Approaching Easter - Philip Yancey

Random notes from Philip Yancey's book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Part One, Who He Was


I would have puzzled over the strange mixture represented by the Twelve.  Simon the Zealot belongs to the party violently opposing Rome, while Matthew the tax collector has recently been employed by Rome's puppet ruler.

No scholars like Nicodemus or wealthy patrons like Joseph of Arimethea have made it into the Twelve.

In my observation, in fact, the disciples' most obvious trait seems to be their denseness. "Are you so dull?" Jesus asks again and again.

While he is trying to teach them servant leadership, they are squabbling about who deserves the most favored position.


Oddly, as I look back on Jesus' time from the present perspective, it is the very ordinariness of the disciples that gives me hope.

Jesus does not seem to choose his followers on the basis of native talent or perfectibility or potential for greatness.

When he lived on earth he surrounded himself with ordinary people who misunderstood him, failed to exercise much spiritual power, and sometimes behaved like churlish schoolchildren.

Three followers in particular (the brothers James and John and Peter) Jesus singled out for his strongest reprimands -- yet they would become prominent leaders of the early church.

I cannot avoid the impression that Jesus prefers working with unpromising recruits.

Once, after he sent out seventy-two disciples on a training mission, Jesus rejoiced at the successes they reported back.

No passage in the Gospels shows him more exuberant. "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.'"

From such a ragtag band Jesus founded a church that has not stopped growing in nineteen centuries.

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[Note: the selection of the Twelve gives me hope, too. And Christ actually selected these men Himself. Unlike most rabbis, whose followers came to them seeking appointment, Jesus  sought each of these men, as Mark tells us in his Gospel (Mark 3), for specific reasons:

     Jesus went up on a mountain and called to
     him those he wanted, and they came to him...
     that they might be with him and that he might
     send them out to preach.....

These are the men He wanted to be with.....

And it is from these men that we have the Easter story and its miracle of re-birth and gift of authority and power through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

It's the way God worked then and the way He works now.]

Thank you, God, that you have chosen to take the
poor, ordinary and powerless people (and that includes me) to accomplish your Kingdom work!