GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 6:12-16
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
(Matthew 10:1-4; Mark 3:13-19)
12 During those days Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.
Luke does not record everything in chronological order, but both Luke and Mark present the calling of the Twelve as having happened “during the days” (vs. 12) when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand.
13 When morning came, he summoned his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also called apostles:
Jesus had many followers, but now he chose a group to have a special place with him. He named twelve of the disciples to be special ambassadors with his authority to preach in his name. These ambassadors were called in Greek apostoloi (ἀπόστoλοι), apostles. The number twelve has a spiritual significance since the Old Testament believers were divided into twelve tribes, even after the tribe of Joseph was split into two parts. When Ephraim and Manasseh also divided, they were handled differently in order to maintain the number at twelve tribes. In Revelation, the number of believers in heaven is grouped under twenty-four elders (Rev. 4:4,10; 5:8; 11:16; 19:4), signifying the twelve Old Testament tribes and the Twelve Apostles—all believers who trusted the promise of Christ before he came, and all who trusted in Christ after he came.
14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Luke does not tell us much about the Apostles here, and about some of them, we learn very little at all from Scripture. Andrew was the first to become a disciple, and Simon his brother was third, but to Simon Jesus gave the name Peter. Peter (masculine πέτρος) means a stone or boulder, coming from petra (πέτρα, feminine) which means a cliff or outcropping of bedrock.
Another pair of brothers, James are John, and mentioned without any additional description (they were introduced in Luke 5:10). Nathanael (John 1:45) is called Bartholomew “Son of Ptolemy.” We learn more about Bartholomew and Philip in John 1:43-48.
15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
The second half of the list begins with Matthew, who was called Levi in the account of his calling in 5:27-29. Thomas is not quoted in this Gospel but figures more prominently in John (11:16; 14:5; 20:24-28 and 21:2). Another James is called “son of Alphaeus.” Levi (Matthew) is also called “son of Alphaeus” (Mark 2:14), but it’s not certain whether they were brothers, and the Bible never makes that point, whereas it does with Peter & Andrew and James & John.
A second Simon is called “the Zealot.” We know something about this sect, although the word is only used in Scripture in connection with this Simon. The Zealots seem to have originated in about 6 BC in opposition to Herod’s allegiance to Rome. They were opposed to the use of the Greek language, and unlike the Sadducees, they looked forward to the day of salvation.
The list is completed with two men named Judas. The first is distinguished by three additional names. He is called Lebbeus by Matthew and Thaddeus by Mark. John describes him as “not Iscariot,” a phrase that this Judas may have had to repeat often later in his lifetime. The last name, Judas Iscariot, is well known to all Christians; he is called traitor or betrayer in every Gospel (Matthew 10:4, Mark 3:19, and John 18:5). At this time he was interested in Jesus’ words and was offered a place in the Lord’s most inner circle as a test. Surely Jesus knew who he would become (Matthew 26:21). Judas heard the word of God but fell into despair under the burden of the law. He had no ear for the gospel of forgiveness. “Where the law exercises its office alone, without the addition of the Gospel, there is only death and hell, and man must despair” (Luther, Smalcald Articles III, iii, 7).
The call of each of these sinners to be the Lord’s special ambassadors into the world, and the first pastors of the Christian Church, teaches us to be humbled to be his followers. And if he chooses to preach the word through some of us, we understand that God works both through us and despite us—to his glory.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota