The "A" Team ...

When a difficult task stands before you, a wise approach to accomplish it, is to select a team that is able to contribute a set of unique skills that when combined are able to meet nearly any task of any size.  In professional sports this team of athletes is referred to as “starters” or if the need is singular, then special teams.  In the military, teams are assembled like this within the special forces branches, and only elite, albeit different soldiers are used.  In the business world, the moniker the “A” team is still sometimes used.  It refers an organization’s best and brightest.  It represents the folks who are most likely to overcome any difficulty, rely upon each other’s strengths, offset each other’s weaknesses, and march on to victory.  So in the spiritual world, why would we expect to see anything different?

Imagine the magnitude of the task that stood before Jesus at the outset of His ministry.  Jesus must change the perception of God in the eyes of the people.  He has this task to do not just for Gentiles who believe in many gods, but for Israelites who believe in a vindicate, rules-obsessed God.  Jesus must change the way an entire nation views how to interpret scripture.  For even though they call themselves by His name, and the name of His Father, they have twisted scripture to fit the doctrines of debate, and in so doing have squeezed the love completely out of it.  How like us.  Jesus must demonstrate to all people the intentions of He and His Father in tangible ways, erasing the pain of sin, inside their hearts and minds, and outside in the defects sin brings by bad choices, heredity, and misfortune of Satan’s rage.  To heal a sin sick world, crying from pain of disease, deformity, and even possession will be no small task.   And while Jesus takes on this work, He must remain spotless (no shortcuts), and He must groom His followers to become a church that will stand the test of time and fury of a Roman empire, and Jewish religion, that will stand against it.

What Jesus needs is an “A” team.  Both then and now, Jesus needs a few followers that can assist Him in these tasks, and make the work of redemption easier by example, and by action, and by personal testimony.  So who should Jesus select?  From a decidedly human perspective, our minds would immediately turn to the great spiritual leaders who have lived in our past, or perhaps are still carrying on great missions today.  We think of pastors of large churches, or leaders of large conferences.  We think of singers who have international acclaim, and have toured the world over.  We think of miracle workers, who have performed great acts of healing, most of them on television. 

Our thinking is not much different, than the church leadership thought in the days of Jesus on earth.  The Sanhedrin was waiting on the call.  They expected that when the Messiah emerged, He would immediately come to them for assistance.  After all, who better than they to provide spiritual guidance in matters of doctrine.  They were the established leaders of the people in all matters of the Temple and of religion in that day.  Any doctrine outside of their blessing was heresy.  So any teacher outside of their order must by definition be a heretic.  And besides, these men, were just waiting on the call.  They had every intention of responding when it came.  But it didn’t.  At least not the way they thought it should.

Quietly, that is to say, without any formal pronouncements from the Temple order, or solicitations of the same; Jesus had come to earth.  Even the angels who burst into song at His birth because they could hold their voices no longer, found an audience of humble shepherds in the fields, not priests in the Temple.  The same star that guided men from half way across the world, went unnoticed by the Sanhedrin.  The voice of the Father Himself, and appearance of the Spirit in the form of a dove, were heard at the river Jordan, during a practice the priests discarded as unnecessary, but God obviously did not.  For all the sacrificial system of the Temple, a simple humbling of the heart, was worth more to God.  And it was that.  It was humility that all but had disappeared in the hearts of those who “knew” the word of God, and who studied it without ceasing, yet loved very little.

They, and we, have become proud of our accumulated religious knowledge.  The Sanhedrin, and the modern Christian, await the call of God as if God owes it to us.  After all, we have read so much, learned so much, done so much “mission” oriented work.  The fact that we do not know how to love, and who to love, does not even cross our minds.  We are too obsessed with a perfection we intend to achieve, either completely alone, or in some sort of “partnership” with God, where we do “our” part, and then He makes up the meager difference.  Although in truth these “partnerships” produce nothing more than excuses for our continued imperfection, and a chance to blame God because we continue to fail.  Albeit, we take pride in our rich spiritual history, and claim it as our own, though contribute very little to it.  We are spiritually wealthy in our own eyes, and now only await the official call of God, to put His seal on our life’s work.  So it was then.  So it is now.  How little has changed.

But the “A” team for Jesus was not to be found in the Temple, or ranks of the Sanhedrin, nor perhaps in the hearts of the modern Christian who yet refuses to humble himself no matter the size of his ministry.  The “A” team for Jesus was to be found in the least likely of suspects.  Jesus had already picked up the mantle of John the Baptist.  Jesus was preaching his gospel message of repentance, and was baptizing in the same river John did.  As for disciples, the “A” team so to speak, Matthew was not there when they were first picked.  He did not see it first hand, but he reported on it, from collective recollections he heard. 

His account begins in chapter four of his gospel picking up in verse 18 saying … “And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. [verse 19] And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. [verse 20] And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.”  The disciple John provides a better first person account, revealing more details that it was he and Andrew, who were already disciples of John the Baptist.  That when Jesus appeared, John directed them to follow Him, as Jesus was the Messiah.  It was John and Andrew who raced to their respective homes, and told their respective brothers, about the discovery of the Messiah.  And then it was Jesus who follows as Matthew records above.

Matthew continues in verse 21 saying … “And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. [verse 22] And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.”  Fishermen.  After all the preconceived ideas about who Jesus would select for His “A” team, He picks four fishermen.  He could choose to do so again today.  Though the methods have evolved, the profession remains even till our day.  Can you imagine if the fate of modern Christianity, is still resting in the hands of common, ordinary fishermen.  Not the preachers.  Not the teachers, or singers, or miracle workers.  Especially not the conference leaders, but instead the entire fate of Christianity continues to reside in the hands of fishermen along our coasts.  It is unthinkable, in every mind, but the mind of Christ.  Perhaps in our day, Jesus might expand His selections of an “A” team but limit it only to any other truly blue collar position in life.  Still unthinkable, even to them, but NOT to Jesus Christ.  He not only thought it, He picked it.

