Daily Word: Luke 6:12-19 – Chosen by Name: Simon and Jude | Wednesday, Oct 28

Luke 6:12-19 (Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles – Year A)

“In those days he departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named apostles.” (Luke 6:12-13)

Before there is a mission, there is a night of prayer. Before there is an apostle, there is a name spoken by Christ. Before there is healing for the crowd, there is a choice made on a mountain in the dark.

Today the Church celebrates two of those chosen men — Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles — and the Gospel she places before us is not a story about them. It is the story of the night Jesus spent choosing them.

That is the right place to begin. Because you cannot understand the saints until you understand the prayer that made them.

The Night Before the Names: Proseuchomai and Dianyktereuōn (v. 12)

Luke writes: “He departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.”

The Greek verb for “pray” is proseuchomai — to pray, to pour out the heart before God, to hold conversation with the Father. Luke uses this verb more than any other evangelist. His Gospel is the Gospel of prayer.

And then he adds a detail so deliberate it must not be passed over: ēn dianyktereuōn en tē proseuchē — he was spending the night in the prayer. The verb dianyktereuō means to pass the whole night through, from dusk to dawn. It appears only here in the New Testament.

Mark tells us Jesus rose early to pray. Luke tells us He stayed up all night. Matthew tells us He withdrew to lonely places. Together they reveal a Jesus for whom the choice of the Twelve was not a decision of management but an act of obedience. He did not choose the apostles from His own judgment. He brought the names to the Father and prayed them through the dark.

Every vocation you have — to marriage, to singleness, to service, to your work — is a name that was prayed over before it was given. You were chosen in the dark, in a prayer you never heard, before the day came.

The Chosen and the Named: Eklexamenos and Ōnomasen (v. 13)

“From them he chose Twelve, whom he also named apostles.”

The Greek verb for “chose” is eklexamenos, from eklegomai — to pick out, to select, to choose out from among others. It is the same verb used for God choosing Israel (Deuteronomy 7:6) and for Christ choosing Paul (Acts 9:15). It is a divine selection, not a human election.

And then the second verb: hous kai apostolous ōnomasen — whom he also named apostles. The word apostolos means one sent with a commission, one who goes with the authority of the one who sends him. And the verb onomazō — to name, to give a name, to call by name — is not a label. It is a vocation. To name someone is to give them a destiny.

He chose them. And then He named them. They did not apply. They did not campaign. They did not qualify. They were named.

Simon the Zealot: The Zeal That Was Redirected

The list of the Twelve includes one of the most startling titles in the New Testament:

“Simon called the Zealot.”

The Greek is Simōn ton kaloumenon Zēlōtēn. In Luke's Gospel the term is the Greek Zēlōtēs; in Matthew and Mark it is the Aramaic Kananaios — both meaning the same thing: the Zealot.

The Zealots were political revolutionaries. They wanted Rome out of Israel. They believed the kingdom of God would come through the sword, through armed rebellion, through violent purification of the land. They were the radicals of their day — willing to kill and to die for the liberation of Israel.

And Jesus chose one of them. And He did not ask him to stop being zealous. He redirected the zeal.

Simon had been burning for a kingdom of politics. Christ set his fire inside a kingdom of grace. And in that redirecting of zeal, another miracle appears in the very list itself — because among the Twelve is also Matthew the tax collector (Luke 6:15), the collaborator, the man who worked for Rome. A Zealot and a tax collector, in the same apostolic college, at the same table. In any other room in Israel, they would have killed each other. Here they were made brothers.

Tradition tells us Simon carried the Gospel as far as Egypt, then Persia, alongside Jude, and that he was martyred there — by tradition, sawn in half. The fire that once burned for a political kingdom burned for the Kingdom of God to the last stroke of the saw.

The Church does not ask you to kill your fire. She asks Christ to redirect it.

Jude: The Obscure One Who Became the Patron of the Impossible

And then Jude. Not Judas Iscariot — the letter of Jude calls him Ioúdas Iēsou Christou doulos, Jude, slave of Jesus Christ, and adelphos de Iakōbou, brother of James (Jude 1:1). Luke calls him Ioudas Iakōbou — Jude, son of James (Luke 6:16). Some manuscripts read "Thaddaeus."

