You remember those hand-picked lieutenants of Jesus -- the apostles? Jesus chose them to carry on his mission. And that's just what they were doing when the Gospels were composed. They were the leaders, preachers, and teachers of the early Christian movement. James, the older brother of John, had already died a martyr's death in A.D. 44.

Legendary Heroes

How do you expect these men to be portrayed in the Gospel narratives? If it's a made-up story, one thing we can be sure of, Jesus and his apostles will be the heroes. Bear in mind that myth-makers don't waste time on half-way measures; that would just befuddle the story. The heroes, Jesus and associates, should look and act the part of true champions.

Sanitized Characters

But what if they didn't make up the story? Let's just say that the Gospel authors took the real characters and cleaned them up a bit, rounding off the rough edges so that they would appeal to potential converts. You can see how they could justify this: "Jesus, Peter, James, John, and the rest should be presented in the best light possible. That would establish the proper example for Christians to follow."

Now our question is: How would the Gospels read if they "cleaned up" the leading characters? More than likely, we would not find the super heroes of myth, but they wouldn't appear too scruffy either. Certainly nothing embarrassing would be allowed to stay in the story.

Real Men

Then there is a third alternative. That is, the Gospel writers took the real story without sanitizing it and presented it as honestly as they could. With that, we would expect to see bits of realism seep through. In a group of twelve or so men, there are bound to be some flaws. If the story is told straight, we are likely to see some of these less than perfect traits. Maybe even Jesus himself was occasionally out of sorts.

Do the Gospels match any of the three scenarios? Let's take a look.

Gospels Reveal Flawed Apostles

Prone to Violence and Selfishness

We find James and John, Jesus calls them the "Sons of Thunder," wanting to rain fire from heaven down on a particular Samarian village which wouldn't receive Jesus. Jesus said, "No." (Luke 9:53-55) Later these same two brothers requested preferential treatment for themselves in the coming Kingdom. (Mark 10:37) That didn't go over well with the rest of the apostles.

Pride

Still later, Jesus found his disciples arguing among themselves about which one of them was the greatest. (Mark 9:33-34) Of course, the Gospel writers could have remained silent about these indiscretions. We would have been none the wiser, and the apostles wouldn't have looked tarnished. But they didn't do that.

Fearful

What else do Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us about Jesus' hand-picked apostles? They are not always the hero type. In fact, we often find them in fear of one thing or another. They feared the storm. So they woke Jesus up and he calmed the sea. (Mark 4:37-39) When they saw Jesus walking on water, they thought he was a ghost and cried out in fear. (John 6:18-20) Remember Peter wanted to walk on water too, but he began to fear the wind and waves, and he started to sink. (Matthew 14:30)

Those are disappointments, but the real disappointments were yet to come. We meet them in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus' enemies arrested him there, and the apostles fled in fear. (Matthew 26:47-56) Then Peter denied he knew Jesus three times. (John 18:17-27) Yes, it was all prophesied ahead of time, and yes, they were fulfilling scriptures. Nonetheless, it was a black day for the apostles in more ways than one. And they knew it.

Sunday evening we find Jesus' disciples hiding in a house with doors locked, afraid the Jews might be coming for them next. (John 20:19) It's not an inspiring picture. But it is realistic. Let's give credit where credit is due. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John appear to be telling us exactly what happened; let the chips fall where they may.

Lacking in Faith

Other flaws surface too. The disciples ran across a demon possessed man who is having a seizure. Jesus says matter-of-factly, they didn't have enough faith to cast out the demon. (Matthew 17: 9-20) That lack of faith was to resurface later in a shocking way. They had little faith in Jesus himself.

Jesus told his disciples time after time he was going to Jerusalem. There he would suffer and die. Then on the third day he would rise from death. He didn't just give his followers a broad outline of things to come. Jesus filled in the details. He told them exactly what would happen, from his betrayal, to his sentence of death, to his flogging, to his crucifixion, on to his resurrection. (Matthew 16:21) (Matthew 17:23) (Matthew 20:19) (Luke 9:22) (Luke 24:7)

Somehow or another, his disciples didn't catch on. They either couldn't comprehend, or didn't believe, or both. Don't forget now, Jesus was their master, and Peter had already confessed him as the Son of God. So why they didn't take Jesus at his word strikes us as curious. But the story becomes more curious as it goes along.

Jesus did go to Jerusalem. He was betrayed, (Matthew 26:45) tried by the Jews (Mark 14:53-64), condemned (Mark 14:65), and handed over to Roman soldiers who in turn beat him, abused him, and crucified him. (Mark 15:16-24)

Can you imagine one of the apostles keeping a list of Jesus' prophesies and checking them off one by one as they happened? On Sunday morning after the crucifixion, the list would look like this:

[x] Going to Jerusalem (Yes, we did that. Check that one off.)

[x] Son of Man betrayed to chief priest and teachers of law (Yes that happened)

[x] They will condemn him to death. (That's what they did.)

[x] They will turn him over to the gentiles. (Yeah, they did that too.)

[x] [x] [x] The gentiles will mock, flog, and crucify Jesus. (Yes, yes, yes, they did all three.)

[ ] On the third day, Jesus will rise to life. (Hey, that's today! That's next on the agenda. Jesus was right about all those other things, maybe he'll come through on this one too.)

Clearly, none of the twelve, now eleven, apostles were list keepers because no one seemed to reach this conclusion. Obviously, they didn't take Jesus at his word either. They weren't expecting his arrival. They had given up; they were alone, afraid, and defeated.

Luke tells us that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and others with them came to the house that same morning and told the apostles. "Jesus has risen." They still didn't believe. As Luke puts it, the women's "words seemed to be nonsense." (Luke 24:10-11) Later two disciples came to the house saying they had seen and talked with the resurrected Jesus. (Luke 24:33-35) The apostles didn't believe them either. Finally, Jesus himself appeared and rebuked them for their lack of faith. (Mark 16:14)

Thomas wasn't with them, however. Evidently, Thomas didn't believe Jesus when he said he would rise on the third day. He didn't believe the women who reported it happened. He didn't believe the two disciples when they said it happened. And we see he did not take the word of his fellow apostles who told him they saw Jesus. (John 20:24-25) How's that for a determined skeptic? And these were Jesus' own hand-picked disciples!

Lacking in Understanding

Often we discover Jesus' disciples just didn't understand what Jesus was talking about. They didn't understand the parable of the sower (Mark 4:10); they didn't understand Jesus' power in the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:35-44); they didn't understand Jesus' warning about the "yeast" of the Pharisees. (Matthew 16:6-11)

And Peter didn't understand Jesus' statement: "What goes out of a man makes him unclean, not what goes into him." (Matthew 15:10-20) Likewise, Peter didn't understand why Jesus was washing the disciples' feet. (John 13:6-10) And again, it is Peter who strongly objected to Jesus' announcement of his own death. He didn't understand God's plan. (Matthew 16:21-23)

The apostles seem like normal men, bumbling their way along. They were not exceptionally intelligent, nor exceptionally courageous, nor exceptionally trusting. In fact, they weren't exceptionally anything. Jesus' three favorites: Peter, James, and John couldn't even stay awake and keep watch with him an hour or so in Gethsemane. (Mark 14:32-41)

Those who read the Gospels discover a very authentic group of men surrounding Jesus. They are shown with all their spots and blemishes. No cover ups. No embellishments. These are real men doing real things.