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Tomorrow we celebrate the feast of St. Barnabas the Apostle, one of the major Holy Days for June. You may be thinking that Barnabas was not one of the twelve, or even a replacement for Judas, so who is he? I’m so glad you asked!

Barnabas, we are told in Acts 4:36-37, “Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” Receiving a new name much in the same way that Peter (Cephas) did, we can tell that something special is in store for Barnabas.

Once Saul/Paul begins his preaching ministry, it is our Barnabas that brings him into the fold of the Apostles in Jerusalem, and the two of them do much ministry together. By the time we see them in Acts 14:14, they are referred together as “apostles.” The two men did significant ministry together on missionary journeys, but they split up over the inclusion of John Mark on another missionary journey who had previously abandoned them. Paul did not wish to take John Mark, but ultimately Barnabas did while Paul took Silas after they had a “sharp disagreement.” 

While ultimately the two make amends and continue to minister together, we have a great lesson we can learn from Barnabas. He took what the Lord had given him (a field) and considered this not to be his own, selling it to share with the church. From this, the Lord blessed him with a fruitful ministry that would likely not have happened. He would have needed to tend his field and could not have gone on these journeys for the sake of the Lord.

How many times do we allow the cares and occupations of our lives to strangle the work that the Lord wishes to do in and through us? Do we hold dear our homes and fields to the point that we lose out on opportunities to partake in greater works for the Lord? Let’s take a play from Barnabas and put ourselves in a position to be used by the Lord for his glory today!