Luke 6:12-16 - Mathetes

Luke 6:12-16 Jesus names twelve of His disciples as apostles. First He prayed all night. Was this a hard decision? Perhaps He knew, even at that point, that one of them would betray Him, but it was the Father's will that things would happen in this way. Or perhaps He had so many disciples that choosing twelve of them to be apostles was a difficult choice and He needed to be sure He had heard the Father's will correctly.

         Jesus called His disciples to Himself, and named twelve of them as apostles. Lest we get caught up in the church terminology of today, we should realize that Jesus had many disciples - "mathetes". In English, a disciple is one who applies himself or herself to learning from their teacher. Disciplining oneself to follow the practices and teachings of the person they follow. In the Greek, mathetes refers to a learner. By contrast, Jesus chose twelve to be apostolos , those who are sent out. The same verb is used in Luke 10:1 when Jesus sent out seventy. However, the implication of Luke 6:13 is that Jesus named these twelve as apostles, a specific group that would be closest with Him.

         The choice of twelve parallels the number of tribes of Israel listed in Genesis 49. Some have suggested that the twenty-four elders mentioned five times in the book of Revelation represent Israel and the church, twelve each.

         There are different names in the lists of the chosen twelve in the different gospels; this most likely represents differences in nicknames - we know that Simon and Peter are one and the same because the gospels record Jesus giving Simon the name Peter. Quite possibly some of the others were also given new names. Revelation 2:17 says that each believer will have a new name, although it will be a private name between that individual and Jesus. Peter is named "the rock" in anticipation of his future solidity of faith.

         Although Jesus named them as apostles, we later find out that they also ministered as pastors and teachers, evangelists, and prophets. So this designation as sent ones does not necessarily define their ministry as sent ones, but rather as specific ones that He had called to be with Him and that He would send. From this, can we infer that for each of us, His primary calling is to be with Him, and that our ministry, our vocation, flows from being with Him? In other words, the Holy Spirit will bring the ministry needed for a particular situation or circumstance, but only if we are with Jesus enough to be anointed by the Holy Spirit when the time comes. Perhaps Jesus chose twelve not for any particular quality other than their desire to be with Him.

         Luke says that Judas Iscariot became a traitor. This suggests that he did not start out with any intention of being disloyal, but later chose to betray Jesus. The growth of his disloyalty is hinted at with respect to his attitude towards money. We see him questioning the offering of costly ointment that Mary poured over Jesus, asking why it wasn't given to the poor. (John 12:3-5) Perhaps a difference in understanding priorities between the presence of Jesus and the need to care for the poor. The Law of Moses certainly had requirements that it was an individual responsibility to be generous in providing assistance to the poor, so possibly this comment simply reflected that Judas did not grasp the transcendence of the New covenant and the presence of Jesus as God in the flesh over the requirements of the Law and justification by works. But then, the very next verse (John 12:6) says that Judas didn't really care about the poor, but he used to pilfer from the money box. So we don't really know where Judas' heart went astray, other than it was sometime between when he was called, and when he became a traitor.

         Does this mean we are all at risk of betraying Christ at some time in the future after we have been called and decided to follow Him? Certainly, the ministry of the Holy Spirit would enable us to forever be faithful to Jesus. And as long as we allow the Holy Spirit full access to our life and heart, this risk would seem to be nonexistent. But we also read about Demas, who loved the world and deserted Paul (2 Timothy 4:10), after having spent some amount of time traveling with him. (Col. 4:14). The risk is there - loving the world can be deadly to our faith.