The Twelve: Simon the Zealot

Simon the Zealot

Name meaning: We had that name before, his name literally means “the one who was heard.” To some extend it is a reflection on the suffering of matriarch Leah who said “[God has] heard...” when she conceived and bore the second boy (Genesis 29:33). There are two things in this “zealot” addition. First, the Gospel authors wanted to separate him from Simon that Jesus renamed into Peter. Second, there is an identity “marker” behind this word, which is accompanied with a very loaded meaning. Let's talk about the meaning.

Life story: The last apostle (before Judas Iscariot) has almost NO story. He is mentioned in the list of the 12 disciples (Matthew 10:1-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:12-16; Acts 1:13). And apart from that we have no mentioning of him at all.

So, what can we learn from the fact that his not mentioned?

First, he should not be confused with Simon Peter. What do we know about Simon Peter? He stands out for his many of his qualities, but the main one is “jumping the gun.” Sometimes it is good – he was the first to confess Jesus as Christ, the Son of God, the Living One (Matthew 16:13-20). Sometimes it is not so healthy – everyone remembers the situation at the Last Supper (Mark 14:26-31). So, it is possible that Simon the Zealot is distinguished from St. Peter because he thinks through, not making rush decisions, calculating every step of the way.

Second, the importance of “zealot” designation. Zealots were a terrorist organization founded 6AD by Judas of Galilee. They would not refrain from violence. Their “methods” were based on Numbers 25:1-15. They were fighting for the independence of Israel from the Pax Romana – Roman rule in Mediterranean world. What is interesting is the fact that he did not have a single argument with Levi Matthew – the tax collector [for the Roman government]. The presence of Jesus united those who had opposed political views in the civil realm. They both made a choice of a better and more important part of their lives – being the apostles of the Savior of the world.

Third, St. Paul wrote to Titus about being zealous for good works (Titus 3:14). A few verses prior St. Paul talks about being saved by grace which was given to us in the Sacrament of the Holy Baptism. At the same time, he encourages the believers to be fruitful in their lives. In a sense, he points toward St. Simon – he was called from being a terrorist to the preacher of the Good News of Jesus. St. Paul invites the pastor and his congregation on Crete island to follow his example of being zealous for the LORD.

Tradition: Death and symbol. Traditionally, St. Simon is pictured with a saw in his hand, for his martyrdom was achieved by being sawed in half.

Date – as talked about this last time – the date of commemoration for St. Simon is the same for St. Jude, October 28.

Prayer: Almighty God, You chose Your servants Simon and Jude to be numbered among the glorious company of the apostles. As they were faithful and zealous in their mission, so may we with ardent devotion make known the love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Twelve: St. Thaddaeus or St. Jude

St. Thaddaeus or St. Jude

Identity: Before we start to talk about the meaning of the name and life story, we need to identify who he really was. Modern scholarship (especially secular) make a big deal out of “confusion” with three lists of the apostles we have in the Gospels of Matthew (10:1-4), Mark (3:16-19), and Luke (6:13-16). Luke gives one more list in the Book of Acts (1:13). While Matthew and Mark talk about Thaddaeus, Luke mentions Judas the son of James in both of his books. Along with this John mentions Judas (not the Iscariot) as a part of the fellowship at the Last Supper (John 14:22). We also have the Letter of Jude – the last of the 7 General or Catholic Epistles. Therefore, if we believe that the Apostles and Gospel writers knew what they were talking about. We just need to assume that Judas, Jude, and Thaddaeus is the same person. This should not surprise us for we have multiple instances of people having more than one name – Simon being also called Peter would be a parade example.

Meaning of the name(s). Let us start with Thaddaeus. Depending on the origins it can mean “courageous heart” (if derived from Aramaic), or “gift of God” (if derived from Greek).

