What I love about the movie "The Apostle" is the same thing my wife hates: The hero is hard to like.

Robert Duvall plays Sonny, a Pentecostal preacher. In a drunken fit of rage, he kills a man with a baseball bat. Sonny runs from the law but not from the Lord. He adopts a new name --- The Apostle E.F. --- and takes his ministry to a Louisiana backwater.

As we follow his journey, we get to know a violent, aggressive and stubborn man. But we also see what drives him: a deep love for Jesus, a passion to preach the word and genuine concern for others. He is a sinner who does a lot of good.

The movie illustrates how God often works through flawed people --- a message as old as the Bible itself. What really captivates us about those "other" apostles --- the Twelve --- is the same thing that first captivated me about Sonny: Like each of us, these are flawed people trying to follow Jesus.

We speak of the Twelve Apostles --- not the Twenty-Seven, not the Five, but the Twelve Apostles. The number is significant. By choosing this number of close associates, Jesus reminded all those around him of the 12 sons of Jacob, the distant ancestors of the 12 tribes of Israel. This act was a prophetic gesture. By it, Jesus symbolically established a new Israel.

The Twelve were a sign of a new future for the people of God (Matthew 19:28).

First of all then, the Twelve remind us of Christianity's Jewish roots. The only way to understand Jesus is in light of God's long history of love for the people Israel. In fact, the first followers of Jesus could conceive of no other way of talking about him except in the context of this larger story.

We must not forget this story. Nor should the sad separation of Christianity from Judaism lead us to believe that God's promises to Israel no longer matter. We can affirm with Vatican Council II what St. Paul recognized: that today the Jews remain dear to God, for "God does not take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he made" ("Declaration on Non-Christian Religions," No. 4; see Rom. 11:28-29).

The word "apostle" means "one who is sent." The Twelve Apostles were the first ones sent out by Jesus to spread the good news. Their ministry inspired other ministers, including those who also went off to preach the Gospel and those who stayed behind to care for the community.

By the second century, Christians saw their local leaders --- the bishops --- as the successors to the apostles. These leaders guaranteed continuity between the past and the present; they linked the local church to the life of Jesus. Catholics call the connection between the Twelve Apostles and the college of bishops "apostolic succession."

And so the Twelve remind us of our historical connection to the ministry of Jesus. There is a basic continuity to the faith. But this is not a carbon-copy continuity. It is interesting that after Judas' betrayal, the remaining apostles felt the need to maintain the Twelve. And so they chose Matthias to replace Judas. But this process is never repeated. We have far more than 12 bishops today! Faithfulness to the mission of Jesus required an expansion of leadership.

Thus the profound continuity of the faith which apostolic succession guarantees does not rule out development, adaptation and genuine newness in the way this faith is passed on.

Finally, we return to where we began. Before the Twelve were apostles, they were disciples. Jesus called them before he sent them. The Gospels dramatize their response as immediate and total: "They abandoned their nets and followed him" (Mark 1:18).

But the New Testament also acknowledges their hesitations --- indeed, their outright failures. As disciples, the Twelve hardly stand out as inspiring role models. They appear at times jealous, self-serving, clueless and annoying. When it really counts, Judas betrays Jesus. Peter denies even knowing him. And the rest flee as cowards.

Yet there is something so human about these first disciples, so powerful in their imperfection. For their very lives embody the Gospel message. Who better to preach Jesus' message of forgiveness to the world than those so in need of it? Who better to speak about the shear gratuitousness of the reign of God?

If the Twelve seem like heroes who are sometimes hard to like, they also are encouraging examples of God's ability to work through flawed and often-failing people.

Edward P. Hahnenberg is the author of "Ministries: A Relational Approach" (Crossroad, 2003); he teaches at Xavier University, Cincinnati.