How did Jesus choose his disciples?
One of the things I have long been uncomfortable with is the joining of the disciples. The weird process that was used for choosing them. Why them, why fishermen, tax collectors, etc. What special qualifications did they have that allowed them to be special followers. And the way that it is described in the gospels, they just left everything behind and joined some guy who was walking down the beach. Well, maybe he wasn’t just some guy walking down the beach. Maybe he was actually known to them.
There is a difference between a mere follower and a disciple of a teacher. It is a question of degree of commitment and understanding. The followers are the people who followed Jesus, but didn’t give up their day jobs to be with him. For instance, the 5000 guys who showed up with families for lunch one day were just followers. As were the people who sat on the mount and got a sermon. They were his students, but not the special ones.
So to be chosen to be one of the inner students would be a big deal. For a silly example, let’s say Justin Beiber walked into choir practice on Thursday and said he was looking for backup singers. It would be hard to not give up your day job and go join that circus. But to do that, would require that you know who the Biebs is. He would need enough of a reputation that you would consider being a disciple if he popped up out of the blue. Of course, in the days before the internet, it would probably take a long time to generate that amount of Buzz.
I would like to speculate about how Jesus might have garnered such a reputation. There is a large gap in Jesus’ life between age 12 and 30. (Luke 3:1) When he was young he went to the temple in Jerusalem and amazed the scholars with his knowledge of the scriptures. Then at age 30 he starts up his ministry with the water into wine thing. Notice that even in that story, he already has a reputation. The servants are instructed to just do what he says. Would they have even had an open enough mind to do that if there was not at least some suspicion that Jesus was special in some way.
So what happened in those 18 years in between? Well, Jesus was the son of a carpenter (Joseph) and would naturally follow in his father’s footsteps. We can speculate that there probably wasn’t enough work in Nazareth, all the time. So, a carpenter would follow the work around the nation and work on contract. So, Joseph and Sons Carpenter’s Incorporated would get a gig to help building a new palace in Herodium. Or a gig in Bethlehem, say, to refurbish a stable. These gigs would probably last a few months and they would have to travel around the country.
As a good Jewish man, Jesus would go to synagogue on Saturdays wherever they were working. Jesus would naturally get the opportunity to speak on whatever scroll of the Torah would be handed to him. Given his wisdom displayed to the elders in Jerusalem at age 12, it is likely that he would have had more and similarly impressive insights while walking and working around Israel. After being in a town for a while, people would have been interested in hearing the next crazy idea from Jeshua bar Joseph dan Nazareth. They would show up on Saturday and listen and debate.
They probably told their neighbours and they told their neighbours and they told their neighbours. And so on, and so on… So, who needs Twitter now, Justin…? So, the news of this man who had the wisdom of the scriptures would likely have percolated through the whole country after 18 years.
He probably worked in many of the same towns as the various disciples originally came from. Jesus may even have met the disciples in synagogue and debated with them. Perhaps this is how he knew they were qualified. Even though they were members of the lower class, non-intellectuals, they would have had a chance to speak at synagogue, or ask questions, or enter the debate. He probably heard them discuss his radical interpretations of the Torah. Jesus may have felt that “this guy John has a real gift for metaphor”. Or, “this guy Peter shoots his mouth off, but it’s hard not to like him and follow his leadership”.
So, when He just went along the bank of the Sea of Galilee, picking up disciples, he probably knew that these people would just follow him. He knew what their skills were and how they would help his cause.
And they knew who he was and what he stood for.
This speculation comes across as if choosing the disciples wasn’t as big a miracle as it is sometimes made out to be. To me it just looks like a plan that took longer than expected. Jesus used the tools that were available to him to get the results he wanted.
It also should give us a level of comfort. We don’t have this huge pressure to perform to the disciple level right away. We get to accept that we are part of a big process that ends up with us contributing in some way. “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Disciple ship is not magically being picked out of a crowd. It is a process where we learn how to be followers of Jesus.
Random Thoughts 