On the eleventh day of Christmas

my True Love gave to me:

Eleven true apostles

Jesus gave His faithful band a commission to disciple the world in His name. They testified and wrote down the truth in the Bible, the witness we have of the apostles’ teaching.

And they were ordinary men like us, who argued with each other at the worst possible moments, and asked God for crazy things. One came from working for Rome, another came from wanting to kill Romans. Worse, they didn’t understand His teaching much of the time, wanted to call down fire on Samaritans, and even tried to keep Jesus from going to the cross. Thomas doubted Jesus’ resurrection.

This was a hapless and human crew.

But in the long run, they caught on and preached sermons, planted churches, saw visions and wrote them down, turned the world upside down, and then (mostly) died a martyr’s death for their Lord.

Let us be forewarned from the path of Judas Iscariot, while giving thanks for Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James of Alpheus, Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot.