As we have seen, Jesus used a striking and clearly defined symbolic action in choosing twelve from a larger group of disciples, making them an eloquent sign of the gathering of the eschatological people of the twelve tribes. He “created” them (Mark 3:14). They represent eschatological Israel, which begins with the group of twelve and centers on Jesus and the Twelve.
Alongside the Twelve, however, there were a larger number of disciples. The Twelve live and act in the midst of this larger circle of disciples. Therefore we must say that the Twelve are disciples, but not all disciples are part of the group of the Twelve. That needs to be explicitly emphasized, because in Matthew’s gospel it could seem that the Twelve and the group of disciples were identical. Matthew speaks a number of times very clearly of “the twelve disciples” (10:1; 11:1; 20:17; cf. 28:16). Did he mean to restrict the group of disciples to the Twelve? Possibly, but it is not clear what his intent was.
In contrast, the situation is very obvious in Mark. For him the group of disciples extends beyond the Twelve. Mark 2:13-14 reports how Jesus called the toll collector Levi to be his disciple. Thereupon, Levi made a great banquet in his house and invited his professional colleagues and many of his friends and acquaintances. Mark then remarks in this connection: “And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him” (Mark 2:15).4 This note makes clear how Mark imagined the situation. First: there is a larger group of disciples from among whom later (Mark 3:13-14) the Twelve are drawn. Second: one becomes a disciple by “following” Jesus.
Luke formulates still more clearly. After he has told how Jesus, on the mountain, has called the Twelve out of a larger crowd of disciples (Luke 6:12-13), he introduces the Sermon on the Plain (corresponding to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount) as follows: “He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases” (Luke 6:17-18). The theological scenery resembles the arrangement of the audience of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (Matt 4:23–5:1), but Luke allots space to Jesus’ listeners even more carefully than Matthew does: first, there is the group of the Twelve, just chosen, then around them “the great crowd” of the other disciples, and finally, in a still broader circle, the whole multitude of people. Luke thus thinks there was a large crowd of disciples.
This is clear also from the fact that, besides the mission of the Twelve in 9:1-2, Luke a little later, in 10:1, tells of still another mission of seventy-two disciples.5 This mission could, of course, rest on a misunderstanding on the part of Luke.6 But it may be that with the number seventy-two he was not so far from the actual size of the group of disciples.
Moreover, there is, of course, much to commend the idea that the boundaries of the group of disciples were fluid. The number of the Twelve was fixed, but the number of disciples shifted. The Fourth Gospel tells how one day a large number of disciples took offense at Jesus and left him (John 6:60-71).
We are in the fortunate position of having at least a few names of disciples who were not part of the Twelve but seem to have belonged to the broader group of disciples: Joseph Barsabbas (Acts 1:23); Cleopas (Luke 24:18); Nathanael (John 1:45; 21:2); Mary of Magdala (Mark 15:40-41); Mary, the [daughter?/mother?] of James the Younger (Mark 15:40); Mary, the mother of Joses (Mark 15:40); Salome (Mark 15:40-41); Joanna, the wife of Chuza (Luke 8:1-3); Susanna (Luke 8:1-3); and for a time also Matthias, who then was taken into the group of the Twelve in place of Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:23, 26). The list shows that Jesus’ group of disciples also included women. That was remarkable in an Eastern context and was anything but ordinary. It appears that here Jesus deliberately violated social standards of behavior.
So much, then, about the existence of a broader circle of disciples around the Twelve! In our context it is important to note that Jesus apparently did not attempt to gain disciples at any cost. Instead, he issued warnings: “As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head’” (Luke 9:57-58).
Other observations point in the same direction: Jesus by no means called everyone who met him openly and in faith to be his disciple. He went to the home of the toll collector Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) as well as that of the toll collector Levi (Mark 2:14-17). But Zacchaeus did not receive an invitation to discipleship as Levi did. Zacchaeus vows to change his life; in the future he will give half of his wealth to the poor of Israel and return wrongfully obtained money fourfold.7 But he will stay in Jericho and continue to practice his usual calling as a toll collector. Apparently there existed alongside the disciples a broad spectrum of people who opened themselves to the Gospel and took Jesus’ call to repentance to heart but who did not enter into his immediate circle of disciples.
Why was the group of disciples so important to Jesus? Obviously his disciples helped him in many ways: they found lodging (Mark 14:13-16; Luke 9:52), took care of meals and other things (Mark 6:37). It is said explicitly that the women who followed Jesus supported him and the whole group of disciples financially (Luke 8:3). But as indispensable as those things were, they were not the main reason. As Mark 3:14 says of the Twelve, the disciples were to be always “with him.”
The coming of the reign of God was not a theory, an abstract dogma, a mere teaching; it was the beginning of a dramatic history. The reign of God requires a dedicated community, a form of life into which it can enter and be made visible. The circle of men and women who followed Jesus, their solidary community, their being-together with one another, was to show that now, in the midst of Israel, a bit of “new society” had begun. In this way above all the disciples are Jesus’ “witnesses” of the reign of God now coming to be. They are, certainly, supposed to witness to the reign of God through their words, but not only in words; they witness also by their believing life together. That is why there are also so many “instructions for disciples” handed on to us in the gospels.
Participants in Jesus’ Story
If we look through the gospels we see that the Twelve and the group of disciples surrounding them play a crucial role. For example, the relatively short Gospel of Mark speaks of Jesus’ “disciples” forty-four times. But we have already come across the fact that the Twelve and the other disciples are by no means all those who were on Jesus’ side and played a role in the Jesus movement. Mark gives us an important example in the story of the blind beggar Bartimaeus (10:46-52).
This story takes place at the gate leading out of Jericho in the direction of Jerusalem. The blind man is sitting precisely where the Galilean pilgrims would set out on the last stage of their journey to the holy city. He hears Jesus passing by with a crowd of disciples and festival pilgrims, and he cries loudly, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” His cry for help is thus a messianic confession as well. Those around him are angry and order him to be quiet, but the blind man shouts still louder. Jesus notices him and heals him with the words, “Go; your faith has made you well.” So Jesus does not call the healed man to join his disciples. He does not tell him, “Come, follow me!” In fact, he releases him. But Bartimaeus, who can see again, is filled with so much gratitude that he follows Jesus. Mark says literally that he “followed him on the way” (10:52).
In the context that can only mean he accompanies Jesus to Jerusalem. He does not follow Jesus as a disciple but apparently as someone who goes part of the way with him. And he does not go just anywhere but walks with Jesus on the last part of his way, the part that will end at the cross. So the healed man becomes a participant in Jesus’ story—and that is a great, great thing.