Holy Thursday Monologue – Simon the Zealot
If you
read your Bible in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 10, or Mark chapter 3, you
will find there a list of the disciples who followed Jesus. In that list, you find the name Simon the
Cananean. That’s me. Luke lists me differently. He calls me, Simon the Zealot.
You
think you know all the disciples. James
and John were fishing brothers. So were
Peter and Andrew. Nathaniel, he was the
straight shooter. Whatever was on his
mind, he said. Philip, well, he was a
kid. He and John and Andrew, they were
pretty wet behind the ears. I am not much older them, but I had seen things
they had not.
Thomas
what a brain on that guy. He was always
thinking, always questioning. I know he came
to be called a “doubter.” He was much
more than that. He was a thinker.
I think
Matthew had the most fun of all the disciples.
That guy could party, almost as much Jesus.
Of
course history shows that Judas Iscariot was a schemer. We didn’t know it at the time. We thought he was a brilliant in practical
thinking as Thomas was in theoretical thinking.
We deferred to Judas because he was so confidant.
In some
ways he and I were kindred spirits. Both
Judas Iscariot and I were committed to the overthrow of the Romans and the
overthrow the corrupt leadership in the temple.
He talked and made strategies and argued with Jesus. He always thought he knew better than Jesus
what we ought to do. And then Jesus
would work a miracle and Judas would shut up and fall in line.
For my
part, I was not interested in Peter’s outbursts or Judas’ scheming or Thomas’
philosophy or Nathaniel’s mouth. I like
Matthew’s parties, but even that, I thought, was the wrong priority. Before I followed Jesus, I was party of a
group of revolutionaries. We weren’t
Sicarii. We did not commit
assassinations. But, we watched closely
because we thought the Messiah was coming to call us to arms. We were ready.
I was at
the wedding in Cana when Jesus turned water into wine. I knew what happened. So, I left some of my Zealot pals behind and
started following Jesus. I didn’t even
realize he noticed me, and then he asked me to be one of his 12 disciples –
like the 12 tribes. Yes, I was sure, he
was going to restore Israel to the people of God.
But boy
did I have trouble with some of his teaching.
Turn the other cheek? Love your
enemy? I didn’t understand and he could
see that. He knew how frustrated I
was. He didn’t kick me out. Neither did he make it any easier on me. I did not confront him like Peter. I did not question like Thomas. I didn’t argue with him the way Judas did. But sometimes I wanted to.
Things
were really heating up when we came to Jerusalem for the Passover. His confrontations with legalists and priests
were edgier. We were all tense. Then, when we gathered for the meal in that
upper room, well, I can’t describe it.
When he took the wine and said, “This is the new covenant that is my
blood,” everything changed. That night,
I could not have told you how, but something happened when he said that and we
were never the same.
Later
on, when the soldiers came to arrest him in the garden, I just ran. I don’t even know why. I, who had been so eager to fight the Roman
and fight injustice; when the fight came I ran.
Thinking back now to the wine, the new covenant, it is like I was empty
and full all at the same time.
I
haven’t picked up a sword since. Oh,
I’ve used knives and axes, as tools. But
since I followed Jesus, I who had built my life on being a revolutionary, never
again thought about fighting or killing anyone.
You follow him, it will change you.
It did me.
I think
it about it every time I drink that wine.
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