Often in Christian circles when someone becomes too critical of some sin in the world, someone no doubt will repeat some rendition of the following: “Well Jesus ate with tax collectors/adulterers/Samaritans so we should be willing to welcome those people into our churches and give them grace.” Now there is not nececessarily anything wrong with this statement — some people definitely need to hear why we should love those still caught up in sin. Indeed, this phrase is a justified reaction to uncharitable attitudes held by many fundamentalists who would have gladly damned these people to hell without giving them a chance to repent (i.e., reprobate doctrine).
However, this phrase is too often used to excuse sin and to scold those who rightfully speak the truth with love. In cases such as these, a well-meaning phrase becomes a platitude and pulls people into a lukewarm, relativistic Christianity. As such, those who use this phrase should be challenged to include another character when they describe Jesus’ company: Saint Simon the Apostle, or Simon the Zealot.
We do not know much about Simon, but his name does more so than to distinguish him from Simon Peter. The zealous apostle is only mentioned in lists in the Bible, and the rest we know about him comes from Christian tradition. Some claim that he was a member of the religious sect called “the Zealots” who tried to overthrow Roman rule in the Levant, but the timelines do not match up. Therefore, even though he does not have his own personalized stories like Peter and Matthew, we can infer that he was zealous about the Mosaic Law, and the teachings of Jesus from his name.
So why does this matter? Simply put, if we can extend grace to the tax collectors, adulterers, and Samaritans of our world, we can extend grace to our zealots. Here, I speak of people who struggle with scrupulosity and self-righteousness. This may seem counterintuitive to Christians in the modern world. After all, the Pharisees were zealous, and yet Jesus repeatedly condemned them. “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you flee from the judgment of Gehenna?” (Mt. 23:33 NAB).
Does this mean that the zealous among us should receive the same treatment as the hypocrite Pharisees that Jesus spoke of here? Yes and no. There is always room for grace, and God can even forgive self-righteous religious nuts. Saint Nicodemus was able to speak peacefully with Christ, advocate for a fair trial for him, and assist with his burial rites. The Pharisees and zealous among us are able to truly repent despite the pain they have caused.
The self-righteous around us have no excuse for their behavior, as they do bear responsibility. The onus is still on them to repent. Moreover, the problems that legalistic Christianity has caused can also not be denied, as they have been responsible for a great deal of apostasy and reactionary attitudes towards Christianity.
But grace is not just for those who practice a more relativistic Christianity and need to be reminded that we still have rules; we can forgive the religious nuts around us as well.
This is going to be difficult for many people given the pain that legalistic Christianity has caused. I myself joke about fundamentalists, the rude things they say, and the excessive standards they set for themselves. Some of my pet peeves include performative modesty, King James onlyism, and other marks of fundamentalist Christianity. But I recognize that this makes me self-righteous as well. If Christ could choose both a tax collector and a zealot to be His apostles, I should extend the same forgiveness to the zealous people in my life.
Perhaps if we are going to say that Jesus dined with a list of sinners, we should include “a religious nut” in that list.
