The term “apostle” refers to “someone who has been sent” as a messenger. Although employed also to refer to messengers in the secular sense and messengers sent by God, an apostle in the New Testament (NT) is mostly a delegate or an envoy of Jesus sent to proclaim the message of the gospel. In the restricted sense, apostles refer to the Twelve disciples and to Saint Paul whose apostolic or ecclesiastical office was passed on to their successors: the Pope, the Bishops and priests, but, in its biblical sense, it was applied to any messenger of Jesus Christ.
The earliest use of the term in the NT is found in the Pauline writings. Paul’s notion of an apostle is similar to that of the Old Testament (OT) prophets. He was convinced, like the prophet Jeremiah, that God had set him apart before he was born (Gal 1:15). When Paul employs the title apostle to introduce himself in the opening lines of his letters, he defines his identity and defends his claim to be authorized by the risen Lord as God’s messenger to proclaim the gospel to the nations (1 Cor 9:1; 15:6-8). Paul also talks about “envoys/apostles of the Church”; here the apostles are those commissioned by the early Christian communities as their representatives (2 Cor 8:23). An apostle for Paul is thus someone who proclaims the Gospel and administers Christian communities. Note that Paul explicitly includes a woman named Junia among the apostles (Rom 16:7). He transcends the boundaries of the Twelve and the disciples whom Jesus chose during his public ministry.
The Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke – focused on the use of the term apostles for the Twelve or the disciples who accompanied Jesus during his earthly ministry and witnessed the resurrection. Luke, who employed the term more frequently than the other evangelists, also used the term apostle to denote someone fully authorized to represent the person on whose behalf the envoy comes or to be a witness to the claim of the one who sends. The same meaning is implied in the sending of the disciples by Jesus and the delegation of Barnabas and Paul by the Church of Antioch.
Although the designation apostle is given only once to Jesus in the entire NT (Heb 3:1), Jesus very often, especially in John’ Gospel, presents himself as the one sent by God to reveal God’s glory and to give life to believers. The Gospel of John does not use the noun apostle (except once in the secular sense [13:16]) but employs the verb “to send,” emphasizing the intimate relationship between the messenger and the sender, and highlighting the responsibility and mission of the one sent in relation to the sender. The Johannine Jesus sends the disciples as he was sent by his Father: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (20:21) to continue his mission, to reveal God’s love and creative presence in the world.
As bearers of the gospel message, all Christians are called to be apostles of Jesus Christ. They are called to be God’s messengers to the world. Being an apostle implies a deeper experience of God and demands a commitment worthy of being sent by God to continue God’s creative work in contemporary society. Apostles are called to be God’s agents to make the ongoing revelation of God’s interventions visible in human history and to collaborate with God’s life-giving actions in the world. May we be credible witnesses, with a deeply cultivated experience of God, keen on bringing God’s compassionate love to people.
To subscribe to the magazine Contact Us
