What do you get when you cross a few small businessmen, a corrupt tax collector who sympathizes with a foreign power, a right wing radical, and an embezzler? A bad joke? Hardly! This is actually a description of who some of Jesus’ disciples were when he chose them to follow him. They have become such incredible religious icons, that it is often overlooked that they were once simply men who engaged in their world as men do today; in various ways.
I want to
discuss one of Jesus’ disciples who you may not know much about, because not a lot
is said about him. The disciple: Simon the Zealot, who for all intents and
purposes, may have been a terrorist. What was that Matt? One of the disciples
was a terrorist? Yep, I bet you didn’t know that. To be more specific the title
given to Simon tells us pretty much the only thing we know about him, that he
was a member of a group of Jews who were determined to over throw Roman rule,
even to the point of using ancient terrorist and military tactics; this group
was called the ‘Zealots’. While the Zealot party was not explicitly labelled as
such until about 66 A.D., Josephus (in Bruce 1988, 40-41), the first century
Jewish historian, dates their origin to a revolutionary called Judas the
Galilean who led a revolt in 6 A.D.. These guys were incredibly radical, they
hated the idea of Roman rule and they wanted independence from Rome, so that
Jerusalem could be one people under God, and they were willing to take lives to
get this independence.
I am going
to get a little technical here, but that is simply because my assertion that
one of Jesus’ friends was likely a terrorist may be so radical to you I want to
show it rests on a firm foundation. You see there is some debate as to whether
or not Simon’s title refers to his political affiliations or to his
personality. Heard
(in Green 1992, 696), mentions
that Simon the Zealot was likely a description of his character. However, Bruce
(1988, 40-41), Hendriksen (2007, 330), Wilkins (2004, 388) and Constable (2005,
49) all agree that ‘Zealot’ refers to his political leanings. In fact in Mark 3:18
his name is Simon the Cananaean, which is effectively a reference to his patriotism
(Constable 2005, 49), his love for his country, or land (remember the Jewish
nation was situated in the land of Canaan). This is incredible, as this means
that Jesus had amongst his group of disciples someone who, at least initially,
wanted to use military force and any means possible to overthrow Rome. In fact,
that is exactly what the Zealots, alongside other Jewish groups, tried to do in
the late 60’s A.D.. They initiated a rebellion against Rome which led to the
destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish temple. These guys were radical, every
bit as radical as some of the terror groups that exist in the world today. In
fact when you think of the Zealots it is not too much of a stretch to think
Hamas.
It gets even
more interesting when you see that some people associate the Jewish assassins,
the Sicarii, with the Zealots (Heard, in Green 1992 , 695). The Sicarii were
similar to some Muslim terrorists today. One thing for which they were famous
for was walking the streets carrying daggers which they would use to surprise
attack Jewish nobility who they believed were in cahoots with Rome (Gundry 2003
,67). They would walk up to them in the street and randomly stab them to death
as a public demonstration…sound familiar? As mentioned some debate the exact connection
between the Sicarii and the Zealots, but Josephus (in Green 1992, 695) tells us
that the leader of the Sicarii at the beginning of the Jewish revolt was the
son or grandson of Judas the Galilean, the founder of the Zealots. So there was
definitely a connection of some kind.
This is so
fascinating and brings some incredible illumination to the gospel narratives.
Think about this: Peter, Andrew, James and John, were all involved in a small
fishing business, which is in fact well known. Now Jesus chose all of these
guys to be his disciples. He also chose Matthew (Levi), who was a tax collector,
to follow him. The tax collectors in the ancient provinces of Rome were
notoriously corrupt, and they milked those who paid their taxes as much as they
could, and the situation in first century Judea was no different. The Jews
hated tax collectors, considered them turn coats, and frequently talked about
them in the negative terms of ‘tax collectors and sinners’ (cf. Matt. 9:11);
they very much disliked these guys. So you have small businessmen, and then you
have someone whom all Jews, and especially Jewish businessmen, would consider
their enemy, and Jesus wants all these guys to fellowship together in his small
band of disciples? This must have made for fascinating camp fire discussions.
But to make
matters even more interesting Jesus takes a member of the far right radical
Zealot group and brings him into the mix. Think about this: the tax collectors
like Matthew were considered to be collaborators with the Romans, and the Zealots
hated the Romans, and a group associated with the Zealots eventually would be
killing collaborators. Simon likely hated men like Matthew. This sheds new
light on Jesus’ command to “love your enemies” (Matt 5:44; Luke 6:27). This was
not just some ivory tower command, preached to a group of religious idealists;
this was a striking command from God to his followers who at least for a time,
probably hated each other. To put it in roughly equivalent contemporary terms
you have left-wing compromisers, right-wing patriots, and middle ground small
businessmen, all expected by Jesus not just to get along, but love each other?
Wow, that must have been hard.
