St. Bartholomew, Apostle
What will believers in Christ know about us in 4009? Unless all our blogs, face books and emails are still available in 200 years believers in christ nor anyone else know of us at all.
I raise the above question, because when you say Bartholomew you’ve said all we know. 2000 years ago he was among the list of Jesus’ disciples in Matthew, Mark and Luke. In John the name Nathaniel is listed instead.
The epistle for his day from 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 begins, “We have this treasure in jars of clay.” Likely, in less than 100 years few will remember anything of us. Yet, like Bartholomew (Nathaniel) we carry the treasure of Jesus’ death and resurrection in our mortal bodies. We know nothing of Bartholomew other than he was a disciple and along with the other disciples proclaimed the power of the Gospel, which lives on far beyond the time when his weak mortal body breathed its last and died.
Bartholomew reminds us that what is important is not how much power I have or how famous I think I am. What is of the utmost importance is that I show the power of Jesus’ life and his Gospel through my life.
As John the Baptist said in referring to Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Some traditions say Bartholomew preached in India or Armenia following the resurrection. In art, Bartholomew is pictured holding a flaying knife to indicate the manner in which he was killed.
The hymn, By All Your Saints in Warfare (LSB518) has a stanza dedicated to Bartholomew
Stanza 23
All praise for him whose candor
Through all his doubt You saw
When Philip at the fig tree
Disclosed You in the law.
Discern, beneath our surface,
O Lord, what we can be,
That by your truth made guileless,
Your glory we may see.
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