A cassette
tape runs in my head. He has called us, too. “Simon Peter, Andrew, James, his brother John…
Matthew 10:3 Philip and Bartholomew;
Thomas and Matthew the publican; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot and Judas...
All we
know is that Simon was a zealot… but that’s no vestigial triviality. Sure, Simon Zealot is not Simon Rock—something
that would be important if Simon Zealot ever showed up again. But I think the Spirit is also saying 1) zealots
are called 2) yes, zealots may resist grace, 3) But Jesus’ loving call, drop by
drop transforms their zealotry.
Interpreters
from Human Resources, not wanting to hire terrorists, will want to interpret
Simon’s zeal as “spiritual fervor.” But
isn’t that zeal after Jesus? Matthew’s word
zealot echoes violent texts like Numbers 25:13.
Luke’s name for Simon is zealotes—the
epitome of piety for Maccabean guerrilla-fighters. The patron saint of all such
Zealots was Phinehas. During the
wilderness wandering a plague came over the Israelite camp because of
disobedience to the law and one Israelite paraded his idolatrous relationship
with a Midianite concubine right past the tent of meeting and into his
tent. Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, was
convinced of what another priest would one day say: it was “better for one man to die than for the whole nation to perish." So, Phinehas followed them into their tent took
his spear and frog gigged both the Israelite and his Midianite concubine in their
idolatrous act. It was then the plague
against all Israel stopped; ... The Lord says in Numbers 25:11 "Phinehas…has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for
he was as zealous as I am… so that in my
zeal I did not put an end to them.”
There
are lots of rabbits in this textual thicket, but let’s chase only this: This is
the DVD playing in Simon’s mind. The zealot’s
militant zeal spares Israel from God’s militant zeal. That’s the kind of zealot Simon was…and that I believe
Jesus still calls.
The
Phinehas DVD resonates with Simon because he’s downloaded other videos into his
Android. Has his younger brother collaborated
with Roman Swine to steal from the family budget like he was some EPA prosecutor
who is his own judge and jury? Perhaps amidst land and income inequality he
wonders why Jubilee year never gets obeyed.
Perhaps the Roman legionaries ravished Simon’s daughter--like a perverse
Uncle, and the priestly powers in the family shielded the abuser. Perhaps all
the jobs had gone down to Caesarea leaving the young people in Galilean hills with
nothing but Roman drinking habits and sexual deviancy to occupy their time.
Some say Simon
is mad as hell—zealous to restore his country to greatness. But that doesn’t capture it. He’s not mad as hell—he thinks he is as mad as
heaven—He thinks that if Israel is going to be spared the wrath of God—if God
is going to be kept from knocking down all our World Trade Centers, then this
foreign temple corruption—this Roman behavior that defiles traditional marriage,
and the land itself-- is going to have to be forcibly stamped out. Now, do I have your attention? This Zealot actually sits in the assembly of
Jesus’ disciples.
The
worship of Raw Power has lodged itself into American civil life. Churches can’t
even talk about social hurts without things devolving into the bitter
talking-points memorized from those bastions of catechesis--CNN and Fox. There’s no agreement about who the real Ninevites
are, but Simon on all sides is convinced they are ruining the land; the God of
mercy has wilted his vine; and this Simon Bar Jonah is mad enough to die.
Appeals to
civility fall flat on Simon’s deaf ears.
Simon Zealot resists grace. Have you listened to a mother (let’s call her
Simone, rather than Simon) who has lost her child, Kirk, to murder? Her head plays tapes of people who have
told her to calm down about the murder of her boy, Kirk. Calm down? That would
be tantamount to betraying her boy’s memory! So Jesus doesn’t counsel her
to merely stay calm. He counsels her
along with grieving Martha, who’s quietly enraged the doctor was 4 days late
and missed the Lazarus’ diagnosis. “He who
believes in me shall never die. Do you
believe this? Martha, or today’s
Simone or Simon or whoever you are—I’m not asking you to ignore your hurt—that’s
real enough. I’m asking you if you
believe that you rage is “right.” Have you lost touch with the God of righteous
anger and cleansing wrath who is more perfectly angry about injustice than you
are? Do you believe you have a right to
be mad, and that a righteous God will set things to right? Do YOU…BELIEVE this? I’m not asking you to accept Kirk’s murder as
God’s will. Perish the thought! Simone, I’m asking you if you believe it is
God’s business and our business to defy the whole damned death-dealing thing,
and that you will hear the words out of the depths of God’s own raging grief, “Kirk,
come out!”
But Simone still resists, because
bitterness is in the bones. If she could be honest she’d say. “I’m bleeding--don’t
ask this deep depression to do the impossible.” “But what if I
do the impossible,” Jesus asks. “You Reach up and touch the hem of my garment.” I have all kinds of powerful medicine. There’s no shame in taking medicine. Let’s get your body clear so you can hear
that in my bleeding yours can be healed.
But Simone
and Simon’s subconscious is streaming scary movies which don’t stop playing even
when the threat’s over. Simon’s like
the guy who barely escaped maladministration charges. The First and Last Eschatological bank
floated him 20 trillion to cover the national debt. Yet, as he went out, he
found one of his undersecretaries who owed him three months wages. He grabbed
him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!'… 'Be patient with me…"But he refused. Instead,
he started a convention chant: “Lock her up, lock her up!” But Jesus says, Simon, I’m not saying what
your fellow servant did was right or that you shouldn’t be mad, but I have already
absorbed the cost of the debts. Folks can’t
take permanently take anything from you!