But here is
the even more significant point, Simon the Zealot, became one of the twelve,
and instead of wasting his life and dying in the fight for Jewish liberation
against Rome, a pointless war the Jews could never have won anyway, he gave his
life to the ministry of the gospel of peace, and eventually was martyred as
were so many of the Apostles. In other words Jesus took a terrorist/potential
terrorist, redeemed and transformed him, and made him one of his very closest
friends (John 15:15) and used him to bring an undisclosed amount of people the
message of the gospel of the forgiveness of sins. What a testimony that is!
This speaks
volumes to Christians today as well. Look, I don’t deny the threat that Islamic
terrorism holds. Just a few days before I wrote this article those two police
officers were attacked by an extremist teen who allegedly supports ISIS in
Melbourne, and one of them was nearly killed. There have been arrests and
‘chatter’ about attacks in Australia. ISIS has called upon any supporters they
have in this country to kill Australians, and despite Barak Obama’s and Tony
Abbott’s claims that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam, I highly doubt that any
of the people that heed that call will be Christians, Buddhists or Jews. I
recognize that Islamic terrorists and radicals could bring a reign of terror in
Australia that we have never seen or experienced in this country, and they pose
a real threat to this nation (it could also all fizzle out soon as well). I
recognize that they do this in the name of their religion, even though not all
Muslims are terrorists (and I must stress this again: not all Muslims are
terrorists). I recognize the threats and to some degree they are terrifying; I
don’t want my son to grow up in a Muslim country, or even a country where Islamic
Sharia law has any sway, or a country where cities are turned into war zones.
But listen
very carefully, Jesus’ command to love our enemy was not conditional, it was
not love them unless they are a certain religion, or love them only if they are
nice to you. We are to bless even those who persecute us (Rom. 12:14), and
there is no ideology which persecutes more Christians than Islam (cf. http://www.worldwatchlist.us/). The fact that Simon the Zealot became one of the twelve
disciples and one of the 12 most significant people in Christian history is
testament to the grace of God and how powerful it can be. Christians are at
their best, not when they are cursing their enemy, but when they are praying
for them, preaching to them, and giving them a glass of water when they are
thirsty; aka loving them.
I am not
shocked by the reaction on Facebook and other social media from the general
population in regards to this awakened terrorist threat, I am however saddened
by some of the extreme views and posts put up by Christians. Hatred and bigotry
should not be coming from the mouths of Christians. Our first response should
always be grace, and love, I know it’s not easy, and I do not do it perfectly
myself, none of us do, but we cannot go down the road of hatred. It will not
help, it will polarize the situation, and it will hamper our ability to be
witnesses to anyone in our country, including Muslims.
I am not
advocating that we should ignore the threat, all you need to do is look at my
Facebook page and you will see that I am aware of some of what is happening.
But I refuse to hate, I refuse to tar every Muslim with the same brush. We
should not cross the line over to hate. Christ would not have us do that, he
just wouldn’t.
I would
challenge you all to think about the fact that one of Jesus’s friends, one of
his disciples, was saved from a life of terrorism and radicalism and
transferred to a life of service, by the grace of God, and the gospel of Jesus
Christ. In fact the gospel is our greatest weapon because with it we cut
through hatred with love, we cut through bitterness with forgiveness, we cut
through death with the promise of eternal life, and we cut through patriotism
with the promise of a better country where there is no threat of any kind. It
is not easy and I do not have all the answers as to how we handle whatever
comes our way in this regard, but I do know that Christ would have us seek to
be lights, not lasers, we are to shine the gospel of his grace outward, not cut
down with hatred. Our battle is not against flesh and blood; we so often forget
this (Eph. 6:12). Wherever there is hatred, wherever there is evil at work in
our world, we need to remember that the evil spiritual forces connected with
Satan and his cronies are at work, he is our true enemy, he is the one we really
are fighting against.
Let’s focus
our energy on reaching out with the gospel that all who believe in Jesus Christ
can be saved, no matter their past, no matter their sins, if they turn and
trust in him. Think about this one last thing: Paul was the definition of a
religious extremist of the violent variety. He went about throwing Christians
in prison and breathing murderous threats against them (Acts 8:3; 9:1), and the
Lord Jesus transformed him into the great Apostle Paul, church planter
extraordinaire. Pray for God to do this to more religious extremists of various
faiths. Pray that God would raise up missionaries out of the already saved and
the currently unsaved, pray that God would call more like Paul, who will then
re-focus their intense energy on good, rather than evil. The world could use a
few more men and women like that.
References:
Green, McKnight,
Marshall 1992, Dictionary of Jesus and
the Apostles.
Bruce F.F.
1988, The Book of Acts, NICNT.
Hendriksen W
2007, Luke, NTC.
Wilkins M J
2004, Matthew, NAC.
Constable R 2005,
Mark, Online Commentary.
Gundry R H 2003,
A Survey of the New Testament.