Yesterday we continued our series on the Life of Christ looking at the types of followers that Jesus gathered around Himself. Some might expect some astute theological, philosophical, ethical, political, and military advisors. We see a very different group of people as described in Mark 1-3.

I wanted to focus briefly on the twelve disciples (Mark 3:13-19) and expand on some of what we talked about during the sermon.

We tend to skip over lists of names in scripture, but they weren't put there to bore us. There's purpose in every one of them. Based on what we know of the disciples, there's a lesson to be learned in this list.

At least four of the disciples were in the fishing business. These guys were like any other businessmen. They basically wanted two things out of life-peace and profit. They wanted peace because it's much harder to sell fish when you have the Roman army on your back and people are getting killed all around you. Sure, someone has to feed all those soldiers but typically food is imported to the front in wartime-it isn't gotten from the area where war is happening. So, fishermen want peace. They also, like any businessman, want a profit from their business.

The bane of every businessman is the tax collector. The Romans were no fools. Put Romans in charge of collecting taxes in an empire as far flung as theirs and you get a lot of dead tax collectors. People might hate the taxes, but they have a much harder time killing one of their own. And so, the Romans would employ people from within the nations that they conquered who were willing to take the risk of being a tax collector. Tax collecting was a very lucrative job. In exchange for the incurred risk the empire looked away from any bamboozling that occurred so long as they received their percentage. And since, at least on a technical level, the force of the Roman army stood behind them, they could bilk people for all sorts of money. Needless to say, tax collectors and businessmen typically didn't get along very well. There was one very important caveat to tax collecting-death. Since the tax collector was working for the occupying empire, many saw him as a traitor. Riches always have a price and for the tax collector, the wages of his prosperity was an empire that still saw him as an inferior person, fellow countrymen that saw him as a traitor, and a bunch of people on both sides that would not be very concerned if he ended up dead.

Enter Matthew into the list of twelve disciples.

Now, one would expect that just the disagreements between fishermen and the tax collector would be enough to keep Jesus in a full-time mediation ministry. But, apparently, to Him, this was not enough. Into this mix, He adds a Zealot.

The Zealots were…well, a zealous bunch. They hated traitors. Like, really, really hated them. Even if you were Jewish, if you were a traitor, then you were no better than the Gentiles. Now, as you might expect, this could become quite subjective pretty quickly and often times it did. But if there was a Zealot textbook picture of the worst type of traitor, it was the tax collector - a person Jewish by birth who took advantage of his own people to his own advantage all the while assisting the occupying Romans. Zealots had a pretty uncomplicated way of dealing with both Romans and traitors-they'd kill them. And there was no remorse about killing their own people-they were traitors. Probably more importantly, there was no problem killing them because it was all part of 'the uprising.' See, the way the Zealots read scripture, they believed that God always worked through militaristic means. If the Romans started to crush Israel, then the Messiah would have to come to rescue them. So, why not help the process along a little. A Roman here, a Jewish traitor there….all in the good name of helping to quicken the Messiah's coming.

So, let's review.

Jesus chooses four fishermen who were businessmen who only wanted peace and a profit. To this mix, He adds a tax collector who takes money from businesses and is considered a traitor. To spice things up a bit, Jesus then adds to this recipe for hysteria Simon the Zealot who wants nothing more than to kill traitors and start a war. And that's only six of the disciples.

We know next to nothing about the other six…oh, except that Jesus already knows that Judas is going to betray Him.

The lesson from these passages is clear. For everyone who is common, unacceptable, untouchable, marginalized, a sinner, religiously outcast, used, has ever-or even WILL ever-betray Jesus, He calls out to you and says, "Come! Follow Me!"

Weekly Devotional Schedule

Monday-Matthew 4:18-22, 8:1-4, 14-17

Tuesday-Matthew 9:1-17

Wednesday-Matthew 10:2-4, 12:1-14

Thursday-Luke 4:38-41, 5:1-11

Friday-Luke 5:12-39

Saturday-Luke 6:1-16