“All that I have is yours.”
“Whether the world or life or death or the present or the future — all
are yours.” Always will be.
But,
still Simon chooses prison. He doesn’t
want some pie in the sky speech. Simon wants
to insist I’ve been robbed of joy and meaning right now. Jesus replies, “You mean like a homeless Son
of Man not having a place to lay his head?” Sisters, without blindness Fanny
Crosby would have been a mediocre song-writer. Brothers without being dogged by
the Oxford establishment C.S. Lewis would never have been perpetually stuck
with freshman, developing a rapport with the public. God comforts us--uses our
trouble-- so that we can comfort others. Simon, you can be surprised by joy right now.
Yet
there are so many unfortunate tapes questioning the legitimacy of Simon’s anger
raging in Simon’s bitter body… setting off alarms...demands for fairness… The I’m-cheated
videos… The Phinehas drama of redemptive violence plays is a persistent pop-up
add canonized in the heart. In our pews
Simon sits in various stages of denial or despair over this rage. Competing warrior gods stoke bitterness over
different outrages because their nuclear-button-measuring existence depends on
a constant fight. Simon may even know
he’s being played, but he’s too mad at his enemies to care.
BUT (Scandal of scandals) Jesus still called
Simon—to convert his zeal. Out of all the men in Israel—he called him
with all his self-assured ways of righting wrongs… Jesus called him just as Christ
called you—zealot that you are! “He has
called us too.” Not because of –but in
spite of my zeal—manipulative moral crusades to “save” the church-- Christ
picked me.
Simon’s resistance to grace can be overcome
because the protest Phinehas lodged has now been lodged within the Divine Life,
itself! Simon, Jesus says, I’m not
telling you not to be mad—l’m saying, “offer your rage to me.” Isn’t that the vision which changed Saul to
Paul—the recognition that Saul’s zealous persecution was falling on Jesus
himself? “Who are you Lord?” “I am Jesus
whom you are persecuting. I choose you!” If it is better for one man to die than for
the whole nation to perish then the God-Man in Jesus Christ takes the stoning
himself—and religious zeal is changed. "Rage
will always find a scapegoat. Resentment ricochets through history until the
Divine Life in dying a human death bears it… and rises again. God has stilled
the plague by taking the Phinehas’ spear in his own side—and so zeal is…listen…
vindicated. Our righteous wrath—God’s
wrath must fall somewhere. And as it falls
upon the Divine it is transformed… into uncompromising, gritty, brave, awe
inspiring love for the enemy.
Mayor
Richard Lugar warned Robert Kennedy not to speak in an Indianapolis African
American neighborhood, April 4, 1968.
The police were unprepared to ensure the protection of the Kennedy campaign. Ethel Kennedy stayed away in relative safety. It was the day Martin Luther King was
murdered. Hundreds of enraged Black citizens had joined the throng of Kennedy
supporters downtown. They had come, as
in most other major cities in the United States, ready to incite a riot.
Yet
Kennedy delivered one of the greatest political speeches in American
history. After gently sharing the terrible news—news
that shook us down to questions about who we are most fundamentally, he said
that he understood the rage
people might feel. For the first time he
spoke about his own brother’s murder in public.
He admitted that he had harbored this rage—the pain the violent principalities
and powers had afflicted on him. And
then he quoted Aeschylus to the would-be mob: And even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
Kennedy had come to Indianapolis to enlist
the crowd in his political movement. He
called them. He called them by affirming
their anger, and by acknowledging that their rage was in some ways resistant to
his message of grace. But finally he
bore witness to the possibility that the awe-inspiring grace of God bestows
wisdom even on the most resistant and angry hearts—that drop by loving drop,
though we despairing of ever being freed from our rage—even in some ways
against our will, the presence of someone who suffers with, for and in us,
edits our internal tape. Someone who has
born in his own soul our griefs--who has in his being born the injustices we
feel—only this kind of someone is capable of editing the tape of our heart. The lie of redemptive violence becomes a story
of cruciform wisdom. The one who bears
the crown of our thorns, our stripes, our nails and our bullets makes it
possible for wrath to be born and religious zeal to be channeled into an
awe-inspiring love that shuts the mouths of lions, makes peace in Indianapolis,
and redeems the world.
Even
those of us who are more contented about wider social forces still suffer in
ways that affect them just as profoundly and often more directly than the wider
social stuff. In the 90’s Sit-com Everybody loves Raymond Deborah
discovers husband Ray has saved the cassette answering machine message of his former
girlfriend breaking up with him—on tape.
Yet, Deborah listens to this tape with him. Deborah, who daily takes the
brunt of Rays silliness, assures him that she will never leave nor forsake
him. And a new tape is born in Ray’s
heart—The voice of Deborah’s love is edited by God’s Audacity onto the old tape, and the “why’d u dump me” tape becomes
a song of vindication. Deborah picked
Ray—Jesus called Simon and, despite our resistance, the rest of us now transformed
zealots are called. I am one and you.
Oh Triune God, almost in spite of ourselves we
have received so much grace in Jesus Christ to validate and vindicate our zeal.
In our broken body, chronic fear and lost
dreams—we now surrender our zeal to the cause of grace, and receive more than
anyone could ever take from us. Amen.