He appears in only one scene in the Gospels, and it is a question:

“Lord, why do you reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” (John 14:22)

It is the question of a man who expected the Messiah to be publicly glorious — a king on display. And Jesus answers him not with a spectacle but with a promise: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14:23). The glory would be hidden in the heart, not in the headlines. Jude asked for the world to be shown; Jesus offered him an interior dwelling.

Jude carried the Gospel to the same lands as Simon — Persia, Mesopotamia — and by tradition was beaten to death with a club. His emblem in Christian art is a club or an axe; Simon's is a saw.

And there is a beautiful irony in how the Church prays to him. Because his name was so easily confused with Judas Iscariot, few people prayed to Jude. And because so few asked him, God rewarded those who did — and Jude became the patron of hopeless cases and desperate causes, the saint invoked when nothing else is working.

The saint nobody prayed to became the saint everybody prays to when they are desperate. That is a very Gospel-shaped irony. God has a habit of taking the one everyone overlooked and giving him the hardest cases.

The Power for the Mission: Dynamis and Iaomai (v. 17-19)

After the night of prayer and the naming of the Twelve, Luke tells us they came down to a level place. A great crowd gathered — from all Judea, from Jerusalem, from the coast of Tyre and Sidon. The Gentile coast. The pagan cities. They came “to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.”

And Luke adds: dynamis par' autou exērcheto kai iato pantas — power was coming out of him and healing them all. The word for “power” is dynamis, and the verb for “healing” is iaomai — to cure, to restore, to make whole.

That power was the reason the Twelve were chosen. Not to hold a title. To be conduits of a healing that came from Him.

And here is the connection to today's saints. Simon and Jude were chosen, named, and sent — not because they were impressive, but because they were attached to the Source. Simon brought his fire. Jude brought his question. Both brought their limits. And the dynamis of Christ flowed through them anyway.

What This Means for Your Wednesday

Today, the Gospel places you where the apostles stood.

• You were chosen before you were sent. Eklexamenos. Jesus spent a night in prayer over names, and your name was in that prayer. You did not apply for the Kingdom. You were chosen into it.

• You were named. Ōnomasen. Your name is not a label; it is a vocation. Have you asked what name Christ is giving you in this season — servant, intercessor, mother, builder, comforter?

• What fire is in you that needs redirecting? Simon's zeal was not destroyed; it was aimed. What passion, anger, or intensity in you is pointed at the wrong kingdom? Do not extinguish it. Bring it to the mountain. Let Christ redirect it.

• What is your one question? Jude's whole Gospel footprint is a question about why God is not more visible. Bring your question. Jesus does not despise it. He answers it with something better — an interior dwelling.

• Are you willing to be the saint no one prays to? Jude was overlooked for centuries. And God made him the patron of the impossible. Hidden faithfulness is never wasted. Serve where no one sees. God is keeping a record.

• Are you attached to the Source? Dynamis. Power came out of Jesus and healed them all. The power is not in the vessel. It is in the One the vessel is touching. Stay on the mountain. Stay in the prayer. Stay attached — and let the power flow.

A Short Prayer

Lord Jesus, before You named the Twelve, You spent the night in prayer. Before the day came, You were already in the dark with the Father. You prayed over names. You prayed over mine.

Saint Simon, you burned with zeal for a kingdom that was too small. Christ did not extinguish your fire — He aimed it. Pray for me, that my passion would not be wasted on kingdoms of this world, but would burn for the Kingdom of God. Pray that I would follow to the last stroke of the saw.

Saint Jude, you asked why the Lord would not show Himself to the world — and you were given the answer of a hidden dwelling. You were overlooked, and God made you the patron of the impossible. Pray for me in the causes that seem hopeless. Pray for the ones I have already given up on. Teach me that no case is desperate in the hands of Christ.

Lord, I did not choose You; You chose me. I did not name myself; You named me. Redirect my fire. Answer my question. Attach me to the Source. And let the power that flows from You heal the ones You send me to.

Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles, pray for us. Amen.

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