Mark 3:13-19

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired. and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew,  and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus,  and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

These were the 12 representative disciples.

They were men of Galilee, and conversed with Yeshu in the Galilean dialect. For three years they accompanied him everywhere. They were not highly educated; but they did preach, and they also healed and cast out demons.

The Twelve followed him until his betrayal and arrest. At the arrest they ran away in fear.  The betrayal is described by Mark as though he had been present there himself to see it (See Chapter 14).

Mark 3:7-12

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and  Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

The people came to Yeshu from five districts, so anxious were they for physical healing. And they were also ready to listen to him as Son of Man. But it seems that they were not ready to understand what the demons definitely did. The demons knew that he was the Son of God.

Yeshu waits patiently for us; he does not force us to understand.

Mark 3:1-6

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked round at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Yeshu knew full well why the Pharisees were present in the synagogue; it was for envy. It was because he was good, and popular with the people on account of his healings and teachings. Yet for them there was loss of face, for Yeshu was just a carpenter, one of ‘the common people’ who lacked religious training; and he was a Galilean too, so unlikely even to be of pure Jewish stock.

So what to do? He had already shown himself better than they at interpreting the scriptures. Ah! he could be discredited if he were found to break the religious Rest Day laws!

But even then, on this occasion, he interpreted the scriptures better than they did, saying that right deeds are more important than right thinking.

Defeated again, they decide that he must be killed.