St Barnabas

APOSTLE OF ENCOURAGEMENT

The Feast of St Barnabas is on 11 June. Who was Barnabas? What did he do. and what is his relevance to us?

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Barnabas is described in the Acts of the Apostles as a 'Levite' who came from the lsland of Cyprus. Now the tribe of Levites provide the Jewish priesthood, and so we can conclude that he was a Jewish priest who worked in Cyprus.

However, at some time in his life, he worked in Palestine, around Jerusalem. Here he obviously came into contact with the Apostles, and maybe with Jesus himself, because he eventually became a convert to Christianity.

His original name was Joseph but he was renamed Barnabas by the apostles.

He first came to the attention of the early church when he gave away the proceeds from the sale of some land to the common purse, shortly after Pentecost.

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Now the ministry of Barnabas can be divided into two parts, namely, that with St Paul and that without St Paul.

He was undoubtedly a person who quickly gained the respect of the apostles, not least because he remained in Jerusalem when many of the early Christians fled to Antioch. As a result of this migration, the church in Antioch grew very rapidly, and when the need for a leader arose, the apostles sent for Barnabas.

This soon proved too much for one person, and so he travelled to Tarsus and recruited the help of another convert from the Jewish faith, namely, Paul. There is no doubt that Paul initially played second fiddle to Barnabas since most of the references refer to ‘Barnabas and Paul' and not ‘Paul and Barnabas’.

Eventually, the church in Antioch sent Barnabas, Paul and John Mark on a major missionary journey to his native island of Cyprus. For a while, Paul appears to have taken over the leadership role because the author of the Acts of the Apostles refers to 'Paul and his company’. However, this was short lived, since in Lystra, Paul was stoned and we find Barnabas assuming the role of leader with the support of the local church.

In chapter fifteen of the Acts of the Apostles we read of 'Barnabas and Paul' going to Jerusalem to give the apostles a full report of their Gentile ministry.

It was after this conference that trouble appears to have developed between these two giants of the early church. It arose because Barnabas wanted to take with them John Mark. However, Paul felt that Mark had let them down very badly whilst in Cyprus, and therefore did not want him to accompany them on future journeys.

However, this may not be the full story. Whilst Paul does not deny this, in his letter to the Galatians, he suggests that Barnabas was proving a bit too conservative and was beginning to waver, due probably to his Jewish upbringing and close association with the apostles in Jerusalem.

What we do know for certain is that they parted company, with Barnabas taking John Mark with him, and that they never worked alongside each other, ever again. Nevertheless, Paul continued to have great respect for Barnabas, who had first introduced him to the apostles in Jerusalem. He later described him as a 'working apostle' and one, who like himself, was 'working for his living'.

Although Tertullian attributes the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews to Barnabas, as does also Clement of Alexandria and Origen, most scholars suggest that it is difficult to reconcile Barnabas’ conservative tendencies with its authorship. Likewise, for the same reason, and much later dating, it is generally agreed that he did not write the epistle which bears his name.

Tradition maintains that Barnabas was the founder of the Christian Church in Cyprus where he was martyred at Salamis in 61 AD, though another tradition suggests that he was the founder of the church in Milan and became its first bishop.

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The late New Testament scholar, William Barclay, describes Barnabas as the 'man with the biggest heart in the church'. The historian, St Luke, describes him as ‘ a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith’. Whilst his colleagues in Jerusalem, in renaming him 'Barnabas' describe him as a ‘son of consolation' or as the Good News Bible translates it, 'one who encourages’.

In other words, although Barnabas was conservative by nature, valuing the traditions of the past, his heart was still big enough, and his faith firm enough, to offer words of encouragement.

And that is what people need to hear. Words of encouragement.

So often, people tend to be negative in the life of the Christian Church. 'We've tried it before and it did not work'. 'We have not got the money'. 'We do not have enough people with ability'. 'lt might upset someone’. And so on. Slowly, but surely, the initial enthusiasm wanes; the vision becomes blurred, and the opportunity is missed as energy is sapped by words of discouragement, disguised as experience and wisdom.

My friends, there is no way the early church would have taken root in Cyprus, or anywhere else, if Barnabas had adopted such a negative attitude.

And there is no way, you or I will ever grow in the spiritual life, if all we ever hear are words of discouragement. A pat on the back produces better results than a slap in the face!

I know of parishioners who have given up their Christian journey, because all they ever heard were words of discouragement. I know of parish priests who have given up the parochial ministry, and some have given up the ordained ministry altogether, because all they ever heard were words of discouragement from their parishioners.

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So, my friends, as we recall with thanksgiving, the enthusiastic and positive leadership of Barnabas in the early church, let us resolve always to speak words of encouragement whenever the opportunity arises.

After all, can there be a better epitaph than that applied to St Barnabas, 'he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, and of faith'.