When Peter was interrogated by the chief priests in Jerusalem (for causing a stir in the Temple after healing a crippled man), the elite of the Jewish society were somewhat surprised to note that Peter was “uneducated and ordinary”.
Most of Jesus’ disciples were uneducated and ordinary when they met him, so this comment can easily be overlooked. But it is worth a second thought.
After three years of being Jesus’ disciple, Peter still came over as being ‘uneducated’. That’s interesting because discipleship was primarily an educational process. Clearly, Jesus did not teach the intellectual intricacies of their religion, or at least, not in a way that other intellectuals recognised.
In a similar vein, after three years of following Jesus - witnessing the extraordinary things he did, and doing some fairly extraordinary things himself - Peter still came across as being ordinary. Jesus wasn’t in the business of taking people away from their roots into a rarified sanctity. His message was that God’s kingdom could be found right where they were. After three years of Jesus' company, Peter was still ordinary.
The medieval church was obsessed with saints - extraordinarily holy people. The Church of England today expects its clergy to have a university degree. But God chooses to do his work using ordinary and uneducated people. Do you qualify?
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