunch

To follow Jesus through Matthew's gospel is to see that moment when He called two sets of brothers to become disciples.  (Matthew 4:18-22). A little later Jesus walks by a tax collector named Matthew who gets the call and rises to follow Jesus.  (Matthew 9:9). And then, there were twelve.  "Then Jesus summoned His twelve disciples..." (Matthew 10:1). As we read the list of those called, we cannot help but wonder from whence they came.  What did they leave to follow Jesus?  What was there about each one that led Jesus to call them?  Why did He call Judas?  Surely, He knew Judas was a man capable of betrayal.   

Of course, what we also know is that if such a capability eliminates someone from being called by Jesus, none of us would have heard the summons.  Maybe such is too much a generalized statement, but personal experience tells me it is true.  The longer we live, the more we realize how flawed we are and how blessed we are to be those who have been gifted by the grace of God.  It has always been my profession that when God called me to preach, He must have been scraping the bottom of the barrel, but I have for a lifetime been grateful He did not just throw away what was down there after the better choices had been made.  

Those who comprised the twelve were like all the rest of us.  Flawed is what they were.  Sometimes their egos surfaced in ugly ways as they sought special status.  Sometimes they acted as if Jesus was a stranger.  Sometimes they tried to push His plans aside to insert their own.  Sometimes they just not get what He was doing.  Yet, these were the ones entrusted with the message of the Kingdom of God.  It is always amazing to realize that each one of us have been entrusted with that work as well.