Disciple Number One

When you think about Number One, you think about the Greatest.  The Top of the Heap.  The King of the Hill/The Queen Bee.  The Last One Standing.  That’s how the world sees Number One.  Being Number One is a mark of power, popularity or persistence.

            In this view, Peter would be the Number One apostle.  As some interpret Matthew 16:18, where Jesus says that Simon’s name will be Peter, and that on this rock (ptros in Greek) Christ will build his church.  The Western tradition has used this statement to justify (or condemn) the Pope as the Head of the Church, the First Among Equals, the Voice of the Church.

            Whatever one thinks about such a claim, I believe that the idea is couched in Western notions of authority.  There is another way to think of Number One.  I pose the idea in a question:  who was the first disciple whom Jesus called?  His name:  Andrew.  His name is rooted in the Greek word for the person:  Andros.

            In the Gospel account told in in the first chapter, it is not incidental when he relates the calling of Andrew—and that Andrew was the first to respond.  And what did Andrew do right away?  He called his brother to come and see what he had discovered.

            Andrew is the Number One Disciple.  He was the first one whom Jesus called.  He set the example for the rest of us in wasting no time sharing his faith in and love of Christ, the mystery of God in human form.  God took our flesh to bring us to God.  God called Person to bring other people to the truth of God in Christ.

            Andrew is the prime example for me as a Christian and a human being.  My main task as one who is baptized is to be Andrew to others so that they can know the love of God and be more like Christ in their lives.

            Lord, help me to be Andrew to others today, and bring my brothers and sisters to Christ.