Andrew, the Slighted Disciple

COMMENTS

I’ve been thinking about Jesus’ apostle Andrew a lot lately.  As the title above implies, my “Andrew” thoughts have been—shall we say—unusual.  If you’ve read many of my posts, you know that sometimes I think weird thoughts.  Some of that can be attributed to the fact that I’m a bit weird, but God likes “weird” and can actually use it to His glory.  Isn’t that cool?

NOTES

Background:  When I was growing up, I often felt left out.  I’m sure some of those feeling-left-out times were brought on by my own insecurities and were not the intention of the people I thought were “slighting” me.  Understanding that about me will, I hope, help you follow my thought processes as I considered Andrew.  Here goes….

I’m not really sure exactly why Andrew came to my mind a few weeks ago.  To my memory, no one had mentioned him to me; but for whatever reason I just got to thinking about Andrew.  I thought about how he and his brother Simon Peter were fishermen with James and John.  I thought about how, according to John 1, Andrew was the first of those four to meet Jesus and how he actually introduced Simon Peter to Jesus.  Those four—Andrew, Peter, James, and John—are mentioned together frequently in the gospels.

That’s where my thoughts went wild.  As I thought about how often those four names were linked, I remembered the times that Jesus took just Peter, James, and John with him.  It was Peter, James, and John who were with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.  It was Peter, James, and John who went with Jesus when He healed Jairus’ daughter.  And although all the disciples were with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, it was only Peter, James, and John whom He took with Him to pray that His Father would “take this cup” from Him and as He surrendered to God’s will.

Who was obviously left out?  Andrew.  Like me in my youth, he could have felt slighted or mistreated or ignored.  He could have thought, “How dare He?!  I was the one who told them about Jesus to be begin with!”  But there’s no indication of that in Scripture.  It appears that Andrew recognized his role and fully accepted it.  I don’t believe he was jealous of Peter, James, or John or that he resented Jesus for taking only them on those special occasions.  I believe He was thankful to be one of Jesus’ followers and to have a role—any role—in His ministry.

Why do I think that?  Read John 12:20-22:

“Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival.  They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request.  ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we would like to see Jesus.’  Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.”

To whom did Philip take their request to see Jesus?  Andrew.  Andrew was obviously respected and had some degree of authority among the disciples.  If Andrew had chosen to pout and complain about not being included with his brother and their close friends, he would have become ineffective and, to be honest, an annoyance to everyone.  Instead, we see a man the other disciples turn to for wisdom and help.  And in every listing of the twelve apostles, Andrew is in the top four.  I’d take that.

Do you ever feel slighted, left out, or ignored?  Which approach will you choose?  Will you take offense because you aren’t in the “inner circle”?  Or will you be grateful that Jesus has chosen you and that He has something for you to do?  Your choice will determine how useful you are in His Kingdom.