When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles
Yesterday when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand he hinted that the restoration of Israel, the ten tribes of the northern kingdom, and the two tribes of the south, had begun. With the choosing of twelve apostles he continued this project of creating a unified Israel. But this was going to be a new Israel that was more than a merely physical nation. Not that Israel was ever ordinary, but it did function in ways more consistent with a typical nation. But this new Israel was different. It didn't operate by military force but rather by the power of the Spirit. It wasn't governed or spread by compulsion but rather by the law of freedom.
It was not a lesser thing than an earthly Kingdom. We can see this from Paul in the first reading when he asked, "If the world is to be judged by you, are you unqualified for the lowest law courts?" But it was clear that at least as the Church in Corinth was structured, they had to opt in to the higher and willingly forego the lower. Even this spiritual authority of people within the Church was only a fallback that ought not to have been necessary if the members therein yielded to the true authority of love, since it was, "in any case, a failure on your part that you have lawsuits against one another".
There was a real authority vested in the leaders of the Church, since Jesus told the twelve that they would "sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (see Matthew 19:28). But this was an authority under which one would need to submit himself willingly, not like a state in which legal compliance was not optional. Such spiritual authority was not impressive in the eyes of the world. It was much more natural to prefer the obviously impactful and aggressive power wielded by nations, whether militarily against other nations, or against their citizenry by means of their laws and courts. But the authority of the Church was rooted in wisdom and revelation, it was so deeply grounded in revealed truth that it took an entire night in prayer before Jesus called the initial twelve apostles.
A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.
The crowds did not come to join an army or to conquer and cast our the Roman occupying force. What they received was not having their claims adjudicated against those who had wronged them. It was an entirely different sort of Kingdom in which they found themselves. It was a Kingdom in which Jesus taught divine wisdom, healed diseases, and cast out unclean spirits. In that Kingdom people would be taught that mercy was essential, and ought to be prioritized over strict justice. It wasn't a matter of people going to Jesus to get what they wanted, but rather to become what they were meant to be, as all "in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all".
All of us have in some measure tried to live for our superficial desires, to squeeze from life all we could. But our true identity is as people meant to spread freedom, life, and wholeness, just as Jesus did. We hear in Paul's letter to the Church at Corinth a call to act in a way consistent with who we have become.
but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified,
you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and in the Spirit of our God.
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