Of Apostles and Ordination

[Jesus] said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. (John 9:7)

Siloam. One of the roots of this word is shalach: to send out or send away. It includes the idea of pushing out, possibly implying being pushed out of one's comfort zone for a specific purpose.

Sent = apostello

And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, (Mark 3:14)

Apostles = apostolos – apparently the label given to a person, derived from and based on the word apostello. It seems to be a condensation of the sense derived from apostello and describing a person specifically designated for that purpose.

Given the meanings for these three words, it seems rather clear that Jesus designated this blind man to be an apostle by the way John articulated his description here of what took place between him and Jesus.

I have heard people try to argue that since the days of the 'twelve apostles', the New Testament era, that no other apostles will ever be seen in the church. They insist that only the original twelve apostles are to be considered legitimate because they were personally ordained by Jesus (except Matthias who was chosen after the death of Judas) and that this gift no longer applies to the church today.

This notion is not supported at all by Scripture as far as I can tell from my study. It seems to have the ring of tradition and prejudice and even legalism, an obsession with external forms and rules. In fact, the controversies swirling around the very idea of ordination today have very shaky foundations of deeply entrenched opinions and traditions and prejudices concerning what the very word itself means. If we were willing to be honest enough to allow the Word of God to define its own terms without injecting our heated and biased opinions into its messages, we would find our arguments dissolved and would see more readily the pettiness and stubbornness that gives them so much mileage in our debates.

The whole tenor of the Old Testament period revolved around the idea of exclusiveness in sharp contrast with the inclusiveness of the New Testament era. That is not to say that anything goes in the body of Christ. Just ask Ananias and his wife. There is a natural exclusivity that occurs when the presence of God is very real and close in His people and that naturally separates those who are willing to believe in Him from those who are afraid of Him. But this separation should not be confused with the prejudices and traditions that have crept back into religion and now confuse much of our thinking about the various roles and gifts that God intends for His children to exercise in benefiting His body.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Men have turned the issue of ordination into a battleground and a diversion that keeps people's focus away from the real issues at stake. Rather than viewing ordination as some sort of magical transfer of power or investment of artificial authority, we should begin to grasp God's perspective and use of this term. Real ordination is simply a recognition by the body of Christ of some gifting or outworking of the Spirit's activity and gifting in a person's life. When Jesus ordained His twelve disciples, He simply sharpened their focus to a specific commission He wanted them to do for a period of time. Rather than just doing whatever they felt like doing while traveling around the country with Him, Jesus synchronized His disciples with His own mission by giving them a specific list of instructions to follow in order to awaken interest in others about the kind of kingdom He was introducing into this world.

I find it quite interesting what is strongly implied in the above verse from Mark 3. Jesus not only sought to send out His friends to do a specific job for Him but He wanted them to be with Him as well. What I am starting to see is the rhythm of a relationship with Jesus; there are times of quiet togetherness with Him in which we soak up His character and absorb His Spirit into our hearts. Then there are times when we are pushed out of our comfort zone of enjoying His intimacy up close and are sent out among people who are sometimes quite the opposite to us from resting in Jesus' presence. When we are sent out to infect other people's hearts with a desire to want to know Jesus better and to entice them to consider joining His kingdom, His family, we are just as much apostles as were the twelve whom Jesus originally used for that very same purpose.

In this story of the blind man in John 9, the writer I believe is trying to make this very point. He takes the meaning of the name of the pool that Jesus sent this man to and specifically weaves it into the narrative to make the point that this man too was considered an apostle. The rest of the chapter is an amazing record of the interchange and the testimony of this blind man that rivals many of the stories of the disciples when they later met similar opposition as recorded in the book of Acts. Jesus in essence ordained this blind man for the specific purpose of seeking to draw the religious leaders into belief. They had built up such a level of resistance against Jesus that His own words had become nearly useless in getting past their defenses. But this man caught them totally by surprise and was for a time able to convey a testimony and offer them a vicarious invitation that they had a hard time overcoming.

Sadly, because of their intense pride, arrogance and stubbornness, they only further deepened their unbelief and hardened their hearts even more while this man eloquently appealed to them to repent. This man for a time became the personal representative of Jesus, His personal envoy to these religious leaders, His chosen apostle. It could even be argued that in placing the clay of His personal spit on the eyes of this man, Jesus in essence had ordained Him just as surely as He ordained any others while He was here on this earth. Then He sent the man to a pool with a name to match his assignment to reinforce the commission that his job was to go out of his comfort zone and declare how good God really is to those who resist believing such things.