Those Jesus Summoned (Mark 3:13-19)

I’m so glad when Jesus summoned those He wanted to be with Him that it wasn’t a list of perfect people. He called 12 to walk alongside Him during His earthly ministry. They each were fully seen and fully known by Him, but not one of them fully saw nor fully understood Jesus.

In every list given of the 12 apostles Peter is always first. In the Gospel of Mark we hear Peter’s voice telling the story. Jesus understood and loved His friend Peter. Peter obviously loved Jesus enough to walk away from the life he knew to follow Jesus. But Peter had a hard time understanding his friend. Peter wanted to protect Jesus. Once that even took the form of his pulling Jesus aside to rebuke Him when Jesus spoke about crucifixion. Again Peter tried to protect Jesus when the mob came to get Jesus in Gethsemane by pulling his sword and slicing at the High Priest’s servant. I have no doubt that Peter’s intention wasn’t to lop of his ear but his head. However, in both instances what comes into focus was Peter’s inability to truly see and understand just who Jesus was.

James and John were brothers. They weren’t the only pair of brothers that Jesus chose. In fact, I think calling the apostles a band of brothers would be a good description. James and John, however, were part of the inner circle that Jesus chose. He gave them the nickname “Sons of thunder.” Maybe that was because they asked Jesus if He wanted them to call down fire from heaven to burn and consume the people in the village that didn’t welcome Jesus. Again they had a passion for Jesus and were willing to kill for Him, but they didn’t understand that He had come to die for them; and not only for them, but also for those that they were willing to burn for His sake.

When the apostles found themselves in a storm on the Sea of Galilee they woke Jesus. He rebuked the wind and the waves, and they looked at each other in terror and said, “Who is this!” Later, when Jesus again sent them out on their own in the night to cross the Sea of Galilee, they were fighting against the wind. Jesus came to them walking on the water. Jesus said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then He rebuked them for their lack of faith. They couldn’t really see or understand who He really was.

All through the Gospel we see Jesus opening the eyes of the blind, giving the deaf the ability to hear, unbinding the tongue of the mute. For those He summoned to come to Him, He gave spiritual sight, He took away their spiritual deafness. He gave them a voice to proclaim the good news. This was His gift to all who would repent and believe in the gospel. But at the end of every list we find the name of one who would not repent or believe. There we find the name of Judas.