This week of Creighton's online retreat, week 21 is about Jesus choosing his followers. Two of the followers I'm especially interested in are Judas and Matthew, I guess because, unlike most of Jesus' other disciples, they seemed so beyond the pale of acceptability (ok, maybe only Matthew beforehand, though if Jesus had foreknowledge ...), and I think of them as examples of how Jesus seemed to accept people as they were.
I like the Jesus of Nazareth version of Jesus telling the prodigal son story at Matthew's house and also the rather creepy way he allows Judas to join his followers, but for a different take, here below are two video clips from the movie Jesus that show how Jesus (might have) met both Matthew and Judas.
If you start watching the first video at 1:48 into the clip (before that is some stuff about John the baptist), you'll see Matthew, with a couple of Roman soldiers, going about his tax collecting duties, and you'll see Judas, a zealot, lurking about sinisterly, waiting for his fellow zealots to attack.
Then you see Jesus and his followers hanging out, Jesus playing with some of the children of his entourage. They see a band of zealots riding towards the city, most likely bent on violence, and Jesus runs off after them, his followers following.
He gets to the scene in time to see the zealots killing the Roman soldiers and to meet Barabbas, who slaps Jesus around (a 'turn the other cheek' moment). When Barabbas leaves, Jesus argues with Judas about how to save Israel ...
Jesus: Is your Israel free now that these men [the Romans] are dead?
Judas: No.
Jesus: Then follow me, and I'll show you how to be free .... your fate is with me."
Then Jesus notices Matthew hiding and turns to him, first re-naming him, and then ....
Jesus: Follow me, Matthew.
Matthew: Where?
Jesus: To your home.
Next we see Jesus and his disciples at Matthew's house for dinner, a crowd looking in through the windows. The disciples are not happy :) ......
The beginning of the following video clip shows Matthew asking Jesus why he eats with him, a tax collector. Matthew points out how the disciples hate him, and adds that he hates himself as well ....
Jesus: Why?
Matthew: I steal from them, from all of them.
Jesus: Then stop. Give back everything and come with me. It's simple.
