Mark 3:7-19

Crowds Follow Jesus

7Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. 8When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 9Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. 10For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. 11Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God." 12But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.

The Appointing of the Twelve Apostles

13Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15and to have authority to drive out demons. 16These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); 18Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.



BACKGROUND READING:


Genesis 49:1-28



Dig Deeper

What kind of people draw big crowds when they go out in public these days? Athletes certainly do. Perhaps the biggest crowds are drawn by movie stars and musicians. Occasionally even certain politicians might draw a crowd. One group that rarely draws a crowd everywhere they go are religious leaders. Jesus was able to do this, though. Mark stresses time and again that word had gotten out about Jesus. He was pressed in by crowds on every side. Despite his best efforts to keep things relatively quiet, word had spread by the way things spread best back then: word of mouth. Everyone was talking about this healer and teacher.


One of the main reasons for his popularity was his ability to heal. In a time when medical care was suspect at best, and downright primitive at worst, word of someone who could actually heal diseases got around fast. Word went from town to town, village to village like wild fire, until people were descending on the little town on the Sea of Galilee from all over the region. They were coming in eager expectation of being healed by this wonder worker.


Mark reminds us though, that in everything Jesus did, there was always a darker side present. Jesus’ was obviously healing these people by operating on a deep spiritual plane, he was no ordinary doctor. Once you engage in the spiritual world, however, you become open to the ever-present evil forces as well. These demons were called evil (or quite literally, unclean) spirits. This demonstrates two things for us. The first is that these were non-physical, bodiless spirits that operated upon, and often, from within a person. Second, these spirits defiled the one they inhabited, making them unclean. They caused people to behave in unhuman ways that betrayed their true calling of being in the image and likeness of God.


As we have already seen, these evil spirits knew exactly who Jesus was, long before anyone else. It seems to be that way quite often in life, where people trying to serve God are attacked by the forces of evil, who see their potential, long before anyone sees the positive marks of God in their life. The spirits that were encountered by Jesus seem quite fearful, recognizing the power of who he was, the Son of God, the Messiah, the true King of Israel. Mark stresses, once again for us to see, that most people did not yet know who Jesus truly was, even though he had clearly begun to give the signs of his true identity. Jesus continues to tell them to be quiet. He does not want Antipas to hear these claims just yet. There is also another element to his demand for silence. Jesus knows that his followers need to discover for themselves who Jesus is. This is not something that can be simply told to them.


Mark now switches to another story with similar meanings to the first. Jesus took his followers up to the mountainside. This was no vacation by the lake, however. In the first century, leaders of movements didn’t take their followers to the hills around the lake for relaxation, they went to plot revolutions. This is precisely what Jesus was doing, as he makes one of his most symbolically revolutionary moves.


How does Jesus’ appointment of twelve apostles come off as a clear revolutionary symbol to the people of his time? Every single Jew immediately knew the significance of the number twelve. This was the number of the sons of Jacob in the book of Genesis. From his sons, came the twelve tribes of Israel, into which Israel had been traditionally been organized. Ten of the tribes had been lost when the Assyrians had invaded Israel and taken them into captivity, but the prophets often spoke of the coming restoration when God would once again make Israel a great nation.


When Jesus takes his disciples into the hillside and sets aside twelve of them for a special purpose, no one would have missed what he was doing. This was far more than just a great healing or spiritual movement. He was signifying that this was the great restoration for which Israel had been waiting. His revolution was taking place at every level: spiritual, physical, social, and political. Any restoration movement, including Jesus’, was also a denunciation of the current powers-that-be. Jesus took his followers into those hills for the same reason that others of his day did: to craft his movement into a truly revolutionary group away from the watching eyes of the authorities. He was, in short, redefining the nation of Israel. He was, in a powerfully symbolic way, saying that his kingdom movement was the new and true Israel.


Even here, though, we are reminded of the ever-present evil lurking around Jesus all the time. One of his own inner circle, Judas Iscariot, would eventually give in to the evil forces and betray him.



Devotional Thought

Jesus was very adept at announcing symbolically, exactly what he was doing. This was often a far more powerful than mere words. How can you announce God’s great restoration project that is available to all men? How can you symbolically demonstrate to the lost souls around you that the exile between them and God is over?