Judas – Greek form of Hebrew name Judah – means “praise the LORD.” It was the name of the fourth son of Jacob by Leah (Genesis 29:35). As you might remember Leah and Rachel got into to a racing competition for the love of their husband. Bible simply states that Jacob loved Rachel – it was the love from the first sight, and he was ready to serve seven years for her (Genesis 29:20). Leah was trying to gain Jacob's love by bearing him sons. First came Reuben, then Simon, then Levi – every time she hoped and hoped... Then Judah was born, and she praised the LORD. She finally can to the ultimate type of relationship – relationship with God. She stopped bearing.

Story: Part of the Twelve. We don't have many stories for Judas (Jude), but the fact that Lord Jesus Christ selected him to be one of the Twelve means something. What were the criteria? Apart from personal assessment of Jesus, St. Luke left us the list of features the apostles paid attention to when they replaced the traitor. In the first chapter of the Book of Acts the apostles are looking for someone else to be “on the team.” Let's see what they considered right to be qualified. There are two basic conditions: (1) be with the group from the very beginning (from the baptism of/by John [Baptizer]) (2) until the day of Jesus's ascension. Covering the time-span of the ministry of Jesus. But within this the apostle should be a witness of resurrection. For sure, when Jesus selected the Twelve, they didn't have the resurrection yet. But what we can certainly know is he was with the disciples from the time of Jesus being baptized by John. This means that he heard the voice from heaven: This is my beloved Son, in Whom I'm well pleased (Mark 1:10-11).

Conversation at the Last Supper. We also see Judas as an active participant at the Last Supper (John 14:22). It is very interesting that Judas listens very carefully, takes his time to process a very rich “spiritual food” of Jesus' sermon, and then asks the question. His question related to what the Lord said a couple sentences prior. But he didn't want to leave it alone, having “I'll ask later” attitude. And Jesus response to his question, taking him very seriously. The distinction between the disciples and the world is maintained by faith through the reception of the word, the word that came through the Son from the Father. When the disciples will receive the word and follow Jesus' commands, the love of Jesus will be manifested among the disciples – that's how the world will know about the Savior (John 13:34-35). This was the driving force for Jude's ministry – be it writing his Letter or preaching of the Gospel to unknown lands (Armenia included).

The Letter of Jude was written around 60AD. The apostle encourages the church not giving in to the evils of the world as it tries to penetrate the church and corrupt the church from within. But imminent judgment on the ungodly IS coming. Though it looks like the wicked prevail (at times and places), there is a greater judgment that is ultimately coming to the world (cp. Ps. 73).

As long as the Church is present on earth, the forces of evil will attack her from the outside and try their best to penetrate corrupting from the inside. The Letter of Jude is very helpful with the identification of these attempts, encouraging the “beloved” to hold fast to faith once delivered to the saints. Also, regardless of the difficulty and severity of the spiritual and life combat, we eagerly await the Second Coming of Christ which will complete the ultimate deliverance.

Tradition: Commemoration date for Jude and Simon (the Zealot, we'll talk about him next week) is October 28. Traditionally, the symbols for St. Jude is ship – for traveled extensively – or a spear – reflecting of the record of St. Michael's spiritual engagement with the devil.

Prayer: Almighty God, You chose Your servants Simon and Jude to be numbered among the glorious company of the apostles. As they were faithful and zealous in their mission, so may we with ardent devotion make known the love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Twelve: St. Bartholomew

St. Bartholomew

Meaning of the name: To begin with I need to share that the opinion I am holding is not a unanimous one. Yet, majority agrees that Nathaniel from the Gospel of John (1:45-51; 21:2) and Bartholomew of Synoptic Gospels and the Book of Acts (Matthew 10:1-4; Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16; Acts 1:13) are the persons. We are going to treat it this way. Therefore, we need to talk about both names, starting with Bartholomew.

The name is Aramaic: Bar-Tholmai – son of furrows. The agricultural allusion, the one who relies on God, hoping that the crop will grow strong and there will be ability to harvest the grains or fruits. It actually goes together with Nathaniel. Hebrew: Nathani-El – God given (given by God or given to God). One of the most trusting God vocation is a sower – because at some point one understands that he can't do anything. The seed grows without his input.

Life story: We know that he was born at Cana of Galilee (John 21:2). Which makes his presence at the wedding, where Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine even more significant. More to be said about it.

