Judas Iscariot introduces The Twelve and Simon the Zealot adds a comment

Do you know what it is like to be chosen?  To be picked out of the line; your name called for the team?  I think it is truly marvellous!  As you step forward, with your heart pumping with pride, it takes everything you have got inside to suppress the urge to turn round and give those left behind a triumphant smirk!

And I was chosen, yesterday, along with only eleven others from the crowd.  Jesus called our names one by one (Well, just about; James and John came as an item, as always!) The Master had us step up onto the rock beside him and presented us to the crowd; his Twelve Disciples.  What a glorious moment!   

I realised immediately that people would see us as special.  Whenever Jesus came to town, we would be right there with him.   Being one of ’The Twelve’ would bring its own reflected glory.  But one day there would be more to it than that.  One day the Rabbi would name one of his disciples to be his successor.  That’s what rabbi school always builds up to.  I wonder which one of us it will be?

To be honest, I just cannot begin to answer that at the moment.  What a rag-bag bunch he has chosen!  I wonder how we will all get on together?  We are all so different.  And I more so than the others, maybe, because I’m the only Southerner among all these Northern men.

So, who else was chosen?  Well, first there was Simon Peter and his brother Andrew.  They had to be there, didn’t they?  They’ve been with Jesus from Day One. They are his hosts in the village, too.  Fishermen, the pair of them.  Hard working and down to earth.  Andrew is the quieter one of the two, but seems more solid.  Peter is loud and impetuous, and so often speaks before he thinks.  That is, if he ever stops to engage his brain at all – I sometimes wonder!

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were next up.  They’re also fishermen; from one of the larger family firms.  Young and boisterous, they are always larking about and often have a stormy relationship with each other.  Hence their nick name: The Sons of Thunder.  Personally, I think they will try my patience, but their mother adores them and thinks they’re the bees-knees!  She is very ambitious for them, and that could be interesting.  Jesus, I think, has taken a special liking to John.  And like Peter and Andrew, they have been devoted to Jesus from the start; ever since they gave up their jobs, handed their boat over to their dad, and left everything to follow Jesus.

Now Philip is a regular evangelist; dead keen and encouraging everyone to come and meet Jesus.  His down side is that smarmy friend of his called Nathanael, who thinks he’s so clever, always quoting local wisdom and all.  I had to laugh when I heard how that got him into a fix when he asked: ‘Can anything good ever come from Nazareth?’   Well, I don’t suppose he was to know that Jesus had seen and heard him, was he?  But how do you get out of that?!  Jesus joked back: ‘Well here is a true Israelite indeed!  There’s nowt wrong with him, is there?’   But I notice he didn’t choose Nathanael for the twelve; just his friend Philip.  Pity; I think we could have had some fun there!

Matthew; he’s an odd one.  He was a tax collector before Jesus called him.  What a despicable and dishonest trade!  I’m certainly glad Jesus didn’t put him in charge of the money!  And how on earth is Simon going to get on with him (Not Simon Peter, but the other one)?   Simon, I hear, is an extreme nationalist with some very radical views.   He’s got a mind for a violent uprising, I believe.  So how will he ever be able to get on with someone he sees as a traitor, like Matthew?  Matthew, after all, was a collaborator – need I say more?

I don’t know much about the others yet.  There’s Bartholomew, another James (the son of Alphaeus) and Thaddeus.  Then there is Thomas.  He is one of twins, but I’ve never met his brother.  Thomas is a bit of a thinker; already asking lots of deep questions.  A good man.

And then there is me.  My name is Judas and I am proud to say I am from Kerioth; down South in Judah.  That’s why they call me Iscariot.   I am also proud to say that Jesus obviously trusts me over the rest, because he has already put me in charge of the money. 

I am not quite sure where all this is leading with Jesus, but my gut feeling says it’s bound to be something big.   I think I will have a special part to play.  Wait and see!

Simon the Zealot add his comment on the Twelve:

I heard what Judas just told you about our appointment yesterday, but do you mind if I add something else?  I think I have understood something he has not grasped yet (which is odd, because I thought this might be right up his street!).

Jesus appointed twelve of us.  But why twelve?  Don’t you see the significance of that number?  Surely, it’s a sign!

Twelve!  There are twelve tribes of Israel, aren’t there?  Or at least there were before the Assyrians took ten of them off into captivity all those years ago.  Things have never been the same since then.  Even now we are torn-apart and ruled by three pathetic kings.  We’re really nothing but an vassal state of Rome.   Yet our nation’s day will come again!  Some of the prophets have spoken about God restoring his people, Israel.   I, for one, am among those who have been longing for that to happen.  Yes, I am a Zealot!  I believe the day will come when God will act and we will see our nation great again.  And I think that day will be soon.  That’s why I’m out here with Jesus.

Don’t you see it?  You can’t have missed what Jesus was doing in appointing us twelve and commissioning us as his apostles.  Apostles are those who are sent to herald the king.  There are twelve of us to symbolically trumpet the news to the whole nation.   Jesus is not just about healing the sick and driving out demons; he is about healing the nation and driving out the occupying powers!  Rome is finished here!  The day of restoration has come!

So, it’s not surprising that all this is happening in secret, out of the way, by a lakeside in backwoods Galilee.  This is just the kind of place where people meet to plan revolution!

I just thought I’d tell you that, in case you missed it!