The Tenth Sunday after Trinity 24 08 25
FIRST READING: Isaiah 43:8-13
NEW TESTAMENT READING: Acts 5:12-16
GOSPEL Luke 22:24-30
Today we are commemorating one of the apostles of Jesus Christ, Bartholomew. Bartholomew was considered to be Nathaniel.
John in his gospel mentions the interesting way Nathaniel comes to meet Jesus. Jesus had called someone called Philip to be his disciple. Philip meets Nathaniel and tells him we have found the messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.
People develop bias to places and consider those places to be good for nothing. Nathaniel responds to Philip saying can anything good come out of Nazareth. Nazareth was a small town of working class people. Philip invites Nathaniel saying, come and see. When Nathaniel came to see Jesus, Jesus spoke very highly of him saying here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Jesus reveals his foreknowledge about Nathaniel, saying I saw you under the fig tree even before Philip met you. That opened the eyes of Nathaniel and he became a disciple of Jesus.
It is very important that we remember the apostles as a church. They were the ones after the Pentecost day when they received the Holy Spirit, went to the corners of the earth preaching about Jesus and inviting people to follow Jesus, they also invited people to preach about Jesus and from them started a great movement of people.
We heard in the second reading what was happening in the early church, the apostles preached Jesus in different lands most of the time facing severe opposition and persecution. Yet God was working in and through them, they healed people of their infirmities and proclaimed the good news of Jesus fearlessly. The number of people who believed in Jesus kept on increasing.
When we remember the apostles in our services, the altar frontal is red in colour and the priest also wears a red stole and chasuble to signify their martyrdom. The apostles were all killed eventually for preaching about Jesus.
St. Paul says that the church is built on the foundation of the blood of the apostles and martyrs. The apostles dared to preach about Jesus even risking their lives and we are able to live our Christian faith and be a church because of their proclamation and sacrifice.
The apostles were ordinary people called by Jesus and they were always with Jesus. They had to learn a very important lesson much early on. They were one group of people who were with Jesus, suddenly they started to argue among themselves, who is the greatest and who is the most important. This is a human desire to be seen as more important than others.
Jesus had to tell them to be great is to be the last, to be the servant. Jesus who is the son of God came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. Greatness according to Jesus was the willingness to serve and be willing to sacrifice for the sake of others.
We follow in the steps of the apostles to be witnesses of Jesus Christ.