A Good Man

"Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith" Acts 11,24

St Barnabas

On 11 June, the Church commemorates St Barnabas.

He is not a spectacular saint!

Some of those we read about were a bit odd, eccentric, and strange. Like for example, St Simon Stylites, who spent forty years living on the top of a high pillar; he didn't care to have people too near him! From his improbable perch he preached, taught and gave spiritual advice. Or St Anthony, who spent twenty years walled in, in an old fort in the desert. Or St Brigid, who travelled around on the rays of the sun!

And those others who died fearful deaths, gored by bulls, eaten by lions, or, like St Sebastian, shot to death with arrows.

The artists may have a great time painting all these marvellous subjects, or setting them in stained glass windows, but to us ordinary people they may seem a bit off-putting! The artists are not so keen on painting a saint who was simply "a good man" – as St Barnabas was – little action or violence, and no blood! But to us he is much more understandable.

History

The New Testament tells us that he was a Cypriot, a Jew born in Cyprus. He came to Jerusalem and was soon a dependable member of the Church there; indeed when the church was organizing its life along the lines of a simple Christian communism, Barnabas sold his estate and put the money into the common pool.

Like St Paul, he proceeded to live by the work of his own hands; and he it was who was able to vouch for Paul to the suspicious – and rightly so elders of Jerusalem. If it had not been for Barnabas, St Paul's recognition by the church would have been delayed, and might even never have happened. So we all owe him a great deal.

Barnabas then worked along with Paul and, as can be read in the Acts, went with him on his missionary journeys. Sadly, there arose a sharp disagreement; it was over John Mark, who had once deserted Paul when they were working in Pamphylia. Paul could not forgive this; Barnabas, however, took a more lenient view and with Mark sailed off to Cyprus.

After this we hear no more from Luke's story, but his name appears several times in Paul's letters to the Galatians, the Corinthians, and the Colossians. Tradition has it that Barnabas founded the Church in Cyprus, and he may have been martyred at Salamis.

“Son of Encouragement”

His real name was Joseph, but the apostles gave him what we would call a nickname, Barnabas, “Son of Encouragement”; surely this was in token of his character. He must have been someone to rely on, someone who would as with Paul – stand by a friend, someone who could see through to what a man could be – as with Mark.

Here is a saint, genuine and undoubted, who does not seem unreal or eccentric, nor one whose life was lived on a different plane from ours. Someone we could most certainly have a shot at imitating. How encouraging for us ordinary mortals! Barnabas might well reply, "Brother Paul often said that goodness was a fruit of the Spirit. Certainly I tried to do my best, but any goodness about me was due to the Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the man above all men who never failed a friend, who saw the good in everyone, and was the most encouraging man who ever lived."