The Twelve
In Mark 3:13–19 we get a particular view of Jesus that comes through the apostles’ eyes.
And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
The twelve see Jesus as Lord. When he calls, they come (Mark 3:13; cf. Mark 1:16–20; 2:14). When he commissions—here to go out and preach and exorcise demons (Mark 3:14–15)—they obey. The disciples (followers) become apostles (sent ones). Mark does not record their obedience here, but he does in Mark 6:12–13.
With Mark 3:13–19 before us, let me briefly ask and answer six questions. First, why did Jesus go up on a mountain and then call the twelve? It might have been to get away from the crowd. It might also have been because mountains are common places where God calls certain key servants—Moses, Elijah, and the like—so as to commission them to something grand. Second, why twelve? The number twelve corresponds to the twelve tribes of Israel, and the symbolism thus points to both an embodiment and a replacement. These men will embody what it means to be true Israel, and thus, as flawed as they are, they will replace the current ungodly religious leaders.
Drawing from his years of pastoral experience, pastor-theologian Douglas O’Donnell provides deep exegesis, engaging illustrations, and relevant applications of the Gospel of Mark.
Third, why are they named?1 To highlight that Jesus used ordinary men for his extraordinary mission. None of the men listed came from nobility or the upper class. Matthew was educated (he wrote a Gospel) and rich (or once was rich, as a tax collector—the only occupation named, and a very shady one at that), but the rest were tradesmen. None were politicians, although “Simon the Zealot” (Mark 3:18) may have been a part of a fringe group of militant nationalists who would do anything to take down Rome.2 None were from the religious leaders of the day. We do not see listed St. Simon the Superhuman, Professor John von Thunder of the Tübingen Institute of Theology, or Blessed Bartholomew of the Order of the Only Elect Hermits. Rather we find the common and uncouth. Jesus selected not an all-star team to battle with the powerful devil and his mighty minions but a bunch of ragamuffins. That God would decide to change the world through ordinary men from an ordinary part of the world is just extraordinary.
Let us learn the lesson here. We do not need money, an elite education, or worldly power or prestige to be used by Jesus to do great things. “The church was built upon the faithful testimony of a bunch of rustics, as Jerome called them. God delighted in and still delights in building his church with such seemingly insufficient and slightly contorted building materials.”3
Fourth, why are some of the twelve renamed? Only Mark records the renaming of Simon, James, and John, the first three names: “He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder)” (Mark 3:16–17). These three might be renamed because they were three of the four first disciples whom Jesus called, or because they will be with Jesus for two key moments of his ministry—the transfiguration and the garden of Gethsemane. They are obviously part of Jesus’s inner circle, and therefore they will bring future leadership to the twelve and the whole church. The renaming, however, might simply echo what is done in the OT, where someone important (like Jacob) is renamed because God plans on using him, despite his obvious flaws, to promote his purposes.
We do not need money, an elite education, or worldly power or prestige to be used by Jesus to do great things.
Fifth, why is Peter listed first and Judas last? Judas is named last for what he did: betrayed Jesus. Peter is named first here, and everywhere the list is given because he was the first among equals. He was the first chosen by Jesus. He is the predominant disciple—in the number of lines he speaks and the role he plays—in the Four Gospels and Acts. The Acts of the Apostles focuses in part on Peter’s acts (named 56x). This does not mean Peter was the first pope. However, it does mean he was just as important to the new covenant as someone like Moses was to the old.
Sixth, what of their mission is ours? Our mission is not to be the foundation of the church. In Ephesians 2:20 Paul speaks of Jesus as the “cornerstone” of the newly formed “household of God” (Eph. 2:19), a church “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” Our mission is also not to have the “authority to cast out demons” (Mark 3:15). If there are Christians today, or at other points in church history, who have exorcised demons, they are not the norm. Whereas for the apostles, each and every one of them, it was the norm. The Acts of the Apostles is a large book all about their amazing acts. Through the power of the Spirit given to them in a unique and unrepeatable way at Pentecost they are the ones doing the miracles. “The signs of a true apostle,” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:12, are “signs and wonders and mighty works.” That is what they did do, not what we can do. This perhaps explains why the Great Commission does not include the command to heal sickness and cast out demons. I also believe this is why, near the end of his life, Paul writes of qualifications for elders and deacons that do not include the miraculous gifts.
What then of their mission is ours? Jesus’s main thing. What we read about in Acts 8:4. Those who were scattered due to persecution “went about preaching the word.” None of those who scattered preached from a pulpit. They preached to their new neighbors. They preached to their fellow countrymen—unbelieving Jews. They preached in the marketplace as they sold their goods to Jews and Gentiles alike. They wanted the world to know the good news of Jesus.
Notes:
- Mark provides “the same names that we find in Matthew and Luke, except for Thaddeus,
whom Luke calls Judas, the son of Jacob. Perhaps his original name was Judas, though, after
the treachery of Judas Iscariot, he decided to be called something else.” Bo Giertz, The New Testament Devotional Commentary: Volume 1: Matthew, Mark, Luke, trans. Bror Erickson (Irving, CA: 1517 Publishing, 2021), 155. - Although the political party of the Zealots did not officially arise until AD 66, there were
plenty of political purists in Jesus’s day involved in active resistance against Rome. However, the
Greek term itself (ho Kananaios) could simply refer to someone seeking to fulfill the Mosaic
law (see 4 Macc. 18:12; Philo, On the Special Laws, 2.253). - Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Matthew: All Authority under Heaven, PTW (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 286. The quote from Jerome can be found in “Homily 14,” Homilies 1–59 on the Psalms, FC (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 2001), 109.
This article is adapted from Expository Reflections on the Gospels, Volume 3: Mark by Douglas Sean O’Donnell.
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