The Twelve: St. Andrew

St. Andrew

Meaning of the name: Let me begin with a quote from Origen of Alexandria – Church father of III century AD: a name is a designation that sums up and describes the particular character of the one named (ACCS NT, II:41).

Andrew means manly, brave. He had to be brave to switch allegiance from John the Baptizer to the One John was pointing to. He had to be brave to invite his brother. Also, his name is Greek, unlike Simon. This is an indicator that Jesus' mission has a worldwide direction from the very beginning.

Life Story: He was born in Bethsaida, Galilee (John 1:44). When Jesus called him, he lived in the same house with Simon' (Peter) family [note that Simon mentioned first] (Mark 1:29). According to the Gospel of John, he actually was called the first. Then he invited Simon, and then the rest of the disciples joined the band (John 1:37-42).

Gospel of Mark: Two stories of healing

Two stories of Healing

Text: Mark 4:35 – 5:43

Outline:

A. 4:35-41, Calming down a storm

B. 5:1-20, Healing a man with a demon

C. 5:21-43, Healing of two “girls”

Comments:

I told you I am a fan of Creation. Here we go again. Just look at the outline. Nature, then Man, then Woman (actually two of them – God loves His daughters). Now, let us go to the text.

THOUGHTS on SIN

 THOUGHTS on SIN

Romans 6 – INTRO

Middendorf comes up with a helpful table in his Romans commentary (Romans 1-8, CPH, 2013, p.441), an improved version is here:

Word	Earlier	5:12-21	6:1-23	7:1-25	8:1-13	8:14-39	latter	Total
Sin	4	6	16	15	5	0	2	48
Death	2	5	7	5	2	1	0	22
Law	35	3	2	23	5	0	6	73
Flesh/ mortal Body	4/2	0/0	1/2	3/2	13/3	0/1	5/3	26/13 =39

 

According to table the main theme for chapter 6 is sin which results in death. The final verse of the chapter summarizes it, connecting both terms together: for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (6:23).

48=12*4 – square shape of 12 (tribes of Israel, apostles, etc.)

22 – number of letters in Hebrew alphabet – a complete basis for the Word. In connection with death might mean a complete sentence or judgement (cp. the structure of the Book of Lamentations).

So, what is sin? St. John says: sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4b). This reinforces what St. Paul wrote in the previous chapter – 5:13.

Both Hebrew and Greek words mean missing the mark. It might relate to the Garden story – how Adam and his wife missed the mark using the wrong tree for their spiritual growth (Gen. 2:25-3-7).

We can’t fix this – the eternal life that we get in Christ Jesus is a free gift (MS Word underlines this phase [free gift] as redundant). Question at hand – how God “brings us back to the trek” to the ways of the righteous? That’s our next lesson. 

STORY of TWO WOMEN

STORY of TWO WOMEN

Mark 5:21-43

This is an example of so-called sandwich story – within the story about the resurrection of the Jair’s daughter, there is a narrative of a bleeding woman.

a. 5:21-24a, Jair invites Jesus to cure and save his daughter

  b. 5:24b-34, woman touches Jesus and is healed

a’. 5:35-43, Jesus takes/touches a girl by the hand, and she is healed/raised from the dead

A couple of notes on the text.

v. 24 has two verbs in relation to the crowd’s behavior toward Jesus – followed Him and thronged. Some of the translations prefer a better verb – pressing in on Him (NASB). St. Augustine comments: Few are they who by faith touch Him; multitudes are they who throng Him. (ACCS, NT-II, p. 75).

v. 26. Mark notices that she wasted all her financial resources on the doctors. Luke, probably being a doctor (Col. 4:14), avoids the mentioning of this fact (Lk. 8:43).

v.27-28. Interesting that none of the Church Fathers (referring to ACCS selection) made a connection between her desire to touch His garment and the prophecy of Zechariah 8:23. The Zech. Passage itself is based on Num 15:37-40. The outer garments of a faithful Jew were symbolic representation of the YHWH’s covenant with the people. As a result, the people wearing this covering were to witness His presence in their lives and thus lead the Gentiles to the God who is present among the people. That’s why the woman did not need to touch Jesus, but her goal was to touch the garment.

