Twelve Apostles

Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. 

And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all. (Luke 6:12-19)

Jesus prayed to God.  Luke doesn’t label Jesus as divine.  That was John’s interpretation.  Jesus clearly was a healer with large numbers of people being cured.  

Jesus chose 12 Apostles apparently representing the 12 tribes of Israel.  Here is another’s description of the tribes:  The tribes were named after Jacob’s sons and grandsons. They were Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, Zebulun, Judah and Benjamin. Of these 12, only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin survived. The 10 “lost tribes” are the ones that inhabited the kingdom of Israel but were exiled by the king of Assyria, who conquered Israel in 721 B.C. Historians and biblical scholars have come up with numerous theories on the ultimate fate of these people. Scholars speculate that the tribes lost their distinct qualities when they were assimilated by various captors. Different religious groups have had their own theories about this over the centuries, but there is little agreement among them. The descendants of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin have survived as Jews because they were allowed to return to their homeland after the Babylonian exile of 586 B.C. (end)

Today and every day we in the crowd seek to touch Jesus because power comes forth from him and heals us all.  We are to act as his Apostles, except Judas who became a traitor.  Let’s ponder this when we are tempted to abandon our neighbor and love for the wrong reasons.

Deacon David Pierce