Day 9: Unlikely Friends

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, to send them out to preach, and to have authority to drive out demons. He appointed the Twelve: To Simon, he gave the name Peter; and to James the son of Zebedee, and to his brother John, he gave the name “Boanerges” (that is, “Sons of Thunder”); Andrew; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Mark 3:13–19

We all know Jesus chose twelve disciples (which many say is His way of reconstituting, or at least nodding to, the twelve tribes of ancient Israel). I don’t have the page space to go into great lengths about the diversity of this ancient fraternity that Jesus put together, but I do want to point out just two of the personalities that were forever merged together, though they once were completely irreconcilable.

Matthew the Tax Collector and Simon the Zealot.

Ever thought about how weird it is that the two of them were part of the same band of disciples? This Simon—not to be confused with Simon Peter—was a Jewish revolutionary who bitterly resented Rome’s authority over Israel and the resulting persecution and oppressive taxation that came with it. In fact, Simon’s hatred of Rome was so intense that prior to becoming a disciple of Christ, he’d been a card-carrying member of the Zealots. Who are the Zealots, you ask? An organization that endorsed extreme violence in its quest to overthrow Rome. And just to give you an idea of how radical the zealots were, they were known for hiding short, curved daggers in their cloaks and coming up behind Roman sympathizers in crowded marketplaces, jabbing them with the dagger in their back, and then jerking it upwards toward their heart. Which, of course, almost guaranteed immediate death. Yikes. Remember Barabas, the convicted murderer whose Passover pardon the crowd demanded from Pilate instead of Jesus? Well, Barabas was a contemporary of Simon the Zealot and killing a Roman sympathizer was the crime he’d been sent to prison for!

So you can imagine how shocking and humanly illogical it was for Jesus to plop Simon the Zealot nose-to-nose with Matthew the publican, who was paid by Rome to collect taxes on Jewish goods being imported and exported from Israel. This meant that Matthew had not only collaborated with Rome to extract unbearable taxes from his own flesh and blood, but according to historical records, he also likely skimmed off the top of those fees. He was in cahoots with the enemy, and lined his pockets with his own people’s hard-earned money—money they truly couldn’t afford to give away, and genuinely needed in order to feed their families! Before they encountered Jesus, Simon was jabbing people with daggers on one side of the political spectrum whereas on the other, Matthew was exploiting his hard-working friends and neighbors to beef up his personal bank account. (And these are just two of the disciples Jesus chose!)

You’d be hard-pressed to find two people more philosophically opposed than Matthew and Simon. A Rome-loving extortionist and a Rome-hating zealot. Putting them together was not unlike pairing Robert E. Lee with Ulysses S. Grant. Or an Alabama football fan with a Auburn football fan. Or a CrossFitter with a couch potato. Yet, in Christ, those two total opposites forged a brotherly bond. And that motley crew of men—apart from Judas, of course—became a cohesive group of missionaries. (We can only imagine the lively conversations they had traveling from town to town!) Their unlikely solidarity proves that the love of Christ can create deep relationships between former enemies. Or to borrow a line from Naomi and Wynonna who live right down the road from me, Love can build a bridge!

• How has your relationship with Jesus helped you love people you didn’t used to even like?
• Who in your life do you consider the Matthew to your Simon? Who might you have massive differences with, but know you need to reconcile with because you are both Christians?
• How can you embody a brotherly or sisterly bond between you and someone you disagree with, whether politically or otherwise?