12 On one of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray. He spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called for his disciples to come to him. He chose 12 of them and made them apostles. Here are their names.
14 Simon, whom Jesus named Peter, and his brother Andrew
James
John
Philip
Bartholomew
15 Matthew
Thomas
James, son of Alphaeus
Simon who was called the Zealot
16 Judas, son of James
and Judas Iscariot who would later hand Jesus over to his enemies
Read Luke 6:12-16 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Early on in Jesus’ ministry, after a group of people had been following Him for a while (maybe several months), three of the four gospels share how Jesus hand-picks twelve of them to become a core group of disciples. While this event is recorded in the first three gospels, I am a little surprised that only Luke includes a significant detail that the other gospels miss.
This detail is found in how Luke introduces us to this event. Luke tells us that, “On one of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray. He spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called for his disciples to come to him. He chose 12 of them and made them apostles.” (v. 12-13a)
Jesus’ key for picking His twelve core disciples was spending the night praying to God. The twelve disciples were not chosen based on popularity or even on potential, and they were not chosen based on Jesus’ own biases. Instead, during that night prior to the official selection, Jesus would have laid out the names of all His followers before the Father and discussed each with Him.
By praying on the night before choosing the twelve disciples, we learn another key into how Jesus lived His ministry. Prayer, and His relationship with God the Father, was the cornerstone of Jesus’ ministry. Nothing Jesus did while ministering on earth was done without the Father knowing and working through Jesus. In everything Jesus did, He willingly submitted to the Father’s will and the Father’s plan.
Jesus’ emphasis on prayer is also an example for us as well. Because Jesus came to model the people we are called to be, as His modern-day “disciples”, prayer should be at the cornerstone of our lives as well. If all of the people who claimed to “follow Jesus” put as much emphasis on prayer as Jesus did, most of the problems in the Christian community would become irrelevant.
While there might still be some differences of opinions regarding some details, God’s character of love would unify Christians throughout the world – and the 21st century would be transformed like Jesus’ twelve disciples transformed the first century.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
Subscribe to this blog and never miss an insight.