You may not have heard of a guy named Pete Best. If not, there’s a good reason for that. He was the drummer for the Beatles from 1960 to 1962. Best was kicked out of the Beatles right before they achieved worldwide fame with their new drummer, the one you may have heard of, Ringo Starr. Best was oh so close to rock and roll immortality, until he wasn’t.
Whenever I read the story of a guy named Justus in Acts chapter 1, I think of Pete Best. Here’s a quick summary. After Judas betrayed Jesus and took his own life, the remaining 11 disciples wanted to replace him to get back to 12. Acts tells us that it came down to 2 people, Matthias and Justus. The one who was selected would forever be remembered as one of the leaders of the early Christian church. Matthias got selected, Justus did not. Justus was oh so close to biblical immortality, until he wasn’t. Justus was the guy who wasn’t selected. Justus was the guy who got passed over for the promotion. Like Pete Best, Justus was the guy who was almost famous.
Our lives are filled with “almost” moments. Think about a time you got passed over for a job, a promotion, a raise, recognition, an award. I imagine we can all think of a time when that happened to us. Perhaps you’re still a little hurt by it. Maybe you’re resenting your boss, your supervisor, a colleague; jealous of the person who got what you didn’t get. I’ve always wondered if Justus didn’t feel a little resentment. Was he bitter, angry, jealous or what? How did he respond to his “almost famous” moment?
I did a little digging around, and while not much is known about Justus, Christian tradition tells us that he went on to become the Bishop of Eleutheropolis. He then died a martyr and is venerated as Saint Justus of Eleutheropolis. It’s not much to go on, but from this tiny bit of information I think we can deduce the following. Justus did not curl up and die. He did not live out his days full of resentment and anger. He did not turn his back on his faith or the people that kicked him out of the band. In fact, rather than brooding over the fact that he wasn’t selected for the honor of being one of the twelve, Justus channeled his faith in another direction. He became a bishop, a leader of the early church, and to this day he is celebrated as a saint of the Christian faith. It wasn’t what he was hoping for, and yet the story of Justus is a testament to how we can respond when we encounter profound disappointment.
If you’ve had an “almost” moment, perhaps the story of Justus can serve as a call to let go of the hurt, to let your faith take you in another direction, to release the disappointment and replace it with a vision of something new and different; to look for a way to become a saint of another kind.
