The Servant and the Chosen

Mark 3:13-19: “And he went up on the mountain and called to him those he himself wanted. And they came to him. Then he appointed twelve, that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: 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, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. And they went into a house.”

Yeshua went about his appointments in spite of hostility. This story is full of value in the matter of his appointments to special relationship with himself.

Mark 3:13: “And he went up on the mountain and called to him those he himself wanted. And they came to him. “

“Those he himself wanted” … in other words, those whom he preferred. The word suggests an active option resulting from a subjective impulse, a self-determining sovereignty, a choice based upon reason within personality. He was uninfluenced by temporary appeals. A choosing in which he assumed all responsibility for what he did. This is a fundamental fact. His choice proceeded from his wisdom and understanding. If there were defects in the men, he had to deal with them and remedy them. They did not choose to be his apostles (disciples are apprentices; apostles are his ambassadors on official service).

As he said in John 15:16 during the Passover discourse with infinite tenderness and yet with wonderful illumination:

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.”

There is an infinite ease in doing things Yeshua gives us to do, when we can say to him, ‘Lord, we did not choose this.’ We are responsible. Yet that call brought the men into a place of real responsibility. It called them to confidence in the wisdom of Yeshua’s choice.

How much these men must have needed this during the hours of fear, failure of faltering and denial. This was one of the strangest mixture of men, not many mighty, not many wise; some of them full of that human force which compels attention, others willing to be obscure. Yet they were Yeshua’s choice, and he chose them in the interest of the work. He chose them because they were capable of appropriating the power he supplied. He appointed them to be with him. The preposition “with” indicates an association which inevitably issues in resemblance and consequently in true instrumentality. They were men in whom he could act unhindered. Whatever he appoints, it is his workmanship.

He surnamed three of them. The word “surnamed” is translated from a phrase which means “he imposed a name upon them”, a naming indicative of his authority and the outcome of their character.

Peter: He did not name him something he could not be. He was a man of intellectual strength; a man of emotion; a man of marvelous volitional powers; a strong-willed man and yet weak and frail. All the elemental forces were there, but lacking cohesion or consistency, which would weld them into strength. Yeshua said, ‘I imposed a name upon you that will indicate what you will become.’

James and John: In the Greek tongue, these two brothers were called “Boanerges” meaning “Sons of Thunder”. A poetic description of force and high enthusiasm. John was a dreamer, poet, and visionary. James was quiet and retiring.

There was one tragic figure though: Judas. As the rest, he was chosen and called, appointed to be with Yeshua and to preach and to have power over demons. Yeshua appointed him to be with him but he never came into any close association, which was his appointment; whose preaching if it ever began, ceased and changed into betrayal; to cast out demons, yet he inevitably failed as Satan entered into him.

Just as Yeshua “called to him those he himself wanted” as his closest disciples two millennia ago, those of us that count ourselves as followers of him must see ourselves in the same light – that Yeshua called us to follow him. In that vein of thought, Yeshua is still choosing, calling and appointing. We cannot choose to be his apostles. We must be his chosen, or we can never serve. The restfulness of this consideration lies in the fact that his choices are right choices, and that his calls are vindications.

If he has called you, you will know it; and if he has called you, he has chosen you to follow him. Your responsibility is only that of yielding.