CHOSEN

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”

John 15:16a

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Do you remember back to your younger days when there were times when sides were chosen?

Usually this would happen in school or on the playgrounds and would involve some form of a game with a competitive element to it. If you were seen as really good at the game or maybe were just more popular, you would usually get picked first by whoever was designated as the captain. Conversely, if you weren’t either of those, then you probably were being selected more toward the end of the selection process, an indication that you weren’t as valued as the others and maybe wouldn’t have been picked at all if the rules didn’t require it to happen.

I don’t know about you but I wasn’t a big fan of these kinds of events because when the dust settled on the picking, some people were left feeling good about themselves while others, not so much. And frankly, those who were left feeling good about themselves weren’t really in need of any positive reinforcement anyways because they usually knew how good they were and never hesitated to let someone know about it. On the other side of things, those who already suffered from issues of self esteem and worth were usually made to feel even worse about themselves when selected towards the end.

Indeed, some of our earliest experiences with being chosen weren’t the most positive ones. In fact, maybe we even developed a real anxiety towards any future situations where selection was a part of the equation, situations like competing for jobs or hoping to find a partner to love and live forever with.

Well, as we turn to our single verse today from the 15^th chapter of John’s Gospel, we find that all are given hope when it comes to the matter of being chosen. For in Jesus, we find the perfect equal opportunity chooser, One who is perfectly unbiased and sees worth in everybody. Look again at His words here:

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”  John 15:16a

As we have been studying for quite a few devotions now, Jesus is providing His disciples some last direction and encouragement before He is taken from them and killed, set up and put on the road to Roman execution by the Jewish religious authorities who wanted nothing more than to eliminate the threat to their prestige and power. And in today’s verse, He reminds them of the way His particular selection process was carried out.

For Jesus could have chosen anyone to comprise His faithful inner circle of twelve men. He had plenty of people to select from but He knew exactly who He wanted and there wasn’t anything necessarily exceptional about the men He picked. After all, His first four picks were mere fishermen, hardly the first four people anyone would have predicted if given the opportunity. But Jesus later would tell one of these fishermen, Peter, that He would build His church upon him. Indeed, Jesus always had a habit of taking the ordinary and doing something extraordinary with it.

Jesus followed this up by approaching a tax collector named Matthew and choosing him. If a fisherman would be considered less likely to be selected, then a tax collector definitely would have been seen as one of the least likely. This is because they were typically despised by the Jewish people, employees of the Romans who oppressed the Jews in many ways to include taxation. It wasn’t just the Roman employment that miffed a majority of the Jewish population but in many cases, the Jewish tax collectors levied more tax than they were supposed to. They would pay Rome what was required and keep the rest for themselves, essentially stealing from their own people. It’s easy to see how that would rub someone the wrong way.

But Jesus didn’t shy away from choosing someone who was viewed with contempt, a person who might even be considered irredeemable. No, He intentionally sought out sinners for as He stated Himself, He came for the sick, the spiritually sick in these cases, and not the healthy.

Four fishermen and a tax collector. Five surprising first selections. Jesus would go through the same process in selecting the other seven and in our verse today, He reminds His faithful followers about the way things went as they were invited to join Him in ministry. He chose them, not the other way around.

But there was far more to what Jesus was doing than mere selecting. For once picked, His followers were appointed, tasked with serving alongside Him to bear fruit in serving and caring for others. For three years, Jesus had shown them by example how to go and bear fruit but now He was getting ready to leave them and they would be on their own to carry out His appointment. Later, He would tell them exactly what they were to do:

“…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20a  

And then He added:

“…surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b

And so it was. The disciples were chosen, appointed, and then tasked, sent forth to do Jesus work with a set purpose.

Today friends, nothing has changed. Jesus comes to us all and offers us an invitation to come to Him. He chooses us and it’s up to us as to whether or not we accept His offer or reject it. If we accept, then we too become appointed and tasked, purposed to do the same work He gave His first disciples, a work not done alone but with Jesus walking alongside us every day, still leading and guiding us by way of the Holy Spirit.

I know I feel so very blessed to be counted among the number of the chosen, honored to hold Christian identity. I pray you too are counted in that number today.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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