Tell the Story
A Man with a Withered Hand
3 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 And they watched Jesus,1 to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4 And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
A Great Crowd Follows Jesus
7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, 10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. 11 And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.
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,2 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.”
Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.
28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Jesus’ Mother and Brothers
31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers3 are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
Jesus had people crowding around him all the time. But being popular with crowds is not the same as having committed followers. Some people are curious about Jesus. Some people like to get things from Jesus. Other people really want to follow Jesus.
A follower of Jesus is called a disciple. There are millions of them today. Jesus started with twelve.
One day, early in his ministry, Jesus went up on a mountain and called twelve men to follow him. It wasn’t their idea to start a Jesus club. It was Jesus’s idea to start a group of disciples. He would be their leader, their teacher, their Savior, and their friend.
Twelve may seem like a funny number. Why not three disciples? Or ten? Or a hundred? Why twelve? So they could share a dozen donuts? Or so they could each have one slice from an extra-large pizza? Jesus chose twelve disciples because he was forming a new people with himself at the center. There were twelve tribes in Israel, and there would be twelve disciples of Jesus. From now on, to be a part of God’s family meant being a follower of Jesus.
The twelve disciples were all men, and they were all Jews. They spoke the same language and grew up with many of the same things. But they were also very different. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen. Peter was bold but made a lot of mistakes. James and John could be hotheads. Andrew liked bringing people to Jesus.
Matthew was a tax collector. Simon was a revolutionary. That means Matthew worked for the government, and Simon didn’t like the government.
Bartholomew (also called Nathanael) could be very blunt. Thomas, who was a twin, would become famous for his doubts.
Then there was Philip, who helped Nathanael see Jesus. There were also Thaddaeus and another James. Finally, there was Judas, who ended up betraying Jesus. That’s twelve men who probably wondered at times if they had anything in common except that they were following Jesus.
Jesus named his disciples apostles because they would eventually be sent out to the nations to make new disciples. But for now Jesus gave them three things to do. They would preach, they would cast out demons, and they would be with Jesus. You might say they announced the coming of the Snake Crusher, they showed the power of the Snake Crusher, and they spent time with the Snake Crusher. Not a bad job—with or without pizza.
