Reading the Gospels Together The Call of the Disciples – Part 3 Luke tells his readers about the call of the first disciples in a significantly different way. Calling disciples is not the first thing Jesus does when he arrives in Galilee. Luke has moved the story of Jesus’ visit to his hometown of Nazareth to make it the first event in Galilee. We have already talked about that event and its prominence in Luke’s gospel. In fact, the calling of disciples is not even the second thing Jesus does. Instead Luke tells his readers of some of the events that happened in Capernaum first, including the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, and only after that tells about the call of disciples. Luke story of the call of the first disciple, Peter, is much more detailed and “reasonable” than the abrupt call Mark has described. Luke chose to use the story of Peter and the great catch of fish to describe for his readers the call of Peter. Mark does not know of this story or at least he chose not to use it. Neither does Matthew. But John knows this story too and John uses it at the very end of his gospel as a resurrection appearance of Jesus. In a way, as we will see shortly, John also uses this story as a call story of Peter but it has become for him the “recalling” of Peter who has fallen through his denial of Jesus. Why might Luke have used this story in this way? Perhaps this really is the way in which Peter was first called. In fact, it makes a good deal of sense to think of it in this way. At any rate it seems Luke was concerned about making the story of the call of Peter, and likely any other disciple, to hinge on a personal encounter with Jesus in which Peter is confronted both with his sinfulness and unworthiness and with the glory and majesty of Jesus. Being called is a moment of personal confrontation – an existential moment and Luke highlights that. Those of us who follow Jesus all know these moments of confrontation when we come face to face with Jesus. They don’t happen only once in our lives but many times. And they are at the core of being a disciple and remaining one. John makes a similar reference when Jesus confronts the Twelve following the multiplication of bread and Jesus’ words alluding to the Lord’s Supper. There Jesus asks, “Do you too want to go away?” and Peter’s response is “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?” This is the core of being a follower and likely Luke knows that. So, Peter’s call gets at the heart of things. We can be thankful that Luke has told us this story in this way. His telling of the story has power in our lives too – much more power than the abrupt story Mark told us. And as the story comes to a close we learn that James and John are with Peter and presumably experience a call from Jesus at the same time. Luke does not mention Andrew but again we are likely not wrong to assume that Andrew is also present. Thus the same four fishermen are the first four called and Luke winds up being in agreement with Mark about that. A few verses later Luke tells the story of the call of Levi and now it is apparent that he is using Mark – he tells the story with the exact same words! Luke agrees that the name of this tax collector is Levi and there is no mention of a man named Matthew at this point. Like Mark and Matthew, Luke also tells of Jesus selecting The Twelve from among the many other disciples. Luke’s assumption is also that Jesus called many others whose stories are not mentioned. But the Twelve have significance in all three synoptic gospels and most of all in Luke. Luke also produces a list that is quite like Mark’s and Matthew’s with a couple of small changes. Luke lists Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew (Luke does not mention him as a tax collector following Mark’s lead), Thomas, James the son of Alpheaus, Simon who was called a Zealot (Mark and Matthew had referred to him as a Cananean), another Judas who was the son of James, and Judas Iscariot. Luke has dropped Thaddeaus from his list and replaced him with Judas the son of James. Like Mark, Luke also is aware of an inner core of Apostles – Peter, James, and John, and sometimes Andrew. The Twelve will become a prominent feature of Luke’s book of Acts. In the opening chapter of the book of Acts, Luke tells his readers of the first “necessity” that faced the fledgling church after Jesus’ ascension. The number of Apostles had been reduced to eleven because of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal and subsequent death. But, having only eleven Apostles would not be proper, so Luke tells the story of calling a replacement for Judas Iscariot. And in the process Luke once again lists the same eleven disciples he had listed earlier. Luke will tell the stories of others being called to follow Jesus in the book of Acts, but this call is unique. No one else will be called as an Apostle – a member of The Twelve. Only Matthias who is here chosen is called an Apostle and he will never be mentioned again. The Twelve function for Luke in the book of Acts as the group who insure legitimacy in the ministry of the early church. They bring authentication to the ministry of God’s people.