The Ordination of the Twelve

140:0.1Just be­fore noon on Sun­day, Jan­uary 12, A.D. 27, Je­sus called the apos­tles to­gether for their or­di­na­tion as pub­lic preach­ers of the gospel of the king­dom. The twelve were ex­pect­ing to be called al­most any day; so this morn­ing they did not go out far from the shore to fish. Sev­eral of them were lin­ger­ing near the shore re­pair­ing their nets and tin­ker­ing with their fish­ing para­pher­na­lia.

140:0.2As Je­sus started down the seashore call­ing the apos­tles, he first hailed An­drew and Pe­ter, who were fish­ing near the shore; next he sig­naled to James and John, who were in a boat near by, vis­it­ing with their fa­ther, Zeb­e­dee, and mend­ing their nets. Two by two he gath­ered up the other apos­tles, and when he had as­sem­bled all twelve, he jour­neyed with them to the high­lands north of Ca­per­naum, where he pro­ceeded to in­struct them in prepa­ra­tion for their for­mal or­di­na­tion.

140:0.3For once all twelve of the apos­tles were silent; even Pe­ter was in a re­flec­tive mood. At last the long-waited-for hour had come! They were go­ing apart with the Mas­ter to par­tic­i­pate in some sort of solemn cer­e­mony of per­sonal con­se­cra­tion and col­lec­tive ded­i­ca­tion to the sa­cred work of rep­re­sent­ing their Mas­ter in the procla­ma­tion of the com­ing of his Fa­ther’s king­dom.