westerns

I have to admit to a weakness for a good western. As a kid growing up, early television was saturated with them. Today we have the crime drama, Morse, Lewis, Frost, Poirot, Miss Marple etc. etc. but back in my youthful days it was wall to wall westerns with cowboys, rustlers, home on the range, Indians and bandits and where one punch to the jaw rendered the most fearsome of crooks helpless without any bodily damage done to any one that lasted longer than all of thirty seconds. We had The Lone Ranger, The Range Rider, The Cisco Kid, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Sugarfoot, Rawhide, Wagon Train …. the list goes on and on, with most on at ‘prime time’ and, with there being no alternative channels, you either loved them or loathed them and I loved them!

Maybe one day, when my boat comes in, I will take myself off to Colorado, to the foot of the Rockies, to the land of ‘Shane’ or ‘The Virginian’ and ride with the boys, wearing my hat with pride, lasso around the saddle, Winchester rifle at my side, firing my Colt 45 as a left handed gun and cleaning up the wild west of hoodlums once and for all - unless I succumbed in a rash moment to joining Butch Cassidy’s gang and stand shoulder to shoulder with the Sundance Kid.

You learn a lot from westerns, how to play the harmonica, how to light a good camp fire, how to shoot dead a rattlesnake with one shot and how to avoid riding behind the cattle as you move them from ranch to ranch. If you rode tail, and every new hand got that job, you just got plastered with dust. You rode with your neckerchief over your mouth and nose and your hat pulled firmly down over the eyes.

When Jesus called his followers there were many other ‘rabbis’, leaders who gathered followers as well. These usually picked the best to learn all they had to offer. Jesus called the tax collector, the fishermen, the radical Zealot to be his followers plus a group of women who also moved around with Him. This was highly unusual. You had to stay close to your rabbi, so close that you got covered with the dust and dirt from his sandals. You just didn’t want to miss anything. You were aiming to become totally like them.

In Mark ch2 v14-15 it says, As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

As followers we often think that we are going to be contaminated by the dust and dirt of the world around us. But Jesus had totally the opposite affect and hopefully so do we. His love, goodness and kindness touched all he met – wonderful!!

 

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