Rebels and Cheaters

Today is the Feast Day of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist.

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting[b] with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” - Matthew 9:9-13

Try to imagine what it must have been like in Jesus' small circle of friends.

In the same group, we have rebels, like Simon the zealot (not to be confused with Simon Peter, who would have regarded a tax collector as an enemy, and you have Matthew, a Jew who sided with Rome against his own people, cheating and defrauding them.

How could these two get along?

Perhaps sitting at dinner with polar opposites was not much different than getting together with family today, with politics the main course, but I tend to think the stakes were a bit higher among those called to follow Jesus, simply because they were not family.

There was only one thing holding that group together, Jesus.

It is no wonder they scattered when he was crucified.  Suddenly, they were dependent on each other, and that must have been frightening.

The fact that they did come back together, these rebels and cheaters, enemies of both the state and their own leadership, is what gives us hope.  If they could be one, with all their differences, why couldn't we?

The glue that held them together was Jesus who showed them the way of truth, a path much different from the ones they were on before.  In coming together, they could see each other differently, finding what they had in common, rather than what set them apart.

Too bad we don't think of the disciples that way today.  We see them as a homogeneous group, all eager followers of Christ, but they were anything but.

They were people who would have had little if anything to do with each other, apart from Jesus.

So, maybe that is the missing piece in our current puzzling times.  Perhaps if we seek the common ground of our faith, we can see beyond the differences in our personal agendas.

Then we could come together and focus on doing the things that need to be done.

Or we can continue to act like rebels and cheaters, and ignore God's call to be one.

It's our choice. 

More to come...