The personal church of the individual

In the dramatic selection of Matthew, the hated tax-collector and Simon, the zealot, as disciples, Jesus demonstrates the weakness of those who pull out of churches because they don’t like certain people or the way things are done. In ordinary Jewish society Simon the zealot would have ‘hated Matthew’s guts’ to the point of wishing mischief and murder on Matthew. In choosing these two, Jesus demonstrated what Jeff Buchanan observed, “that you can only be a real Christian by being with people who are not like you.”