Saint Matthias

John 15:1, 6-16

‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become* my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants* any longer, because the servant* does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.

* * *

Someone gave me a pop quiz the other day, asking me to name the 12 apostles. I didn’t do very well. I was only able to name two right off the bat (Peter and Judas); after some thinking, I got up to nine. And, perhaps not surprisingly, Matthias was never on my list.

Do you not remember him either? Matthias is sort of a B-List apostle: he was chosen by lot after the death of Judas so that there would still be twelve primary disciples. (Twelve was a significant number for Jesus’ Jewish followers, representing the twelve tribes of Israel.) Matthias doesn’t seem to have possessed any particular qualifications for apostleship (other than having not betrayed Jesus), and he doesn’t seem to have done anything especially remarkable after his election as an apostle.

And yet it’s precisely this anonymity that I find particularly comforting about Matthias. Especially at the beginning of Lent, I sometimes get lured into thinking I have to prove what I great disciple I am. (I can give up not just one sweet, but all sweets! For forty days! I’m amazing! Surely God must love me for how amazing I am!) And then I think about Matthias. He wasn’t particularly great. He was just . . . there. And his presence and his willingness was enough, with God’s help.

We get promised, in the gospel for this day, that we are all branches of the same vine. And there is blessed relief in that image. We don’t have to be extraordinary. We don’t have to do it all—whatever it is—on our own. We just have to stay rooted in God, and connected to God. And God, thank God, does the rest.