An Apostle of Jesus Christ

There she sat, eating a sloppy roast beef po-boy and visiting with her friend as if it was any other day. And yet, there was a black smudge on her forehead. In south Louisiana, we know two things: It’s Ash Wednesday and she has been to Church in order to be marked as an apostle of Jesus Christ through the imposition of ashes.

An “apostle of Jesus Christ”? Many might argue that it was just a young woman on her lunch break. What makes her an “apostle”, for goodness sake? An “apostle” is one who is sent. An “apostle of Jesus Christ” is someone who goes into the world to bear faithful witness to the truth of Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 5, the Apostle Paul describes his function as an apostle and invites the Corinthian Christians – and us – to claim their proper role as apostles, those who go forth in the name of Christ:

“And so it is with the fear of the Lord in mind that we try to win people over. God knows us for what we really are, and I hope that in your consciences you know us too. . . . If we seemed out of our senses, it was for God; but if we are being reasonable now, it is for your sake. And this is because the love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.

From now onwards, therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. . . . And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; . . . It is all God’s work. It was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation. In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God. As his fellow workers, we beg you once again not to neglect the grace of God that you have received. . . . Well, now is the favourable time; this is the day of salvation.”

Lent might begin with a smudge on your forehead, but God is empowering “apostles”, “ambassadors”, and “fellow workers” with Christ to “hand on” the reconciling love of God. Not sure you are worthy of those terms? How about “a new creation” or “the goodness of God”?

God will be at work in us, with us, and through us as we progress toward the Cross and the Empty Tomb. Do not “neglect the grace of God” – make God’s love known to someone today.