We all know there are twelve disciples,
right? How many of them can you name?
Don’t worry, I’m not going to call on anybody. But
think about it. How many of the names of
the disciples do you know?
Some of you probably know them all. You maybe had to
learn them in Sunday school class, or in confirmation, or something like that,
and you still remember them. I’m pretty sure my Mom could still rattle
off all their names. In all honesty, I
cannot. I never had to memorize them,
and I’ve never bothered to.
There are some we could all think of. Peter. James and John. Judas, of course. But after that, well,
it gets a little tougher. We might be able to come up with Philip. Maybe Thomas--we remember Doubting
Thomas. And then, after some thought, maybe we could come up with one
more. Andrew.
Andrew is kind of an unsung hero among the disciples.
He’s mentioned only twelve times in the Bible.
Four of them are just lists of the names of the disciples. Two of
them are when he’s called by Jesus to follow and become a disciple. Twice he’s just mentioned in passing, and
really has nothing to do with what’s going on.
But the other times are all
something really significant. Andrew may not do much, but what he does
always leads to something that turns out to be really important.
One of them is in the story of Jesus feeding the five
thousand. Andrew is the one who finds the boy who has five loaves and two
fish, and he’s the one who brings that boy to Jesus. And of course, Jesus
then uses those five loaves and two fish to feed all those people. If not for Andrew--well, I’m not saying Jesus
could not have fed them anyway, but the story certainly would have been
different. Andrew’s part in that story is small, but it’s crucial to how
the story plays out.
Another time, there are some Greeks who want to talk to
Jesus. They tell Philip, but for some reason Philip does not want to tell
Jesus about it. He tells Andrew instead, and Andrew tells Jesus about
these people who want to see him. And this leads Jesus to tell Andrew,
and all the rest of the disciples, that his death is going to come very
soon. Again, I’m not saying Jesus would not have found another occasion
to tell them about this, but the fact is that’s Andrew going to Jesus that
prompted him to do it. Again, Andrew’s part in the story is small, but
it’s crucial to how things go.
Yet another time, Jesus tells the disciples about a time
when the temple will be destroyed. Andrew is the one who asks Jesus when
this is going to happen, and what the sign will be that it’s going to happen.
That’s what prompts Jesus to tell them about the end times, about families turn
against each other, about false messiahs that will come, and that only the
father knows when this will happen. That’s a whole other sermon, or maybe
even a sermon series, but the point here is that Andrew is the one who asked
the question that prompted all this.
Again, Andrew’s part in the story is small, but crucial.
And it’s the same in our reading for today. This is
just after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, which we talked about last
week. Andrew, at this point, is following John. But then Jesus walks by, and John says,
“Behold, the Lamb of God.” And Andrew starts following Jesus instead.
Now that’s pretty good in and of itself. But then
we’re told, “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell
him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought
him to Jesus.” Jesus, of course, changes
Simon’s name to Peter, which means rock.
And in Matthew, Jesus goes on to say that Peter is the rock on which
Jesus will build his church. And of course, Peter not only becomes the
leader of the disciples, he becomes the leader of the church in the immediate
aftermath of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Again, not to say Jesus could not have found Peter anyway, but the fact
is that Andrew is the one who brought Peter to Jesus. If not for Andrew,
the entire story would have different.
Andrew’s part in the story is small, but it’s crucial.
We know about Peter, James, and John because they’re among
the Bible heroes. They get a lot of publicity and acclaim, and rightly
so. They were Jesus’ closest friends
while he was on earth. In the years after Jesus left, they were
instrumental in forming the early Christian church. They did great, awesome, heroic things for
God.
But while we respect Peter, James, and John for that, and
maybe even revere them for it, it also makes it harder for us to relate to
them. Because the fact is that most of us are not going to be heroes for
God, at least not in the world’s eyes.
Most of us are not going to do great and awesome things. We’re not
going to preach to huge crowds. We’re
not going to spread the gospel to large groups of people who’ve never heard it
before. We’re not going to bring
thousands of people to Christ. And so, while we consider Peter, James,
and John to be heroes, we also kind of think of them as being on a different
level from us. We admire them, but we don’t
really think we could be like them. And so, a lot of times, we don’t try.
But Andrew is someone we can relate to. Andrew did
not do great, awesome, heroic things for God, or if he did the Bible does not
tell us about them. Andrew did small things. But they were crucial things. Andrew may not have brought thousands of
people to Christ. In fact, other than Peter, we don’t know if Andrew ever
brought anyone to Christ. But there are
lots of people who would not have been brought to Christ if not for the things
Andrew did. Andrew may not have been the final step for anyone. But he was part of the process. He was a link in the chain.
That is something that you and I can do. We can be
like Andrew. We can do small things, but
things that are crucial. We may not be able to be great heroes. But we can be part of the process. We might never be the final step for
anyone. But we can be a link in the chain.
And here’s the thing. I suspect the chances are that
when Andrew did the things he did, he did not do it with any grand plan in
mind. He probably never thought, “I’m going to be a part of the process
of bringing lots of people to Christ!”
He simply did what he could do. He did what needed to be
done. He said what needed to be
said. He asked the questions that need
to be asked. The questions he asked were
sometimes obvious questions, and the things he did were sometimes obvious
things, but nobody else would ask them or do them. Andrew had the courage
to ask and to do. He took advantage of
the chances that presented themselves in his time with Christ.
When Jesus talks about the temple being destroyed, Andrew
asks the obvious question, but one nobody else wanted to ask: when’s this
going to happen, and what will the signs be?
When some Greeks want to talk to Jesus, Philip is afraid to tell Jesus
about it. But Andrew knew someone needed to tell him, so Andrew did
it. When they’re looking for food for
the five thousand, Andrew finds some food.
It’s not much, and he’s not sure what good it’ll do, but he still tells
Jesus about it. And when Andrew finds Jesus, and knows he’s the Messiah,
he goes and finds his brother, so they can both follow Christ. And whenever Andrew did these things,
something happened. Something changed. Sometimes in a big way. You can make the argument that the entire
course of Christianity changed because of the things Andrew did and said.
God may have called you to do something big and heroic--God
does that sometimes. But that’s not how it works for most of us. Most of us will not be a Peter, or a John, or
a James. But we can all be an Andrew.
We can do what needs to be done.
We can say what needs to be said.
We can ask the questions that need to be asked. When no one else
has the courage to do things, or to say things, we can do them and say
them. And in doing that, we can follow
Christ, just like Andrew did.
You and I might bring people to Christ, or we might
not. But we can all be part of the process. We can all be a link in the chain. And
when step up and have the courage to do our part, who knows what may
happen? Something may happen.
Something may change. Maybe
something will change in a big way. Maybe we’ll change someone’s life for
the better. And maybe, just maybe, that
person we change will change the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment