Jesus' Disciples - Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot

Well, greetings. This is Dr. Dean Blevins, Kansas City First Church Discipleship Pastor, and we are continuing this study, somewhat during, kind of following Jesus' journey, but we are actually doing it by looking at, well, Jesus through the lens of the disciples, and kind of finding ourselves inside the lives of the disciples and their interaction with Jesus, and then where do we fit? Now, each week we've had some interesting pairings. Sometimes they were a little bit humorous. Other times they were kind of contrast to each other, sometimes built on similarities. One way to kind of understand the pairing this week might actually be through the lens of violence, and particularly the sadness of what happens when certain choices lead one either toward Jesus or away from Jesus. And so we want to talk about, well, two different disciples that kind of share certain similarities as well as really radical differences. The first being Simon the Zealot, and the second, sadly, Judas Iscariot, a name that probably many of us know. But we're going to start with Simon to begin with. So who was Simon the Zealot? Well, what we probably know is the fact that he has this appellation, not just Simon his name, but also this idea of being a zealot tells us a whole lot, particularly as that name is continued to use to describe him after he becomes a disciple, and in some ways even as a part of his apostleship later. Zealots were a rather interesting group in New Testament times. There were basically sort of three different types of groups, or four groups, excuse me, that were a part of the New Testament background. There were the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees were the ruling class of religious leaders, and the Pharisees sort of the everyday religious leadership that were a part of the place. Then there were the Essenes, which were a kind of monastic community. And then there were the Zealots. And the Zealots are probably associated, going all the way back to Masada, as this kind of group that worked in some ways to try to bring back the Messiah and to anticipate the freedom of Israel from Roman oppression. And so this would be a kind of subgroup, if you will, known for passion, known for the things they desired, but probably also known for acts of violence. You might understand Zealots primarily as a kind of, well, terrorist cell inside the Israelite people, the everyday folk, which actually is the fifth group, the Anabim, or the everyday folk that were there. But these Zealots often were associated with pretty much a very dangerous and violent group. And so the whole idea of being Zealous, that we know today as being passionate and forthcoming, often came with, as one of the pictures shows, a sword. And yet, this Simon chose to become a disciple of Jesus. And as the other picture shows, at least how church history understands him later, is one who puts down the sword to pick up the proclamation of the gospel. And it's an interesting way of understanding him. As a matter of fact, while we don't have a lot of information, tradition does say, church history says, that he went on preaching to the west coast of Africa, which is quite a distance from the Middle East, and then later went to England, where he was crucified. And so this passionate man converted all of this sort of more violent tendencies, this kind of way of violently trying to do everything wrong, into a very passionate preaching for the sake of the gospel that went beyond the very borders of the Middle East, and in some ways, followed the promise that Jesus had said about being witnesses in Samaria, and then in Judea, and then Samaria, and to the area. Now, that's one way to understand how violence is converted into passion. Sadly enough, the person that he's paired with is Judas Iscariot. Now, we know Judas Iscariot all the way back from the idea in John, and it starts as early as John chapter six, where it says, Jesus is talking to the disciples, and he says, that I myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil. And he meant Judas, Judas Iscariot. Now, the term Iscariot, Judas we know, but Iscariot's an interesting term. It probably means from Carian, which means that Judas would have been the only one of the disciples actually from the southern kingdom, from around Jerusalem, or actually even further south in Jerusalem, while all the rest of the disciples were actually from Galilee, kind of north, and that he would have come from actually a different part of the community. We do know that he was also in charge of the money, and John is very, particularly the Gospel of John, is very unkind and very suspicious of Judas, even in through its writing, because we know that he secretly helps himself to some money, and it's actually in Matthew that we get the story that Judas finally left and betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silk. Now, it is interesting that this Judas, this last name Iscariot, whether it was used this way in New Testament times, or it happened a little bit later, we're not sure, but the whole idea of Iscariot becomes a way of actually