Matthew was a tax collector who loved Rome.
Simon was a Jewish Zealot who hated Rome.

They came to Jesus with radically different political views, yet found unity in Jesus.

Matthew learned to love Rome less.
Simon learned to love Rome more.
They both learned to love Jesus most.

Jesus taught and modeled very little for His disciples about relating to Rome.

He rarely allowed them to get drawn into political disputes and compared to everything else He taught about, He rarely spoke about Rome.

They focused mostly on building the kingdom not of this world.

This all came from a conversation with John Henderson and me earlier today.