Today's Reading: Luke 22:24-30
Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 5:1-18; 2 Corinthians 1:23-2:17
Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. (Luke 22:24)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Can you imagine those disciples? Peter says, “I'm pretty much the leader of the Twelve.” James and John say, “No, we are! We're going to sit at Jesus' right and left!” Perhaps Matthew joined in, “Wait a minute! I've got business experience! I should be in charge!” Who knows what they said? It doesn't matter. There were certainly some of Jesus' apostles who seem to be more famous than the others. But perhaps it is in answer to this argument that the Holy Spirit doesn't really tell us anything else about St. Bartholomew, other than that he was an apostle. He was one of the Twelve the Lord ordained to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His name to the ends of the earth.
Bartholomew was a witness of Christ. He saw Jesus and saw Him alive after His resurrection. We don't know anything else about him,but if he was an apostle then wherever he went, we can be sure that he proclaimed Christ crucified for sinners.
We don't need to know anything else about Bartholomew than that. Preachers don't preach so they can impress people and prove they are the greatest. Pastors aren't the most important people in Christ's church. They're just the ones He calls to tell preach and teach repentance and the forgiveness of sins, to baptize and to administer Christ's Body and Blood.
Bartholomew (or Nathanael, as he is called in John's Gospel) was called by Jesus to be a witness to Christ. As far as we know, he died as a martyr to the name of His Lord. Bartholomew, like all the apostles, is truly great not because he wielded some earthly authority or could out-argue the other apostles! His greatness was in his being a man through whom Christ's Word came to sinners and saved them. All praise to Christ for Bartholomew, through whom Christ went to the ends of the earth. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
All praise for him whose candor Through all his doubt You saw When Philip at the fig tree Disclosed You in the law. Discern, beneath our surface, O Lord, what we can be, That by Your truth made guileless, Your glory we may see. (LSB 518:23)