Not All the Disciples Were "Vegetarians"
Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: the first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother' and James to son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him. Matt. 10:1-4, NASB.
That is quite a list. Have you ever examined it carefully? Some of them actually have tags to their names. Such was the case of Judas, who would eventually betray Jesus to the authorities who put Him to death.
But more interesting in some ways are the labels attached to Matthew and Simon. While the first is identified as a tax collector ("publican" in the King James Version), the second is labeled a Zealot. Neither is what we call middle of the road. Nor is either the kind of person that we would nominate for the ministry.
Jewish tax collectors were generally far from upright in their business dealings. In fact, they served as puppets for the hated Roman government--Jews who collected taxes for the enemy. But worse than that, any "extra" money they managed to collect went into their oversized pockets. And they made sure they obtained plenty of the extra kind. If a person didn't want to pay, there was always the ever-present Roman army, which had mastered all the techniques of helping people to cooperate.
At the other end of the political spectrum of the day was Simon the Zealot. The Zealots stood against Rome as terrorists in an effort to overthrow Israel's hated rulers. It was a good day for a Zealot when he could step into a crowd and leave a dagger in a Roman or a Roman collaborator, such as Matthew.
The miracle of Jesus' small group is that it contained both a Zealot and a publican. But the greatest miracle is that the four Gospels record no contention between them, as they do among Peter, John, and some of the others.
History demonstrates again and again that Christ's message truly changes people's hearts and lives. Genuine repentance brings conversion and a new life in Jesus, even among deadly enemies.
A side lesson here is that you don't always have to agree with everybody in the church to work with them. In fact, the opposite is true. The more perspectives in the group, the more ways it will discover to reach out to a world in need.
Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: the first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother' and James to son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him. Matt. 10:1-4, NASB.
That is quite a list. Have you ever examined it carefully? Some of them actually have tags to their names. Such was the case of Judas, who would eventually betray Jesus to the authorities who put Him to death.
But more interesting in some ways are the labels attached to Matthew and Simon. While the first is identified as a tax collector ("publican" in the King James Version), the second is labeled a Zealot. Neither is what we call middle of the road. Nor is either the kind of person that we would nominate for the ministry.
Jewish tax collectors were generally far from upright in their business dealings. In fact, they served as puppets for the hated Roman government--Jews who collected taxes for the enemy. But worse than that, any "extra" money they managed to collect went into their oversized pockets. And they made sure they obtained plenty of the extra kind. If a person didn't want to pay, there was always the ever-present Roman army, which had mastered all the techniques of helping people to cooperate.
At the other end of the political spectrum of the day was Simon the Zealot. The Zealots stood against Rome as terrorists in an effort to overthrow Israel's hated rulers. It was a good day for a Zealot when he could step into a crowd and leave a dagger in a Roman or a Roman collaborator, such as Matthew.
The miracle of Jesus' small group is that it contained both a Zealot and a publican. But the greatest miracle is that the four Gospels record no contention between them, as they do among Peter, John, and some of the others.
History demonstrates again and again that Christ's message truly changes people's hearts and lives. Genuine repentance brings conversion and a new life in Jesus, even among deadly enemies.
A side lesson here is that you don't always have to agree with everybody in the church to work with them. In fact, the opposite is true. The more perspectives in the group, the more ways it will discover to reach out to a world in need.
RSS Feed
