allusions

On Wednesdays, Pastor Dafoe has been going through the Apostles of Christ and discussing them. Each week, a different disciple is in focus. Some weeks, I’m sure the task of finding Scriptures about a disciple’s life is very easy, such as with Peter. However, this past Wednesday, he focused on Simon Zelotes, ie Simon the Zealot.

He began discussing who the Zealots were, historically. Comparing them, in a way to terrorists that we are all familiar with today. They were patriots, seeking the freedom of the Jews from the Romans. And using murder and other terrorist tactics to try to accomplish these desires. Immediately upon his talking about how Zealots did not like Jews who were “buddying up” to the enemy, I thought of Matthew, the tax collector. If anyone had buddied up to the Roman government, it was he. And, as pastor pointed out, imagine the shock upon hearing Jesus say, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”

Thinking of those two extremes, I thought of something I heard in a sermon at Bible conference once. I forget, currently, who the speaker was, so forgive the lack of credit. But he said that as Christians we have a special connection to all other Christians. Even though at times we may see them acting in ways that may seem embarrassing, we can’t help but admit that they are our people.

Jesus called unto himself a hodge-podge of disciples, not just the Apostles, but even the disciples he has today. We are not cookie-cutter images of a tall thin man in a suit, and a petite woman in an A-ine skirt, with the exact same talents of singing, teaching, etc. Not only do we all look different, but we all have different tastes. I love art, and I see our ability to create things as another way to 1. honor the Lord with our talent and 2. become more Christ-like (afterall, he did create…well, everyting.) However, I know that there are many Christians who do not quite understand Post-modern Pop art and Neo-Dada. But both can find beauty in the sunrise. And I’m sure there are Christians out there who have other interests that I simply don’t understand. It all just shows the diversity of God’s nature and the many ways that we are able to reflect Him as His hodge-podge of followers.