Mark 3:13-21--The Twelve Apostles

Mark 3:13-21
English Standard Version

The Twelve Apostles
13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

​20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

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We've already seen Jesus call Peter and Andrew, James and John, and Matthew (called Levi Mark 2) to be His disciples, but now Jesus is going to select them along with seven others to be His apostles--those He would send out as His ambassadors with special power and authority to preach the gospel and cast out demons.

We start with Jesus' "inner circle" of Peter, James and John.  We'll see Jesus take these three men aside and teach them things that He doesn't even teach to the other apostles.  All three of these men will be leaders in the Church, but Peter will be given a special commission after Jesus' resurrection to care for and feed His sheep.  (I'm not making and argument for Peter being the first Pope of the church, I just think there is some  significance here to the order of the names beyond the fact that Peter is probably the one recounting this).

There's another group that we see glimpses of throughout Jesus' ministry, but they play more of a "support" role and are in the background.  These would be Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus (apparently the brother of Levi also known as "James the Less" or "James the Lesser" to not confuse him with James, the son of Zebedee or James the brother of Jesus), Thaddaeus (who was also known as Jude or Judas, but not Judas Iscariot), and Simon the Zealot.  We know Jesus chose all of these men for a reason even though we know very little about any of them.

There is one name at the end that is at the end for a reason.  That name is the name Judas Iscariot.  You probably already know why Judas is different than the others ,but if you forgot or didn't know, Mark makes sure to tell everyone that this is the Judas who betrayed Jesus.  I guess no one is going to get surprised by that when it happens since we were told up-front.  Judas was chosen for this very purpose--to be the son of perdition that would be close to Jesus and betray Jesus.  He had the same opportunities as everyone else, and yet the gospel did not transform Judas because Judas worshiped power and money.  He thought Jesus was going to set up His earthly kingdom and Judas wanted to be there to ride the gravy train and, if possible, be an administrator in the kingdom that others would pay bribes to in order to ride the gravy train too--and I'm sure Judas wouldn't have minded embezzling some of God's wealth to make himself rich as we see that Judas who was trusted as the group's treasurer would steal money out of the limited money that Jesus and the group had.  More on that later when it comes up in the text.

For now, Jesus went home (probably to Capernaum) and such a crowd gathered that He couldn't even eat.  His family tried to intervene and take Him by force back to Nazareth, but we know know from other gospel accounts that He would not speak to them or go with them for He had chosen a new family for Himself (the Twelve).  Don't worry--Jesus didn't completely disown His family.  They will play an important role later, but for now, none of Jesus' brothers or sisters will understand who He is or what He is up to.  Only His mother has some idea, but she won't fully understand until after the Resurrection (nor will the Apostles).