Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

Finally, the installation of the Twelve in Mark 3:13-19 has a juridical-institutional dimension. I have already mentioned these texts in chapter 4, but only in regard to the fact that it is one of the clearest pieces of evidence for the “gathering of Israel” Jesus intended. Here my concern is with the institutional dimension of the event.

Both the carefully preserved list of the Twelve, with Simon Peter as the first, and the verb epoiēsen (= “he created” or “he installed,” from Greek poiein) show that this is a symbolic action that creates a new reality within Israel and also has institutional character, for there is no other comparable complete

list of names in the early church, except for the Seven in Acts 6:5. In the Old Testament, “create” can be used for installation in office, for example, of judges or priests,⁹ and such a public-official action is likewise intended here. Both the list and the verb indicate that this is something special, deeply embedded in memory.

When Jesus called the Twelve out of a larger group of disciples and set them before the others as a precisely defined group, it was in the first place a vivid illustration, a demonstration of his will to gather all Israel. But here again we would underestimate the depth dimension of the symbolic action if we saw it only as that. It is also an initiation of the future, of something that is already proleptically realized in a prophetic sign. In the beginning of realization the future is already projected in advance.

Jesus’ symbolic actions open up a new reality, institute meaning, put in place a reality into which one can enter. To that extent they have a basic sacramental structure and are the preliminary stages of the church’s later sacraments. With the establishment of the Twelve and their preaching of the reign of God the existence of eschatological Israel has already begun.

“He created the Twelve”—anyone familiar with the Bible hears the fixed formula “God created” from the creation account in Genesis 1:1–2:4 in the background here. But there is also an echo of Deutero-Isaiah, who says again and again that God “has created” his people (e.g., Isa 43:1, 21) and “will create” new things for his people (Isa 43:19). With Jesus’ institution of the Twelve, the promises from the book of Isaiah begin to be fulfilled definitively. The new creation of Israel is beginning.

If Jesus did anything in the way of creating institutions, it was primarily in the creation of the Twelve. This symbolic action has a juridical dimension. However, it was not for the sake of a church about to be newly founded that would take Israel’s place in the history of salvation; it was for the sake of the eschatological Israel that was to be gathered. It was out of that eschatological Israel that Jesus instituted and founded that the church came into being after Easter.¹⁰

The Constitution of a New Reality

The first section of this chapter spoke of Jesus’ gestures and attitudes, the next three about a demonstrative healing (Mark 3:1-6), the institution of a new family (Mark 3:34-35), and the installation of the Twelve (Mark 3:13-19). The number of symbolic actions that accompanied Jesus’ appearance was certainly much, much greater. We must also say something about Jesus’ solemn entry into the city of Jerusalem (Mark 11:1-11), the subsequent action in the Temple (Mark 11:15-19), and Jesus’ gesture with the bread and wine at the Last Supper (Mark 14:22-25). But those three symbolic actions are closely related to one another: they begin Jesus’ passion. Therefore they need to be treated in this book at a later time, namely, in chapter 15 (“Decision in Jerusalem”).

But by now it should already be clear that Jesus did not only act through his words. He also acted in gestures and signs that often concentrated themselves into symbolic actions. In this way much of his life acquired a symbolic dimension: for example, his celibacy, which we will also need to discuss (chaps. 13 and 14). But none of it is symbolic in the pale, watered-down sense in which people today, surrounded as they are by traffic signs, pictograms, and computer symbols, think of signs and symbols. The symbols and signs in the life of Jesus create meaning. They constitute new reality. In everything he did—and above all in his symbolic actions—Jesus was creating the beginning of the eschatological Israel.

Chapter 9

Jesus’ Miracles

Human words have enormous power. They can tear down or build up. They can gather and scatter. Words can thrust the world into deep distress, and they can give rise to an unending sequence of events. Once the concept of human rights was put into words it could no longer be banished from history. Since the Sermon on the Mount was composed, it has not ceased to incite silent revolutions. Nevertheless, it would be a fundamental mistake to think that the world is governed only by words and that only words set history in motion.