Luke 6:12-16 – The 12 apostles appointed

In the earlier chapters of this Gospel, Luke has already hinted about the authority of Jesus on many occasions. We saw how at Capernaum, the people were amazed by His teachings for He taught as one with authority. That day in the Synagogue, after He dealt with the demon-possessed man, Luke 4:36 tells us that “All the people were amazed and said to each other, ‘What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!’ ” Besides, His authority was demonstrated in all the healings that took place. Peter also recognized it when at His command he let down the net and caught a great amount of fish, even though he had already labored all night and caught precious little. These and numerous others left us without doubt about Jesus’ authority.

In Luke 6:12-16, we scale the summit of the theme on authority in this Gospel. The calling of the 12 apostles was in deed a historic moment for Israel and the church. As the twelve tribes of Israel was key to Israel, so also was the twelve apostles key to the church. This choosing of the Twelve allows us to see Jesus’ authority and how it will impact the lives of the church and all the followers of Jesus. No wonder we see Jesus began with prayer that span right through the whole night. Although it was His regular habit to find time to pray, yet for this purpose, He specially set aside a longer duration to pray. He prayed from dusk to dawn, a good ten hours. Just imagine Him praying His knee in tensely. When He started praying, His clothe was dry, and when He stopped, it was drenched with the dew of the morning. 

Why this protracted engagement with the Heavenly Father? It’s because He had a huge decision to make. He needed to know who would be appropriate to appoint and mentor to the key task of continuing with the work of the Kingdom after His departure. He was going to pour out His life upon them. So it was needful to appoint the right ones. Our natural questions would be: isn’t Jesus God? If He is, than shouldn’t He be all knowing? Why does He need to have this lengthy prayer session? Bear in mind that at this point Jesus was a human like us, except that He was without sin. He had laid aside His divine attributes and left everything at the pleasure of the Father. So He had to depend on God to aid Him in making the right choice. Furthermore, Jesus already had a fairly large following by now. This plus the necessity to submit each one individually to God in prayer.

Yes, though He was a Son yet He learnt obedience through the course of His life. He never did anything without hearing from the Father. Prayer was everything to Jesus. It was through prayer that He lived His perfect life of obedience. Here’s a thought for our consideration. If Jesus, the perfect Son of God, had to pray, what makes us think that we can get away without praying! It would be even more foolish to know the importance of prayer and yet never get down to it. All our accomplishment in life must be a divine-human collaboration. Prayer is exactly that. It ensures the effectiveness of our life as well as that of the church. It’s a discipline we cannot afford to do without.

At sunrise, Jesus was sure who should make up the Twelve. Decisively, He called the disciples to Him and chose twelve whom He designated apostles. They were God’s sovereign choice. None of them had a part in the decision. There was no campaigning like what we see during election time. The choice was entirely at God’s direction. So through the turbulent years that ensued, they could comfort themselves that it was Jesus, and not they, who was responsible for the choice. Scriptures didn’t specifically tell us the chronological order of the call. Luke in this list placed Peter at the start and put the traitor Judas Iscariot at the end. The list of the Twelve were: Simon Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James and John; and Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot; Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot. All of them were Galileans except for Judas Isacariot. To betray Jesus was a choice that Judas Iscariot made, that’s why Luke said, he became a traitor. All these did not come from exceptional background. They were unschooled ordinary men, hated tax collector, and etc. Not one of them was famous, rich or well-connected. None of them was highly qualified, but God qualifies their call.

When ordinary men and women are called to serve him, that call is always effectual, regardless of a person’s talent or a lack of it. Paradoxically, what Paul said is true, it’s when we are weak that’s when we become strong. All who have effectively served God would acknowledge without qualification that they are still made of clay. With Jesus they become unconscious of their own wisdom and strength. They merely rely on Him. And in Him they find the flow of power and strength that surpass what they personally have. All authority, whether in heaven or on earth, belong to Jesus! And you and I know that it makes perfect sense only to submit to His will. That means we need to humbly and prayerfully depend on Him in every aspect of our life.