I have made a covenant with My chosen;
I have sworn to David My servant.
– Psalm 89:3
Journey with me for a moment to my childhood days. I grew up in a residential area of the city. Across the street lived a large family in a large house with a large yard. That yard became the default play area for our neighborhood boys. Andy was the friend in that family closest to my age. His brother Pete was a couple of years older. Next door to them lived Mike. Alan lived next door to me on one side, and two doors the other way lived Jess and Joe (would you believe their last name is Cartwright?). About a block down the street lived Barry; David and Newt lived a little farther. A few blocks the other direction were Ron and Phil, who would often come up to play. There were others who would come regularly, which made it pretty easy to get up about any kind of game we might want to play.
Organizing a game of football, wiffle ball, or some other team game started with choosing sides. You know how it works. Two people get to be “captains,” and they then take turns selecting players from the rest. If you have ever been on the non-captain end of that process, you know it can be unsettling. Why? Because someone will be the last one chosen, and NO ONE wants to be the last one chosen. First is best, second is great, third or fourth is satisfactory. After that, though, the ego starts to take a blow. The captains are choosing the people they think can offer the most skill to the team. (Well, let’s face it; as kids we were probably just choosing the friends we liked best!) Either way, when you are chosen in the late rounds of the draft, you know it is not a compliment.
“You did not choose Me but I chose you.” These are the words Jesus spoke to his disciples (John 15:16). There are at least two things of interest in this. First, this is exactly reverse from the normal practice of Jesus’ culture. It was the students who requested to become followers of the rabbi, not the other way around. Second, if the rabbis were choosing followers, fishermen and tax collectors wouldn’t be in the early draft rounds. In fact, the odds of them being chosen at all would have been extraordinarily slim. Nevertheless, Jesus comes along and tosses an invitation to these unlikely candidates to come and be part of something huge. What Jesus saw in them, we can only speculate. Praise God that Jesus can see what the world cannot.
If you are a follower of Jesus, how does it make you feel to be one of the chosen? It makes me feel immensely special. It also makes me curious, increasingly so the further I go in my walk with Jesus. To be chosen for a game, you know the captain is looking for people who can hit, throw, run, and have other skills necessary to win. But what is the Captain of our faith seeking when he chooses? I’m sure there are several fitting answers to that (you are free to list them in the comments). The thing that seems puzzling to me is, the better I come to know myself, the less I recognize anything that Jesus could possibly want. Any usable skills are things being produced in me by the Holy Spirit; they are nothing I brought to the game. What does this tell me? That being chosen by Jesus is a demonstration of his grace, not a measure of my merit.
An old friend of mine was fond of saying, “God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called.” Amen, and praise the Lord!
Lord Jesus, regardless of where you found me in the draft order, thank you for choosing me!
Chosen not for good in me,
Waked from coming wrath to flee,
Hidden in the Savior’s side,
By the Spirit sanctified—
Teach me, Lord, on earth to show
By my love, how much I owe.
– Robert Murray McCheyne
The Winding Path 