13And he went up on the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him. 14And he appointed twelve, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach 15and have authority to cast out demons: 16Simon whom he surnamed Peter; 17James the son of Zeb'edee and John the brother of James, whom he surnamed Bo-aner'ges, that is, sons of thunder; 18Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, 19and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Then he went home;
In this passage, Jesus appears to choose 12 amongst all his followers to be special envoys who do his work. Interestingly, he “called to those whom he desired” and one of them was his betrayer. So the betrayal was cooked into the pie early in the piece. Jesus was here to a job - a job defined by God and not of his own. I am sure given a choice, he would not have suffered and died the torturous death of a Roman crucifixion. I believe each of us also has a fath defined by God. Walking that path with integrity and faith gives us a fullness of life that is absent on any other path of our own design. Creator God, give me the gift of the Holy Spirit to discover the path that you have in store for me. May I search not for comfort but for clarity of your will. I accept the life you have in store for me. Amen.
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