Simon The Zealot – A Redirected Religious Fanatic Series

The family of God so diverse. We so different in our characters and in our social attitudes and in our vocations. We have such different backgrounds. Yet we are brought together for a purpose. Under different circumstances we would not be together – we could even be enemies. Think about it for a minute.

One of the disciples is Simon the Zealot ... a daggerman who kills Romans or those who help the Roman cause. Another disciple is Matthew the tax-collector. A man who willingly worked for the Roman cause.

In different circumstances there is a good chance Matthew would be dead if Simon the Zealot had his way. Yet, here they are, two men who had completely opposite perspectives, working side by side for the kingdom. That’s discipleship.

Discipleship recognises that Jesus Christ will bring in people from different backgrounds, different cultures, different religious perspectives, different characters and different experiences … with the view of uniting them together as one. As Paul put it in Colossians 3:11 the Church is a place where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Jesus came and He makes a radical difference in our lives.

Simon was not chosen because he would give some special contribution. It’s truer to say that Simon could actually have been a liability.

Simon was the Zealot … making him a member of the disciple band was not a good way to avoid the detection of the ever watchful Romans.

Simon wanted revenge … he could easily have tried to turn the other disciples into a band of “freedom fighters”.

Simon comes with an attitude of violence … it was an approach that was totally against the ways of Jesus.

But Simon is a disciple ... and another illustration of Christ’s grace in our lives. The Author of our faith was willing to take the risk.

Why did Jesus choose you? At the end of the day that is not the right question. The question now is – how are you going to live as one who has been chosen? Because like Simon the Zealot ... our lives can be Zealous for the wrong things.

We might be zealously building our own little empires. Constantly putting everything on hold … including God … so that we can have just that little bit more. Someone once asked a multi-millionaire how much would be enough. His reply? “Just one dollar more”. Zealous … for an empire.

We might be zealously building our reputations. Constantly working at pleasing everybody and being liked by everybody … but having to make compromises with God in the process. When our esteem in the eyes of men has become more important than our integrity in the eyes of God … then we are zealous for reputation.

We might be zealously making ourselves indispensable. We try and do everything on our own. We take satisfaction in being told, “This would not have happened if it wasn’t for you”. When help is offered we politely refuse, for nobody can do it better than us. We are zealous … but not zealous for God’s work … we want the credit.