Millions of viewers tuned in last night (13th June 2007) to watch the final of the third series of The Apprentice, from 40,000 applicants down to the final two, who would land the job as Sir Alan Sugars apprentice, and the £100,000 one year salary that went with it. Would it be Simon or Kristina? Could they mould and manage the fired candidates as a successful team and impress Sir Alan and a room full of Architects and property investors with a development on the South Bank?

A large part of the success of the show is due to the final few moments in the board room when every week, bar the final one, the weakest candidate is weeded out from the group. After a review of the task and an opportunity to argue their case Sir Alan says "You're fired", they then have to collect their things and are eliminated from the competition.

The show is based around the removal of the weak candidates by a process of elimination as their strengths and failings are laid bare for all to see by a series of business tasks ranging from marketing various technological gizmos to designing a new building. In many ways it is brutal, especially in the final few minutes as the candidates are called into the board room, but it also compelling TV.

15 candidates fail to achieve Sir Alan's standard and 1 is left standing, it is the survival of the fittest, though sometimes you wonder what criteria they are being judged on. In Luke 5 Jesus meets Peter and his partners in their fishing business. Peter is no Alan Sugar but neither is he a failure - married with friends and a good business. And yet he sees himself as a failure when he comes face to face with Jesus, and is afraid of what Jesus will say to him, he knows that he has failed the standard God requires, and is afraid that Jesus - as one who speaks God's word - will judge him. In fact he calls out to Jesus to go away because he is a moral bankrupt.

The surprise is that rather than judge Peter for his failings Jesus calls Peter to leave everything and follow him. Why? Because Jesus has come for failures, not to judge them but to call them to follow him, to learn from him, to listen to him, and to put their trust in him as he dies for them. To be his apprentice as he shows them how to live lives that bring glory to God and prepares them not for a successful business life but for taking the gospel - the good news that Jesus saves - out into the world.

Christianity & Culture