St. Bartholomew
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Bartholomew. Little is known about him save that he was one of the twelve disciples whom Jesus chose to be his closest followers. Today’s Gospel from St. Luke tells us that the twelve were “Simon whom he surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon who is called Zelotes, and Jude, the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot who was the traitor.” Jesus chose twelve disciples to symbolise the twelve tribes of Israel. The Kingdom of God, future in its fullness, was now being manifested in Jesus’ own person and ministry. The existing Jewish establishment did not receive this message and so brought judgement upon themselves. Consequently, the faithful remnant of Israel would now require different leadership, that of Jesus himself and the twelve whom he associated with him. Among the twelve some were more prominent than others, the most notable being St. Peter, St. James and St. John. Though St. Bartholomew is named as being among the twelve nothing further is said about him in the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Luke.
In St. John’s Gospel St. Bartholomew is not mentioned at all, but instead Nathanael is mentioned as a prominent disciple of Jesus. By contrast, the other Gospels do not refer to Nathanael, but do mention Bartholomew. In the list of twelve, Philip is mentioned alongside Bartholomew, whereas in St. John’s Gospel Nathanael is introduced to Jesus by Philip. Since Matthew, Mark and Luke associate Philip with Bartholomew, and John refers to Philip with Nathanael it is usually supposed that Bartholomew and Nathanael are different names for the same person. This is not certain, but it appears the most probable hypothesis and, if it is true, we are able to say more about Bartholomew than it may appear at first sight.
St. John’s Gospel tells how some of Jesus’ first followers were initially disciples of St. John the Baptist. They were drawn to follow the one whom the Baptist pointed to as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. The Gospel refers to St. Peter and his brother St. Andrew and then to St. Philip. It is said that Philip found Nathanael and said to him that they had found the one whom Moses in the Law and the prophets also wrote. Nathanael asked whether anything good could come from Nazareth. Philip told him to come and see. When Jesus saw Nathanael he said to him, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.” Nathanael asked him in response how he knew him. Jesus said that he had seen him under the fig tree before Philip called him. “Nathanael answered him and said: Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him: Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, thou believest; greater things than these shalt thou see. And he saith to him: Amen, Amen, I say to you, you shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
What is the meaning of this mysterious incident? Why does Jesus respond to Nathanael’s recognition of his Messiahship by referring to himself as the Son of Man? The people looked for an anointed liberator, the Messiah, who would defeat Rome and restore the kingdom to Israel. But there was another tradition that suggested that the Messiah would be more than simply a warrior and a conqueror. The Book of Daniel speaks of the rule of the beasts (the pagan rulers oppressing Israel) being replaced in the future by the rule of one who was the Son of Man. The Son of Man would be enthroned alongside God and would usher in the Kingdom of God, the rule of the saints of the most high (Daniel 7). A later work, the Book of Enoch, saw this Son of Man as one who, in the age to come, would cast down kings and rulers from their thrones, sit on the throne of glory and hold judgement. He would be the support of the righteous and holy, the light of the nations, the hope of the troubled in heart. In other words, in Judaism at the time of Jesus there was, as well as the popular hope of a warrior hero who would be another David, another tradition that looked forward to one who was the Son of Man of Daniel 7, an exalted figure who would be enthroned alongside God as judge of the nations.
It was to this tradition of a future exalted figure that Jesus referred to when he spoke of the Son of Man. The day of the Son of Man would come like a flash of lightening from the clear sky (Matthew 24:27), when no one expects it (Matthew 24:37). Veiled in clouds, surrounded by hosts of angels, the Son of Man will appear (Mark 13:26). He will be enthroned at the right hand of God and send out his angels to gather in his elect from the four winds. He will hold judgement, with the twelve disciples as assessors (Matthew 19:28). As the universal ruler he is the head and representative of the people of God and his followers will share in his rule.
At his trial before the Sanhedrin Jesus was asked by the high priest whether he was the Christ, the Son of the living God. He replied not in terms of the hope for another David, who would be a warrior and a conqueror, but as the one who would be the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God and coming with the clouds of heaven (Mark 14:62). In other words, his response combined the hope of Psalm 110 of one who would be enthroned alongside God, and also of Daniel 7, of one who would come with the clouds of heaven and be enthroned as judge of the nations alongside the Ancient of Days. It was this claim that prompted the high priest to tear his robe at the perceived blasphemy of one who was implicitly claiming equality with God. In preferring to speak of his future destiny as Son of Man Jesus was not (as is sometimes supposed) claiming a more modest role than a warrior and a conqueror like King David. He was claiming a more exalted one, who would be more than another David, but the future judge of the nations (Matthew 25:31-46).
Hence, in responding to Nathanael’s recognition of Jesus’ Messiahship with a reference to the Son of Man, Jesus is not disowning the confession, but implicitly making a more exalted claim. The patriarch Jacob had a dream in which he saw a ladder with angels of God ascending to heaven. But in the ministry of Jesus heaven and earth would be permanently united. He was indeed the King of Israel, as Nathanael, the Israelite without guile, had rightly discerned, but his role was greater than a national liberator. He would be one in whom heaven and earth, God and Man, would come together as never before.
At first sight he seemed to have the wrong credentials. Nathanael had scornfully said that surely nothing good could come from a place so insignificant as Nazareth. Though in the future Jesus would judge the nations as Son of Man, his messianic destiny, enthronement and rule, would come about through reversal, repudiation, suffering and death. The Son of Man had not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. In order to fulfil his future destiny as Son of Man, enthroned at the right hand of God, he would take evil upon himself and somehow subsume it into good.
The time would come when Jesus no longer taught, but acted and suffered. His disciples, including St. Bartholomew, all forsook him and fled at the time of his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. But Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit was poured out upon his disciples to preach the gospel to all nations.
That was the faith of the Church then and it is so now. Let us follow the example of St. Bartholomew and remain faithful to that preaching and witness today. Let us make our own the words of today’s Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given us this day a reverent and holy joy in the feast of thy blessed apostle Bartholomew; grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church ever to love that which he believed and to preach that which he taught.
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
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