Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons

 But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea.  And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.  So he told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him.  For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him.  And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, "You are the Son of God."  But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.

And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted.  And they came to Him.  Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:  Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, "Sons of Thunder"; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. 

- Mark 3:7-19a

On Saturday we read that Jesus and the disciples went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.  And the Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"  But He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:  how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?  And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."   And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.  And He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward."  Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?"  But they kept silent.  And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him. 

 But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea.  And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.  So he told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him.  For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him.  And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, "You are the Son of God."  But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.   We get a twofold movement in the Gospel, which we see throughout all the stories of Jesus and His ministry.  As the authorities begin to take hostile notice of Him (above, in Saturday's reading, the Pharisees began to plot with the Herodians how to destroy Him), Jesus withdraws from the public.  It's not yet His time, the "hour" of the Cross, which He calls His glory (see John 12:23-33).  But again, the unclean spirits know who He is, signifying a different realm from the worldly in which He is recognized.  There is a double withdrawal here, He wishes to keep His messianic and divine identity a secret.  It is not the time for revelation.  His ministry will reveal His identity in its fullness and at the proper time.

And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted.  And they came to Him.  Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:  Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, "Sons of Thunder"; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananite; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. As public notice of Him grows, along with the hostility of the leadership (the Pharisees) which now has begun to collaborate against Him with the powerful of the state (the Herodians), Jesus went up on the mountain, a holy place, in order to appoint the twelve as both disciples (those who will learn from Him) and apostles (those who will be sent out).  Their work is to be with Him, and He will send them out to preach, to have power to heal sicknesses, and cast out demons.  It's as if the opposition of the worldly powerful signals a time for a proper expansion of His ministry by sharing power and wisdom with those who will go out and bear His kingdom into the world.

The "movement" of Jesus' ministry gives us an impression of change and transformation, constant evolution and response -- even suggesting to us the action of the Holy Spirit.  God sends out God's Son in mission into the world, and as the world responds so does the holy action of God.  As the hostility of worldly leadership grows in opposition to Christ, so does His mission expand, by investing human beings with what is holy and sending them out to bear the Kingdom into the world.  We can see movement in the smallest details of the Gospel, even in the names given in this list of the Twelve.  Mark tells us that Simon will be given the name Peter, that James and John Zebedee are given the name "Sons of Thunder" by Christ.  Interestingly, we're given the name Matthew among the Twelve, to whom we've been introduced as Levi in the previous chapter (see this reading).   It indicates that within the community for whom Mark writes this Gospel, Levi/Matthew is known.   But it tells us something once again about the movement of the holy, the action of God at work.  Peter and the Zebedee brothers are transformed, named into something by the One who is the Word and named creation into being as Lord.  Levi has become Matthew.  Levi means "pledged" or attached to something, the name that was given to the lineage of the Jewish priestly class and those who served in the temple (as the tribe or descendants of Levi).  But Matthew means "Gift of the Lord."  It suggests that Levi who was a tax collector and sinner now is disciple and apostle through the grace of God.  His very life, through His spiritual transformation, becomes a gift of God.  What did not prevail in his lifestyle through a worldly inheritance became possible through grace.  And that is the thread that runs through everything in the Gospels -- that movement which is inherent in the understanding of grace.  It never stops and it's never at rest; it is constantly in action.  That action may happen in hidden ways from us, but it is always moving, causing movement, making patterns, transforming, at work in us.  We may see the world as static or bound by matter; but the reality of grace is constant movement.   Jesus has told His disciples that He would make them fishers of human beings (see this reading),  and "fish" would become a symbol of Christians (the acronym for the ancient Greek word for fish forms the first letters of "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior" in Greek).  Jesus miraculously feeds crowds twice with fishes and barley loves that He multiplies.  But in the constant movement of the work of grace in the world we can also see an image of fish that constantly swim through streams; patterns and movements of the holy working deeply within us, below the surface of the world, emerging to make themselves known with a kind of suddenness that tells us of this movement that was happening all along.  Matthew, then, is truly a gift of grace as is the whole reality of Christ's Kingdom in the world.  Whatever seems to be happening on the surface -- the hostility of the leadership, the difficulties and struggles of this fledgling movement, even Jesus' eventual death on the Cross -- there is something below the surface always happening, growing, moving, at work and alive in constant action and energy.  This is the image we need of the living Kingdom, our understanding of what may be hidden but will be revealed.  We note how the Gospel also lets us know its work may be rejected; one of these chosen Twelve will also betray Him.  Let us consider the cost of our own failure to go where grace wants to take us, the rejection of its energy, action, and movement for our lives.