This evening, we celebrate the lives of two Apostles - St. Simon and St. Jude. They are men of quite different temperaments. St. Simon is known in Holy Scripture as Simon the Zealot. He earned his name because, before being an Apostle of Jesus Christ, he belonged to a fanatical sect within Judaism that was committed to overthrowing their Roman overlords. Their motto was “Be zealous for the Law, and give your lives for the covenant of your fathers.” We can see from his name and his association that he was a patriot who was consumed with love for his country and for the Law of Moses. This led him to an all-consuming passion for casting out the Romans, which led to all kinds of political intrigue.
While St. Simon’s default position was passionate rashness, St. Jude was a man of humility to the point of reticence.
St. Jude, whose name means “heart”, was truly the heart of Christian humility, for although he was a direct descendant of King David, he was content to be identified only as the “servant of Jesus Christ and the Brother of James”. St. Jude was a cousin of our Lord and was the author of the very short Epistle that bears his name in the later part of the New Testament.
Commentators have regarded the key teaching for this feast as Christian zeal. Zeal is an earnest concern or commitment for or against a truth or an object. Zeal can be good or bad depending on its object and the degree of its commitment. For Simon, prior to his call to be an apostle, zeal for the covenant of his fathers consumed him and made him eager to do anything and everything to rid Israel of Roman pagan influence. Simon’s desire for faithfulness to the God of Israel was commendable, but the intensity of his belief was a problem.
When he met Jesus, when he heard the teaching of the sermon on the mount, when he witnessed Jesus’ love for his enemies, Simon was transformed, and the zeal of the guerrilla fighter, for this is what the zealots truly were, came under the yoke and the direction of the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus, in some sense, brought balance to both of these men. He domesticated the misdirected zeal of St. Simon while bolstering, encouraging godly zeal in the humble, perhaps reticent, St. Jude.
In the Epistle that bears his name, St Jude instructs his readers to be bold in contending for the Gospel - indeed, to have true and godly zeal, an uncompromising commitment to love and serve the King of Kings. Interestingly enough, Jude was the appointed Epistle for this feast in the 1662 prayer book rather than the Ephesians passage I read a few moments ago. In this brief epistle, Jude instructs Christians, “3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
We should notice the “markers” of godly zeal. St. Jude, in this verse, comments that he gave “all diligence”, that he was eager, he wanted to make every effort to write to them of their “common salvation.” While the faithful must make an individual appropriation, must individually apply faith and repentance, the individual does so in order to participate in a common salvation; faith is to take a share in what God has promised to all his people who have one salvation through one faith and one love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, here, St. Jude “exhorts” them to “earnestly contend” for the faith. The verb in Greek translated “earnestly contend” is the only occurrence of it in the New Testament, and this verb is exceptionally strong. The picture that Jude wants to call to mind is of athletes participating in a wrestling match. For Jude, godly zeal is expressed by a focused and intentional commitment. He exorts people to be willing to intellectually and spiritually grapple as it were, for the truth of the Gospel.
We are tempted in our individualistic context to skip over the full implications of St. Jude’s instructions to contend for “the faith.” “The faith”, here, is not the believing response of a person to the Gospel, rather “the faith” is the collection of saving beliefs that the Christian Church has long held as necessary for salvation. For there can be no true, believing saving response of an individual if “the faith” is not protected and proclaimed as necessary for salvation. Jude, in this Epistle, wants his hearers to be zealous for the protection and proclamation of these Gospel truths. These truths are received - St. Jude says that they have been delivered once for all to the saints. We received them faithfully, we contend for them actively, eagerly, so that they may be passed on to another generation who continues in the apostolic teaching. They were received once for all - the final word of God’s salvation for mankind. In sum, St. Jude would have us be zealous for what matters eternally, contending for the faith we receive in the creeds, which is rooted in the Scriptures.
The color for today’s Feast is red because St. Simon and St. Jude shared the crown of martyrs alongside all the Apostles, with the exception of St. John the Divine. The love of Christ changed and tempered these men. St. Simon became more compassionate and motivated by love, while the naturally meek and mild St. Jude received strength to be a man of great courage. Christ’s love in the heart transforms lives, making these men willing to serve the Prince of Peace in all circumstances. We receive particular instruction this evening to be filled with true, godly zeal. A zeal that prioritizes what God prioritizes. A zeal that does not compromise on the absolute essentials of the gospel while practicing Christian kindness and charity in matters where people may have differing convictions. The zeal commended by these apostles contends for the Gospel, our common salvation once for all delivered to the saints.
Let us pray. O ALMIGHTY God, Who hast built Thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, JESUS CHRIST Himself being the head Corner-Stone; Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto Thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