talking about assassins, and so ultimately Judas's name becomes tied to the very term assassin, and so in other places, in Latin, Iscario, that kind of language becomes a way of actually associating Jesus with that kind of violent form of assassination, and that the kiss that Judas gave to Jesus was a way in which that's there. Now, I have to be honest with you, some of the commentators are a little more charitable to Judas. They actually think that he probably sort of sensed that something needed to happen. Jesus, like all the disciples, were really wrestling with when Jesus would actually assume his full messiahship. In the past, we've talked about James and John wanting to be, because Jesus becomes sort of the king, throws out the Romans, they want to be on his right and left hand. We've got both Philip at one point, and actually even Thaddeus, asking questions about, you know, what's the kingdom going to look like? What's the father look like? Everybody's struggling with it, and so a couple of commentators have said that Judas actually thought that by betraying Jesus, that turning him over to the Romans, that would compel Jesus to take on the very honorific title to sort of become the true messiah and to bring in the kingdom as Judas hoped it would be at throwing out the Romans. I don't know. I have to be frank with you. I think that's a reading of a man who at one moment is motivated by money and latent greed at some point and willing to come to do anything, not just for 30 pieces of silver, but to do anything to bring about, well, bring about the overthrow of the Romans. And so maybe those are mixed metaphors and mixed stories that are part of Judas's life that could well be true. We do know that ultimately his own life ended in violence, not in martyrdom, but as he hung himself later. Well, I'm not sure how you think about these two stories, but these are definitely stories of contrast. There's one way to think of it. You have a man, well, who is like Saint Simon, as we know him today, one who started probably in a life of violence and is willing to surrender that through his discipleship and ultimately by the power of the Holy Spirit become an apostle who would make a difference in the world around him. And yet we have on the other hand, a man like Judas Iscariot, whose very name now is associated with violence, with assassination, whose ultimate betrayal of Jesus resulted in him taking his own life, not being martyred like the others, but in some ways, surrendering his life because of the, well, because of the act of betrayal that he did. This is a kind of sobering story, if you will, compared to the other stories that we've looked at. Because it's one that actually do reminds us that even as disciples, we have, well, more than one road that we can take. Now, I'm not saying anyone here who's listening to this would ever become someone who would ultimately completely betray Jesus the way Judas did. I hope you hear, I would hope and pray, I do it all the time, that no one would ever follow a journey where they actually get to the point, they not only reject Jesus, but in their daily lives, they would actually betray Jesus. But I hope you do see that in this story, these two stories, there are actually two different outcomes of what our lives might be, whether or not we are faithful in this journey and following Jesus. Now, let me close with just a word of grace in this. I suspect for some of you, maybe the way you have come into the church, the way you've given your life to Jesus probably does look a whole lot more like Simon and his zealotry. And you've been passionate and sometimes passionate for all the wrong reasons, but you've been willing to lay all that down, even the violence that's associated with it, in order to be discipled by Jesus, to be led by Jesus, to be empowered to be a different person. And I say, thanks be to God, if that's been a part of your journey. But I do want to close with an invitation to those of you maybe even you've wrestled whether the way you live your life, the things that you do, might ultimately be a kind of betrayal of Jesus. You don't have to live that kind of life. You do not have to allow subtle desires, either out of greed or out of trying to manipulate the future, to actually lead you down a pathway where the very thing that you want to do, which is to lift up Christ, you end up betraying. Instead, there's always grace. There's always a moment to confess when you're in that kind of a journey and to allow the very grace of God to reenter your life again and to change you, to drastically turn your life around in such a way that you can make a difference for God. That's the good news of the gospel. For all the cautionary tale of Judas Iscariot, there is always the other 11 disciples and the way in which their lives reflect fully what Jesus intends, not only for them, but for us as well. My prayer for you is that maybe that would be the way in which you'll go forward to be remembered, even with someone like James the Lesser, but more importantly, like the other Judas, so that your life, albeit not as big and broad and bold, would still yet be understood as faithful. Blessings to you.