Ordinary people

The most remarkable thing about the men Jesus chose to become his closest disciples is that they were all remarkably unremarkable. John MacArthur makes this point in the title of his fine 2002 book Twelve Ordinary Men.

Several of them were fishermen. One was a tax collector, even less popular with his countrymen than an IRS agent would be today. One was a zealot, what in today's world we might call an activist, an extremist or even a terrorist. For most of the 12, we have no idea what they were. We know virtually nothing about them, yet MacArthur someone manages to write several pages about each of them.

He writes 35 pages about Peter, who is mentioned again and again in the gospels and in Acts, yet then manages 16 pages about Nathanael, even after beginning by saying he is mentioned just twice in John's gospel and elsewhere named only in the lists of disciples. In other words, MacArthur knows how to make much out of very little.

He calls Nathanael "the guileless one," Philip "the bean counter," Andrew "the apostle of small things" and so on. For each there is a lesson in the author's hands. Together they teach the lesson that Jesus has a purpose for all varieties of ordinary people.