When Jesus picked His disciples, He picked some strange “bedfellows.” For example, Matthew was a tax collector, while Simon was a Zealot. Now you couldn’t get two opposite people—politically speaking. Tax collectors were hated because they cooperated and worked for the Roman government, but Zealots desired to run the Romans out of the Jewish lands. Some of the extreme Zealots were called “sicarii” – the assassins! They wanted to eliminate anyone they saw as a traitor to their cause. So they carried daggers so they would be able to kill a Roman sympathizer when they would have opportunity.Now we don’t know if Simon was a “sicarii” or not, but we do know that he was a Zealot. So we wonder how Simon and Matthew could get along.It seems we have a bad situation. Maybe the solution is found in two items found in the periodic table. Sodium, a common element, as a solid is flammable and will ignite spontaneously in air and reacts violently with water or steam to produce flammable and explosive hydrogen gas. Then look at chlorine. At room temperature, chlorine is a gas. And when chlorine enters the body as a result of breathing, swallowing, or skin contact, it reacts with water to produce acids, which are corrosive and damage cells on contact.Separately, these two elements are very hazardous to us. But if you combine them TOGETHER do you know what you get? TABLE SALT! Something essential to life.With that thought in mind, I want to remind you of Jesus’ comment: “You are the salt of the earth.” (Matthew 5:13). Separately salt is made up elements that are dangerous. So that’s interesting —we are to be the salt of the world—but if we don’t get along, stay unified—then we can be dangerous.Now there was something about Jesus that caused His followers to be so focused on HIM that nothing else mattered. There was something about Jesus that caused people to love Him more than anything else. Jesus came to transform us so that we wouldn’t be hazardous to those around us. So we would become the salt of the earth.That’s the point of Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 11:6-10, where he said that animals who were naturally enemies would get along! Paul quotes this in Romans 15:12 to explain that the Gentiles were intended to be part of the church. It’s a prophecy about how Christians should treat ...
