Identity in Christ: Mark 3:16-19
How does Jesus know you? Are you the quiet kid who sits in the back of the room silently soaking up everything you can learn about Him? Are you the kid in the front row who wants to interact with Him as often as possible, frequently wrong but still putting forth ideas to talk about? Are you the kid who comes and goes, constantly moving between spiritual highs and worldly lows? Who are you in Christ?
In today’s verses, Jesus appoints the Twelve. The twelve here are the same Twelve disciples listed elsewhere. The word apostle means one who is sent out. Remember that the path to being sent out starts with submitting to Christ and drawing near to Him. Therefore, the path to apostleship begins with discipleship. There is no surprise that these same twelve individuals are listed elsewhere as twelve disciples.
Often when I come to a list of names like this, I skip to the end. After all, I don’t know these people personally. For a person who lives several thousand years afterward, they are only names on a page. They should be revered, of course. They stood up and followed Jesus in difficult circumstances. They were the human foundation that Jesus chose to give the Holy Spirit and begin His church on earth. They did a great thing; but in the end they are names on a page. If they walked by me right now, I’d be ignorant of who was there.
They each have identities; they were special to Jesus. Jesus hand-picked and invested deeply in them. To name a few we have Peter, who is first on the list because he was the disciple who always had something to say or do, and James and John, who were so special to Jesus that He gave them the name Sons of Thunder, and Matthew, renamed from Levi, and Judas, who handed Jesus over to the religious elite in the end. This is a great time to pause and reflect on the relationship Jesus has with His apostles.
It is also worth remembering that these people may have been exceptionally important to Him, but they were certainly not His only disciples or apostles. We shouldn’t forget about Mary Magdalene, who traveled with Jesus and from whom seven demons had been cast out. There was also Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. Jesus likely had relationship with Nicodemus, one of the religious elite who made it possible to take Jesus down from the cross. We can’t forget about the man in Gerasenes, who had a legion of demons cast out of him and his testimony was so powerful Jesus told him to stay in the region of the Decapolis and work with the people there.
All these people had identity in Christ. All these people were known by Jesus and deeply loved by Him. When He thinks of you and loves you, how does Jesus know you?
