6: 12-19 A few days afterwards, Jesus went up on a mountain to pray. He prayed to God all night. At daybreak, he called together all his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. The disciples were individuals who followed Jesus wanting to learn about what he was teaching. They were seen as students. Out of all those who were learning, Jesus chose twelve apostles to take what they had learned and spread the teachings out to others. Jesus had an important choice to make, picking the twelve apostles, so he spent all night in prayer, talking to God about it to ensure that he selected the one’s that would be the best at spreading the word.
He chose:
- Simon (a fisherman who he named Peter),
- Andrew (Peter’s brother and also a fisherman),
- James (son of Zebedee and a fisherman),
- John (James’s brother and a fisherman),
- Philip (who spoke Greek),
- Bartholomew (somehow related to Philip),
- Matthew (also known as Levi, a tax collector),
- Thomas (who doubted who Jesus was after he was resurrected, unless he saw proof),
- James (the son of Alphaeus),
- Simon (the Zealot – a Jewish sect),
- Judas (son of James) and
- Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).
A new practice that I have started doing is going to God and talking to Him before making ANY decision. It is so easy for me to get wrapped up in what “I” want, and I have learned that what “I” want is not always the best thing for me. I can’t even count how many times I’ve been burned or have gone through some very hard life challenges because I was stubborn and rebellious, and wanted to do things “my” way. It took awhile to be able to discern between the inner feeling of God directing me and my strong desire to do things my way, but when I was finally able to differentiate it, it made a world of difference! I can so understand Jesus’s practice of spending all night in prayer with God to ensure he selected the right apostles!
Crowds Follow Jesus
When they came down from the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers and by the crowds. There were people from all over who had come to hear him teach and be healed of their diseases and from evil spirits. Since healing power was coming out from Jesus, all who touched him were healed.
Again, I wonder if the attraction to Jesus was that people wanted to get healed and since they had heard about all the miracles he had performed around healing, they flocked to him with their own desires to be made better. I would like to think that through the process of hearing him teach, their hearts were pricked and they began to realize what Jesus represented for them beyond just the healing – that their hearts could be healed along with their physical diseases and cleansings from evil spirits.