The stain on the face of the Sanhedrin could not have been brighter.  To be overlooked in favor of illiterate fishermen, who had only a baby’s view of the scriptures, was inconceivable.  This very pick, puts Jesus in the fake Messiah column.  Because surely no “real” Messiah would start out like this, and then pick these idiots as His “A” team when SO MANY better qualified candidates exist right here in the Temple, and center of the established religious leadership of the day.  It’s like trying to start a baseball team, and walking right by the Hall of Famers and picking the janitor, hot dog stand guy, and ladies working to clean the bathrooms instead.  Only an idiot would ever do that right, so if Jesus did it, that makes Him an … but hold the phone.  If Jesus is God, and we know He is, then it may be that our ideas of “qualifications” that are all twisted around, just like those of the Sanhedrin.

What Jesus needed was and is, men who are willing to admit, they do not know everything, in fact, they know very little.  Jesus needs humility in us, so that He can actually teach us, the right things, the right ways, in the right time.  He can’t do that, if we refuse to let Him, because we ALREADY know what we need to know.  Our submission to Jesus then, is the hallmark trait of an “A” team member for His purposes.  He does not need us to lead at all.  He has that covered.  Instead, He needs us to play, understanding we have NO skills, and He will provide them to us, when and how we need them.  Imagine what it takes for the janitor lady who normally cleans the bathrooms to step up to the mound against true “professionals”.  That takes faith.  That takes trust.  That does NOT take confidence, it takes dependence and humility.  It is our confidence that has been our problem all along.  We put our confidence in us, in the accumulated knowledge and work we have done for Jesus.  Instead of putting our confidence in knowing we know nothing, and he knows everything.  We can solve zero problems, but He can solve every problem.  Our lack of humility, and misplaced confidence, keeps us out of the real game entirely.

And what does Jesus do right after picking this team?  Matthew continues in verse 23 saying … “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. [verse 24] And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. [verse 25] And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.”  Jesus does what Jesus always does, and what Jesus was meant to do.  The better question is, how did this “A” team “help” Jesus do what Jesus does?  In point of fact they did not.  They were there as witnesses, not as participants, at least not yet.

It turns out the job of an “A” teamer for Jesus may also be quite a bit different than we thought as well.  Instead of jumping right in and offering their opinions to folks.  They were a bit dumb-founded as they watched God do, what God has always wanted to do for us, and through us, and sometimes in spite of us.  Watching God work is staggering, both then and now.  Same God, who wants to do the same work.  Jesus is every bit as interested in healing the sick now, as He was then.  The modern Christian is the one all twisted around, because we pray weak prayers questioning the will of God, or we take credit for what He does, as if it only happened because we prayed at all.  Neither condition was a problem in the days of Jesus.  Jesus healed, without any prompting from His disciples at all.  Jesus healed because that is what Jesus does.  He restores men to God, and to the image He intended for them to be in.  Peter did not have to pray to get Him started.  Peter just had to step aside and watch Him go.

It is we who have lost confidence in the will of our God.  We now sometimes believe it must be His will when calamity strikes (instead of most often a cause and effect relationship between choices to sin, and the results of pain that sin inevitably brings with it).  But then you ask, how else could bad things happen to the innocent?  I answer, Satan has not disappeared or gotten tired of playing.  He is every bit the unflinching animal he ever was, and will inflict as much pain as he can.  In addition, when I choose to smoke, and I get cancer, that is not God’s will for my choice or its result.  That is cause and effect.  And when my unborn child suffers because my second-hand smoke penetrates his mother and gives him grief in the womb.  That is also NOT the will of God, but the result of my choices, and their results.  Modern Christians are all too keen on passing off responsibilities we should own to our God, and then wonder why the unbeliever questions His character. 

Our environment is polluted, our air, water, and earth, because of the greed sin promotes, and the choices our forefathers, and we ourselves continue to make.  When disaster arises from environmental disturbances that come up, they too are NOT the will of God, but the results of what man has done to himself, and what Satan makes worse from his efforts.  You will notice in these texts, that Jesus does not go around creating earthquakes, and tornadoes, and otherwise judging and killing the wicked.  That is unthinkable to what we know about Jesus.  You will also note, that Jesus does not go around creating terminal diseases in the innocent, and using terminal disease to judge the wicked.  In fact that is NOT what Jesus does, or ever did.  That is what sin does, and always did.  Jesus ends the pain of those things.  Jesus restores humanity to what He intended for it.  He does not create misery in order for people to run to Him to avoid it.  That is not love.  That is fear.  And fear does not change lives or motives, it only puts things in perspective for a moment.  Then life resumes just as it was.  Love however, changes things forever.

Jesus ends suffering, He does not cause it.  The “A” team witnessed this, over and over and over again until it was drilled into their minds and hearts.  They became so confident over time, that THIS was the will of God, to end suffering.  And later they would be able to see God do it, even after Jesus had left this world.  They knew it was still Him.  They knew it had nothing to do with themselves, only everything to do with ending the suffering of the person in need.  The “A” team saw God in action.  The “A” team had their own perceptions of God changed.  The “A” team were humble enough to allow this to occur.  Are you ready to join that team?  Or do you already know, everything you need to know?