Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Monday, February 4, 2013 Read – Luke 5:12-6:16 For the next several stories Luke essentially follows the story that Mark has already told us. Luke changes very little of Mark’s story at least until he reaches the conclusion of these stories and speaks of the call of the Twelve. We may recall that Mark most likely selected these stories and gathered them together because they introduce the great and deadly conflict that Jesus experienced with the religious leaders. Touching and healing lepers, declaring the forgiveness of sins, calling a tax-collector to be a disciple and then eating with tax collectors and sinners, failing to observe proper fasting, and controversy about the Sabbath served Mark well to introduce that conflict and they serve Luke in the same way, although Luke has other motives for telling his story. We do not need to spend much time on these stories. Luke does add one touch to the story of the appointing of the Twelve. Mark had already told us that Jesus went up on a mountain and there selected the Twelve. Luke adds that it was only after Jesus had spent a night in prayer that he made the selection. Prayer is an important motif in Luke’s gospel! For Luke almost everything Jesus does is directed by the Holy Spirit and conveyed through prayer. We may recall that it was while Jesus was praying after he had come up out of the waters of baptism that the Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove. Luke’s list of the Twelve is very similar to Mark’s list with one exception. Luke mentions a second Judas, the son of James, in place of Thaddaeus. Why this difference no one knows – perhaps they are the same person who went by two names – perhaps Luke had two lists to choose between. The order is slightly different as well with Luke placing Peter and Andrew together since they were brothers. Luke also drops out some of Mark’s editorial comment about the disciples though both significantly include the comment about Judas Iscariot as the one who will betray Jesus. We should not be bothered much by these minor differences – Matthew’s list is slightly different from either Luke or Mark and John names others as Apostles who are not included by Mark, Luke, or Matthew. Quibbling about the names on the list can take us away from the main point which is that Jesus selected Twelve – symbolic of the Twelve tribes of Israel – which is the main point in all of it.