St. Andrew, Apostle (Remembrance Day November 30)

"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said 'Behold! The Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of Whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.'....' I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon Whom you see the spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.'" John 1:29-34

In the world's systems of philosophy and science, the appeal based on authority is considered one of the weakest forms of argument. "Show me, prove it to me, let me experience it" demands the world! To believe or hold to something simply because someone else tells you it is true, or that it is right to do so is held to be nonsense, absolute foolishness. But in the Kingdom of God, authority is considered to be one of the strongest forms of evidence, for the authority of the Kingdom is God Himself. The scripture clearly states in Romans 3:4 "Indeed let God be true, but every man a liar." The scholars of the world may scoff at the man who walks by faith and not by knowledge or sight. "A simpleton!", they will call him. So be it. In every age, in every nation there have been those men who have heard the voice of God's authority speak, and have instantly been made more certain of the truth than if they had pursued it in the universities for their entire life. Their faith is not only diametrically opposed to the wisdom of the world, but becomes the power of the Kingdom against which the gates of Hell cannot prevail. For this reason it was said of these men of faith that they "have turned the world upside down..." Acts 17:6. Such a man was Andrew, one of the first to be called by the authority of Jesus Christ.

The earliest account which we have of Andrew is in the gospel of John. In John 1:35-40 we discover that he was a disciple of John the Baptist until the day when the Baptist pointed to another and simply said "Behold the Lamb of God." He hurried after Jesus until the Lord turned and asked "What do you seek?" What a question! How could he express the hopes, the dreams the desires of his heart which had been inflamed by the preaching of the Baptist and which now seemed so close to fulfillment? His initial response was guarded at first, "Rabbi, where are you staying?" But the Lord's acceptance ("Come and see") of his simple response was soon translated into a more certain declaration as Andrew later declared to his brother, Simon Peter, "We have found the Messiah". From Matthew 4:18-20 we read that he was a fisherman in partnership with his brother. In John 1:44 we learn that he had originally been born in Bethsaida, a city on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, but that he now resided at Capernaum (as shown in Mark 1:21, 29).

The lists of the apostles (such as in Matthew 10:2-4) always list Andrew among the first group of four named. That this is more than a numbering convention but one of divine ordination is seen in Mark 13:3 where that same first group of four, Peter, Andrew, James and John are taught privately of the end of the age by Jesus Christ on the Mount of Olives. What we see foremost in the scattered gospel accounts where Andrew's name is mentioned is an unwavering faith which found its birth in the declaration of the Baptist at the Jordan, and which found its fulfillment again and again in the travels throughout Judea, Perea, Decapolis, Galilee. Wherever the Lord led, His first words to Andrew, "Come and see", provided the backdrop for greater revelations of the Son of God. Andrew's testimony is ever the same "We have found the Messiah!" Consider the account in John 6:8-9 where the Lord looks upon the great multitude and says "Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?" The disciples were dismayed, they were in favor of sending the crowds away to forage as best as they could in the surrounding towns. It is interesting to note that all four gospels record this event, but only the gospel of John (who was the second of the disciples of the Baptist who ran after Jesus with Andrew) states that it was Andrew who responded with what faith he had in the person and power of Jesus Christ. "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?" Perhaps he hoped in his heart, but was afraid to speak out his convictions as he had been afraid on that first day by the Jordan, that Jesus Christ would say "In my hands they are sufficient for the task at hand." Again in John 12:20-22 it is Andrew who is one of those who bring word to the Lord that certain Greeks had come who wished to see Him. Andrew had found that pearl of great price of which the scripture speaks, and wherever the Lord was to be found, we may expect that Andrew would surely not be far from Him.

The accounts in the Church Fathers writing in the second to fifth centuries ascribe an active ministry to him. Origen credits the mission field of Scythia to Andrew. Gregory Nazianus lists Epirus; Jerome, Achaia; Theodoret, Helgas. There is some truth in all of these, for Nicephorous compiles still larger a sphere by listing Cappadocia, Galatia, Bithynia, Scythia, Byzantium, Macedonia, Thessaly, and Achaia. Most accounts are in agreement that in A.D. 60 he was martyred by crucifixion on an X-shaped cross in Patras of Achaia by the Roman Governor Aegeas. Tradition tells us that he was bound to the cross, not nailed, that his suffering might therefore be prolonged.

Let's return to our original starting point. The world equates faith with willful ignorance, humility with weakness, submission to divine authority with superstition. There can be no reconciliation of the world's wisdom with true religion, nor should there be. Paul challenged the scoffers to their face in I Corinthians 1:20 "Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" He was much softer in his criticism than Jesus Christ was, for the Lord spoke of them in Matthew 15:14 in this manner, "Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." But Andrew was a man who submitted to divine authority without hesitation. He had sat at the feet of Jesus Christ on the Mount of Olives and heard Him solemnly warn "Take heed that no one deceive you!" Mark 13:5 He was not fearful to cast off everything that he had held dear whether it was the knowledge and ways of the world, or the comfort and assurance of his Hebrew religion in order to seek out that one thing for which his heart had always yearned. And his simple testimony still rings with power even today. It was sufficient for the challenges of his discipleship whether it required him to believe that 5,000 men could be fed with five loaves, or whether it kept him unbroken in his conviction on the cross of martyrdom. "I have found the Messiah." May our faith be as simple and unshakable as this.