Episode 12 of the Make Saints podcast: “Twelve”
For the twelfth episode of the Make Saints podcast, I thought I’d do something clever and talk about Twelve. And when I saw that I could drop it right after the Twelfth Day of Christmas, well…I couldn’t pass up that opportunity!
But of course, that isn’t the twelve I have in mind.
I’m thinking of The Twelve. As in the twelve followers of Jesus. OK, before you skip out, let me say this: the fact that the Bible doesn’t agree on who those twelve people were is pretty fantastic. And not even the smallest problem.
Because that was the natural starting place. I’m supposed to tell you who these twelve dudes were and what they believed, yadda yadda, skippity doo da and boom, we’d be at today.
But…no.
Who are The Twelve?
So of course there’s Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, James and John: that’s four. Then Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, another James, another Simon, Judas Iscariot, and either Thaddaeus or a second Judas, who is the son of a James…
And honestly, there is no real reason to know these names. The gospel writers only gave half of them speaking roles! Peter we know: what with the Messiah comment and Jesus calling him Satan. James and John make some bold statements and join Jesus for the Transfiguration.
Andrew, Thomas, and Philip get minor roles, too, but only in John.
The only other one to get a speaking part is Judas Iscariot.
So, what, seven? Of the twelve. And three of those get a speaking part in only one gospel. So let’s forgive ourselves for needing a cheat sheet to keep track of the supporting cast.
What are The Twelve?
That’s a better question.
The most obvious answer is that these are the closest followers of Jesus: which, given how Peter, James, and John seem to amount to an inner circle, makes the lot of them something like the wider inner circle.
They are referred throughout the gospels as The Twelve, disciples, and apostles, which makes it hard to figure out exactly what their particular role is.
The Church often refers to The Twelve as The Disciples. We invite kids to memorize the names of The Disciples. But in the Bible, even that isn’t consistent. Particularly in Luke, in which there is The Twelve and The Disciples. Which is an even bigger group. So The Twelve are counted as within The Disciples, like a subset.
I’ll tell you how my brain exploded when I finally read the gospel of Luke straight through and came to chapter 9. There Jesus calls these twelve closest followers to him, calls them apostles and has them do the very healing he was just doing. So they go out, do it, and come back and are like “Holy Cats, we could actually do it!”
But then Jesus turns around in chapter 10 and sends The Disciples out, all SEVENTY of them, to do what those twelve just did.
I was like, I thought there were 12. My Sunday school teacher expected me to remember the names of “all twelve disciples” and now you’re telling me there are seventy? What the heck, man?
But that isn’t everything.
I was just as blown away by the idea that The Disciples were called Apostles while Jesus was still alive. AND that they could do what Jesus could do.
I’d heard this in church all my life and yet this was the first time I’d really heard it.
Why the Twelve?
Don’t really know. And honestly, way above our pay grade.
Tradition says it is connected to the twelve tribes of Israel. Twelve tribes > Twelve disciples. OK. I guess. Does that move you? Probably not.
What’s more interesting is that this was consistent among all the gospels. There’s a lot of variance about the disciples in general, but they all have twelve as the inner circle. And that itself seems significant.
Now let’s talk about Judas.
So there are twelve followers among the disciples that get this special designation in all the gospels: they are known as The Twelve.
And then, one of them betrays them all.
In the gospel we attribute to Mark, the author last refers to The Twelve in 14:43, when it says
“Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; and with him there was a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.”
It’s almost like this is the end of the team. From then on, the reference to twelve disappears.
In Matthew, Judas betrays them, but the author doesn’t just drop it. Matthew has Judas try to return the bribe and then kill himself. Then he refers to the remaining disciples as The Eleven.
Luke’s author dispatches with Judas with less finality and, like Matthew, refers to the group as The Eleven. Luke, unlike the other gospels, takes the time in a second gospel: the Acts of the Aspostles: to replace Judas, so the team can be at full strength again.
That’s how the synoptic gospels handle it. Three takes. All slightly different. Of course, the fourth gospel, John, would take a very different approach.
They remain The Twelve.
Even after Judas betrays them. They are still The Twelve. It’s the team name. It’s like the Big Ten: it’s been a long time since the Big Ten had ten teams.
It makes sense. And it is so simple. Why wouldn’t they still be The Twelve? But this subtlety is also quite telling.
Just like Mark, Matthew, and Luke, John has Judas betray Jesus in the Garden. It’s a big moment. Lots of tension. Armies and swords and the Julius-Caesar-et-tu-Brute vibes are radiating. And just like the others, he stops referring to the team at all…until after the crucifixion and resurrection. When Jesus shows up.
John 20:24
“But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.”
That’s it. Again, subtle.
Thomas was missing. He wasn’t in the room. He was one of the twelve. And he wasn’t there. Guess who else we assume isn’t there?
Isn’t it curious, though? John referring to The Twelve here? Noting that one of them was missing. As if the other eleven were there.
It doesn’t say Judas was there. It also doesn’t say he wasn’t.
The Strange Possibility of Reconciliation
John doesn’t deal with Judas with the finality that Matthew and Luke do. Nor does it give anything close to the suggestion that Judas actually isn’t in the room with them.
The evangelist keeps referring to Judas as a betrayor. And he begins chapter 18 with three successive references to Judas: “Judas, who betrayed him.” Then “Judas brought a detachment of soldiers…” then a third time: “Judas, who betrayed him.”
And right then, Jesus is brought before the high priest and then Pilate; and interspersed in this sequence is Peter denying Jesus three times.
Both Judas and Peter are messing up. In the end, we only see one reconcile with Jesus.
You might not like my hot take on Judas.
That’s fair. I’m not going to hang my theological hat on such foolish certainty.
But what is striking about the gospel of John is how much the whole last arc is built around reconciliation. And it is so unbelievably striking that a story so rich with that movement of restoration, reconciliation, and transformation would simply leave this unresolved.
I mean, for Pete’s sake (well Thomas’s sake, actually), that guy gets a special visit from Jesus because he missed the first one.
Killing Judas off, casting him out, or kicking him off the team is a punitive response that is anathema to this ending.
It has to at least be considered possible.
But there’s one wrinkle.
Jesus has earlier said that there’s only one way to not be on the team. And that’s to quit. The roster is open to anyone and if you’re on it, then you’re on the team.
I suspect John doesn’t resolve the Judas mess because the disciples couldn’t resolve it themselves. It is most likely that he quit the team, betrayed them because he was scared, and felt like he couldn’t go back.
But I think the confusion of what to make of The Twelve serves to mess with our expectations. In a good way. How we so often seek to punish the traitors with blood-thirsty vengeance when the heart of the story is reconciliation.
And yet, reconciliation can only happen when it is sought by both parties.
John’s gospel ends with Jesus’s reconciliation with Peter. Three times Jesus asks if he loves him, and three times Peter says yes. Each one walks back a denial.
We don’t get to read of Judas’s redemption. But we do get to reconcile with our neighbors. How we do that? That’s the work. And the hardest part: it’s on both of us to do it.
Have you subscribed yet? What are you waiting for? Check it out!