Monday, 24^th August 2026 – Feast 0f St Bartholomew – John 1:45-51

Jesus starts His public ministry, and how does He do it? He starts with borrowed disciples. They weren’t even His yet! They belonged to John the Baptist. It’s John who looks up, sees Jesus, and shouts, “Look! The Lamb of God!” That one declaration prompts two unnamed disciples to start trailing Jesus. They were literally stalking Him down the road! They followed Him close enough and long enough that Jesus finally has to spin around, look them in the eyes, and drop the ultimate question: “What are you looking for?” You can stalk the Savior from a distance, but sooner or later, His grace is going to force a confrontation.

That is your first takeaway today: Simply following Jesus makes absolutely no sense if you haven’t figured out what you actually want. What are you looking for? See, Jesus wasn’t looking for casual fans. He was looking for disciples, not just social media followers! A fan want what’s in His hands, but disciples want what’s in His heart. 

Look at how these two unnamed disciples respond. They didn’t ask for a casual place to crash for the night. They weren’t looking for a hotel room; they wanted a permanent home with Jesus! When they asked, “Where do you live?” they weren’t looking for a street address, which, by the way, Jesus didn’t even have! They were saying, “We want to be with You, always.” They wanted to be disciples, not just followers. Which brings us to point number two: Discipleship is not some one-night fleeting romance; it calls for tough love! It demands your whole life! Jesus is not looking for a casual date on Sunday morning; He’s looking for a total takeover of your entire week.

Now, the third takeaway from this Gospel is incredibly interesting. We usually assume that a call from God, whatever your state of life may be, comes first, and then you enter a process of discernment. But do not close your eyes to what happens in this text today! Long before the official call goes out, we find these disciples already in a process of discernment. They are having a real, raw discussion with Jesus. The discernment actually precedes the call! And only after this process does Jesus drop the invitation: “Come and see.”

Discipleship is a matter of absolute conviction. These two unnamed men accepted the invitation and willingly submitted themselves to Jesus’ “seminary.” They came, they saw, and they were completely conquered! The Scripture says they “remained with Him that day.” That must have been one unbelievable, mind-blowing day, because they said a complete ‘yes’ in less than twenty-four hours! They fell for Jesus, hook, line, and sinker. This makes Jesus’ sales pitch of action before words a seriously hard act to follow! Usually, the best salesmen in the world believe the exact opposite to be true, they talk before they deliver. Not Jesus!

Then, the Gospel finally reveals the identity of one of those unnamed men: it’s Andrew! And Andrew hasn’t just been drawn into the fold; he is now professing it with absolute certainty. He runs straight to his brother to introduce him to discipleship, declaring, “We have found the Messiah!” But let’s be real here: in finding the Messiah, Andrew actually found himself! And just like that, Jesus gets His third disciple, Simon, and immediately renames him Cephas, the Rock!

You need to understand that the seminary of Jesus is a truly itinerant one. It had zero physical structure. It had no campus because it was completely mobile and moved wherever the Master moved! The very next day, Jesus trudges off from the Jordan River all the way to Galilee with His mini-seminary of three. We still don’t know who the second unnamed disciple is, but suddenly we meet the fourth: Philip, who hails from the exact same city of Bethsaida that Andrew and Peter called home.

This brings us to the final reflection on discipleship, and it ties directly to our saint of today. A true disciple must be an evangeliser who is willing to face harsh criticism and cynicism! Look at the text! Nathaniel (also known as Bartholomew) straight-up mocks Philip when he hears they found the Messiah. He sneers, “What good can come from Nazareth?” But Philip does not lose heart in the face of that cynicism! He doesn’t argue. Instead, he hands Bartholomew the exact same offer that Jesus gave to Andrew: “Come and see.” The words of Jesus in verse 39 suddenly become Philip’s words in verse 46, just like they need to become our words today!

The call to discipleship is a call to unity, but it is never a call to uniformity! Look at the mix! You might be pointed in the direction of Jesus by someone else; the way John the Baptist directed Andrew. You might be personally introduced to Jesus by a family member; the way Peter was by his brother. You might answer a direct, sudden call from Jesus Himself; like Philip did. Or, you might initially meet the gospel with total cynicism; just like Bartholomew!

Bartholomew only believed at first because Jesus miraculously revealed his past under the fig tree. But you and I don’t need to believe just because someone reveals our past. We believe because we know that Jesus died and rose again for us and that secures our future! Like someone wisely said: our past is imperfect, our present is tense, but our future is perfect!

And today, the Church celebrates the feast of this once-cynical disciple! Bartholomew wasn’t perfect when he was called, but he strove to be absolutely faithful to his call. The ancient traditions surrounding his apostolic mission are wild and varied. Some rumors claim he travelled all the way to India, though historically that seems pretty improbable. Most accounts hold that he was martyred in Albanopolis in Armenia. One story says he was beheaded, but the most popular, brutal tradition declares that he was flayed alive and crucified upside down!

This radical apostle made such a massive, undeniable impact on history that he even captivated the great Renaissance painter, Michelangelo! When Michelangelo painted The Last Judgment on the massive wall of the Sistine Chapel, he painted a flayed Saint Bartholomew holding his own hollow skin in his hand. But if you look closely at the masterpiece, the face on that empty skin is actually the face of Michelangelo himself! He was saying, “I want to be so poured out for the Master that I am entirely consumed by the call.”

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