v. 36. Jairus’ name comes from the Hebrew Jair (or Yair, cp. Num. 32:339-41, 1 Chron. 2:21-23), meaning: He (Yah) enlightens (gives vision/sight). People perceiving his daughter dead, and Jesus “overhearing” them (some manuscripts say “ignored”) tells Jairus to “believe”. This narrative simple illustrates what later St. Paul will put so gallantly: Faith comes from hearing, hearing of the Word of God (Rom.10:17) and we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).     

Parallels/contrasts between the woman and daughter:

	Woman	Daughter
1	No name	No name
2	Daughter (v. 34)	Daughter (v. 23,35); little girl (v. 41)
3	12 years of sickness	12 years old
4	Bleeding (spiritually “dead”)	dying
5	She touches Him	He takes/touches her by her hand
6	Jesus heals her using “talith”	Jesus calls her “Talitha”
7	Great crowds	Limited (7) number of people

 

  Picture: The Raising of Jairus' Daughter (twelfth-century mosaic) (datail) Byzantine school (from Peter Stanford, A Life of Christ, (London: Quercus [2009], p. 92).  

My sermon from 2021 on the text (go to 34:20)        

  

Book of Acts: Matthias replaces Judas

Matthias replaces Judas

The Passage: Acts 1:12-26

Structure:

A. 1:12-13, List of the apostles

 B. 1:14-15, the disciples pray

  C. 1:16-17, The OT citation  

   D. 1:18-19, Death of Judas   

  C’. 1:20-22, The OT citation

 B’. 1:23-25, the disciples pray

A’. 1:26, Matthias is added to the list  

Historical and geographical context:

The Eleven (they, cp. Mk. 16:14 and Acts 1:13) came back from Mount Olivet to Jerusalem. The trip was not more than a Sabbath day’s trip – about 1000 [normal] daily steps. Why would they mention that if it was not a sabbath day? They come back to the same place they used to stay during and after the Cross and Resurrection.

They come to the Upper Room – a place where Jesus instituted the His Supper, the higher ground that becomes the source of life for the world. (NB: the Altar in the church – usually – is placed on a higher ground).

The replacement of Judas happened within the 10 days (maybe the first one, but most likely not, 1:15) after the Ascension, prior to Pentecost.    

Theology:

Selection of the ministers – number, timing, personal characteristics.

Number – Peter proposes that the drop-out apostle should be re-placed: “one of these men MUST become with us a witness to his resurrection” (1:22). How many people saw/heard/experienced the resurrection? According to St. Paul – abut 500 (1 Cor. 15:6). This means that the verb “to witness” does not mean the fact of eye witnessing, but the ministry of the Word and Sacrament. The ministry is a witness of His resurrection. For as St. Paul puts is: “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). The same applies to the Sacraments – Holy Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar.       

Timing – There is an opinion that apostles “jumped the gun”. They should’ve waited for the conversion of Saul. God speaks of him as a “chosen instrument” (Acts 9:15). On the other hand, we do not have any significant acts – sermons, acts of mercy, or miracles – done by Matthias.
That’s where the historical and liturgical heritage helps to answer this question. LSB 517:13 is dedicated to St. Matthias. 

Characteristics. The list of “requirements” is substantially different than what St. Paul would design later for the ministry in diaspora (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Tit. 1:5-6, 7-9). Here: being with us all the time – from the baptism by John to the Ascension. Two criteria: we (1) know him through time (2). Then they prayed for the guidance of the LORD. Prayer and casting lots (cp. Purim, Ex. 28:30; 1 Sam. 14:41-42; Pr. 16:33) was the method of identification.   

Other themes:

Authorship of particular psalms confirmed. It is not an issue here, but later – in Acts 4 we’ll see an important authorship statement. 

120 – the number of disciples (as a whole) was fitting for the following task – sharing the Good News (the Gospel) with the representatives of 15 national and geographical groups.