This essay first appeared in our weekly newsletter on July 13, 2024.
We often think of disciples and apostles as the same thing. And in some places in the Gospels, those terms are indeed used interchangeably. But in the original Greek, they are different words. The Greek word translated as “disciples” is mathetes, which means “student.” (It’s where we get the word “mathematics.”) In Jesus’s time, being a disciple meant not only learning from the teacher, but following him—sometimes physically. To be a disciple meant to live as the teacher did.
Interestingly, in Jesus’s time, the student usually sought out the teacher. Jesus turns that around completely: He seeks out his disciples. “Follow me,” he says. Jesus calls them by name and sometimes even gives them new names. “You are Peter,” he says to Simon. (Peter, or in Greek Cephas means “rock.”) It’s the same in our own lives: God always takes the initiative, awakening in us a desire to follow, to draw closer to God, to lead lives of love as disciples. In essence, in these ways God is saying, “Follow me.”
In Jesus’s time, being a disciple meant not only learning from the teacher, but following him—sometimes physically.
“Apostle” is different. That comes from the Greek word apo, meaning “away” or “out,” and stellein meaning “to send.” So an apostle is one who is sent out. This Sunday, Jesus sends out “The Twelve,” another way of talking about the apostles, on a special mission to preach the Good News, to heal and to drive out demons.
As an aside, if you read the Gospels closely you can see the ever-expanding concentric circles around Jesus. First, there’s the innermost circle, Peter, James and John, whom Jesus takes with him to Mount Tabor for the Transfiguration. Then the twelve apostles. Then the disciples, who at one point are numbered at 72. Than a more amorphous band of followers. Then, perhaps, the crowds.
I would suppose that we all consider ourselves as disciples, as mathetes, as those who learn from Jesus and try to follow him. But how many of us consider ourselves apostles, people sent out? You get a sense of that in a newly popular term in the church: “missionary disciples.” And if you are sent out, what is your mission? What’s Jesus sending you out to do?
Well, that depends on who you are. Maybe you’re sent to care for the sick in a local hospital or to care for an aging relative in your family. Maybe you’re sent to work as an attorney who takes on pro bono cases for the poor. Maybe you’re sent as a schoolteacher, a businessperson or a writer. Or a mom or dad. Maybe you’re sent out to help a particular community: LGBTQ people, migrants, single mothers, the unhoused. Or maybe you’re sent in a more formal ministry in the church, like a lector or a eucharistic minister.
If you’re an apostle, be confident in being sent, but also remember who is in charge, that is, who is sending you.
But the implicit question Jesus asks in this Sunday’s Gospel is: Are you able to let the success of the work depend on him? Often we get frustrated, especially in the church, when things don’t seem to be moving quickly enough. But it’s clear that by telling the apostles not to take anything with them, he’s reminding them that the success of their mission comes not from human means, but from him. So, if you’re an apostle, be confident in being sent, but also remember who is in charge, that is, who is sending you.
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