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Let’s read Acts 1:12-26
If your Bible isn’t nearby, here’s a link.https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%201%3A12-26&version=NLT
So the disciples do what they were told. Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem and they went to Jerusalem and waited. This is progress!
There were eleven of the twelve disciples (if you don’t know what happened to the other one, may I recommend the book of Luke). They waited in Jerusalem along with Jesus’ mom and brothers and a number of other women. Cool that the brothers had joined the disciples. This is one of many situations in which we see people dramatically changed AFTER Jesus died. Jesus’ brothers had been embarrassed by him. A couple of times they had tried to get him to shut up and come home when he was teaching. They clearly didn’t believe the claims he made about himself before his death. So now that he has been tortured and executed as an enemy of both the Jewish authorities and Rome, now they are hanging out among his followers. That’s unexpected. Why would anyone join the followers of Jesus now? Because they physically saw him after his resurrection, and it changed them.
Be real with me, if you saw someone die horribly and publicly and then they were alive and talking to you a few days later, that would change you too, especially if one of the reasons you thought he was crazy was because he told you he would be killed and raised back to life!
So the followers of Jesus waited together in Jerusalem, as many as 120 of them together.
Now, Peter has been doing some thinking. If I’m being real, the whole Matthias replacing Judas thing is weird to me. Peter was obviously reading the psalms and came across something that made him feel like it was important. But honestly, I took a look at those passages and I’m not seeing it. On the other hand, Jesus said and did a lot of things among his disciples that aren’t recorded, so maybe Peter was trying to honour something Jesus spoke about that isn’t written down. But let’s be real, if it was just Peter trying to figure out what to do next… Well that’s a very Peter sort of thing to do!
I love that when Jesus redeems us, he doesn’t make us all clones. Peter was Peter from the day they met on the shore of Galilee to the day he died. I think Jesus actually loves US as we are. Our personalities are precious to him, and he made us the way we are for a reason. And ya, sometimes we use our personalities in ways that honour him and sometimes we use them in ways that we shouldn’t, but he doesn’t just turn us into robots when we surrender to him. I think my takeaway is, he didn’t save us to change who we are. He saved us to help us become all of who we were created to be in its best and holiest form. I like the thought of that!
Having said that, it’s cool that they prayed about it. They’re finally catching on. They cast lots – very old temple Jewish. I sometimes think I should just go that route when I’m trying to make a decision (just pray and cast lots). But this is what makes me wonder about Peter’s idea. Saul comes along (spoiler incoming, sorry), he is specifically and personally called by Jesus and he calls himself an apostle. SOoooo, if it really was the plan of God to fill that roll, I wonder if he already had someone in mind.
I had this conversation with hubby who pointed out that this is Peter before the Holy Spirit showed up and filled him and the other believers. Hubby and I agree, this was probably Peter being Peter.
I mean, it’s probably not that important. Scripture doesn’t say, but it’s amusing to think about.
