On the Eleventh Day of Christmas...

Here’s a brief blog series on each of the 12 days of Christmas, with Christian meanings.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my True Love [God] gave to me:

Eleven pipers piping

Eleven Faithful Apostles

 
Of course, there were eleven faithful apostles because Judas betrayed Jesus.  This is a sober reminder that one can follow the Lord closely and for a long time, as Judas did, but not be a real believer.
 
We don’t often think of the original disciples as gifts to us, but they are.
 
Most importantly, they gave us the New Testament.  In it we have a few crucial keys:
 
1.  History recorded.  The birth, baptism and temptation of Jesus.  His healing, teaching of the people, arguing with the Jews.  His betrayal, arrest, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension to God’s throne.  These are events they record, as history.
 
2.  The first responses of people generally, and of His closest followers, to Jesus’ teaching and actions.  Peter’s, “No, Lord.”  Nathanael’s “can anything good come from Nazareth?”  Wondering how to feed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish.  In the apostles’ responses to Jesus, we see our own reactions to God in how our lives unfold.
 
3.  The meaning of Christ’s coming.  What did His death and resurrection accomplish?  “He reconciled us both [Jew and Gentile] to God in one body through the cross” (Ephesians 2:16).  “He has canceled the record of debt that stood against us” (Colossians 2:14).  Romans is the classic example of this: bringing together the whole Old Testament with the good news of Jesus Christ.  The apostles explain Jesus to us.  They are His witnesses (Acts 1:6-8).  Witnesses who not only say what happened, but what it means.  Witnesses to those who already believe and read them (the Church), but also to the whole world.
 
Remember, these apostles worked and sacrificed to offer up this witness to the world.  They worked, in composing the New Testament.  Such writing!  Arranging words, Scriptures, thoughts, events, to show forth the glory of Christ!  And their sacrifice.  Tradition records that most of these apostles died painfully for their testimony.
 
What a gift of God to His Church!  Eleven faithful apostles.