Luke 6:12,13 – Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.

If you wanted a team to change the world who would you pick? We would tend to pick the smartest, the most well connected, and those that have plenty of resources. That’s exactly who Jesus didn’t pick as His world changers. Paul said that the Lord uses the least likely to be His choices to change the world. In Jesus’ case He chose tax collectors and fishermen. The fishermen were obviously the blue collar worker of the day, working hard to put food on the table for their family. Tax collectors were a different item all together; they were considered the lowest of the low in the Jewish world working for the Roman occupiers and taking advantage of their neighbors. So much for the golden rule, you know “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Yes Jesus chose the least likely in order to shock the world. Here is how Ambrose describes this.

“It says, “He called unto him his disciples, and he chose twelve of them,” whom he appointed sowers of the faith, to spread the help of human salvation throughout the world. At the same time, observe the heavenly counsel. He chose not wise men, nor rich men, nor nobles, but fishermen and tax collectors, whom he would direct, lest they seem to have seduced some by wisdom, or bought them with riches, or attracted them to their own grace with the authority of power and nobility. He did this so that the reasoning of truth, not the grace of disputation, should prevail.”

So it appears that the Lord does not want to share His glory with talented people. If He used people who seemed to be capable of this kind of a challenge they would receive the accolades. The Lord wants to reserve all of the glory for Himself. He is the One who enables fishermen and tax collectors to change the world.