The Twelve

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When 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. Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. (Mark 3:7–19)

Jesus called twelve men to be his apostles—that is, his “ambassadors.” Though some of those apostles would become famous, most of them remain obscure. They are nothing more than names on a list. No stories appear in the New Testament to tell us what James son of Allphaeus, Simon the Zealot, or Thaddaeus might have said or done. Jesus never singles them out for praise. No other author of the New Testament even mentions them. Yet these obscure men were among Jesus’ closest friends while he was on Earth. They were individuals that Jesus specifically called, who served a role that Jesus needed. They were with Jesus to see his miracles and they received the Spirit at Pentecost.

Not many of us will be famous. Few of us will be remembered by anyone other than our friends, coworkers and family. Within a generation or two, no one will even know our names. But whether our fame shines like the sun, remembered by the human race for as long as it endures, or whether we vanish in obscurity, like these unknown apostles, we are important to Jesus, serving a role that he intends, changing the world even if no one else knows what we did. We live for Jesus, not for fame.

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