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Sunday November 1,
1998
Luke 19:1-10
Focus Text: "When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.' " [19:5]
Have you ever had a chance encounter that changed your life? If you look back through the pages of your life’s story, how many chapters would there be that are a result of being at "the right place at the right time" or "the wrong place at the wrong time?" Would there be twists and turns where the most wonderful parts of your life were not things you planned on or designed?
And how would God fit into the pages? Was there a chance meeting or a sudden surprise requiring a new chapter and theme – or would the spiritual part of your life be woven into the fabric of the whole story?
People in the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous frequently comment that there is no such thing as coincidence – everything happens for a reason or by design. "Nothing happens by accident," one young man on the road to recovery said, "I ran into an old friend last year at a Cub’s baseball game. He took me to an AA meeting that night and I haven’t had a drink since!" Christians might call that "chance meeting" providential. A Jungian psychologist would likely call it synchronistic. (A fortuitous chance happening)
The man in today’s gospel lesson, Zacchaeus, would doubtless be a convert to the idea that there are no coincidences. He climbed a tree one day and his life was never the same!
No two people have the same spiritual journey. One of the amazing and wonderful things about the Lord is that having created every single one of us as unique persons – so every one of us has a unique spiritual journey. The spiritual journey of our man Zacchaeus might be called a view from the tree. It was unique to him. No one (at least not many) would suggest that the way to a relationship with God is to sit in a tree and wait for the Lord to come. Yet the story contains some principles that can be encouraging to our own journey.
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God’s Love is For Everyone
Some people are just plain unacceptable. You know it? They just don’t deserve to live and eat and work and play along with the rest of us good folk.
One of these "unacceptable" people is a convicted sex offender who was released from prison last summer. He tried to move into a suburban Los Angeles neighborhood where his presence was made known to the residents. A CNN reporter spoke with some of those residents who were demonstrating against the man's proximity. They made it clear. It didn't matter whether the man had served his time or not -- they wanted him gone. Can you blame them?
"Where will he go?" the reporter asked one fellow.
"He can burn in hell for all I care!" The man replied.
Imagine somehow that Jesus Christ showed up at the demonstration and shouted to the man who remained behind closed doors, "Come with me sir. Let us have dinner together this evening."
Would you be shocked? Would Jesus actually have anything to do with such a person?
Perhaps this offers just a hint as to how people felt about Zacchaeus. Turn the clock back to his time and the statement about burning in hell could very well have been made about him. As a "chief" tax collector, he had reached the top of his hated profession. His wealth was built on the backs of his oppressed fellow Jews. He was a turn coat. A Jew who cooperated with Roman authorities to extract taxes from his countrymen – plus whatever he could squeeze for himself. As a supervisor of tax collectors, he now collected whatever he could pressure his underlings for. The harder he leaned, the richer he grew.
Luke makes very clear the negative feelings of the crowd that had gathered to watch as Jesus passed through town. The whole entourage stops at the tree and Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus' house for dinner. "All who saw it began to grumble and said, 'He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.'"
The story of Zacchaeus is unique to Luke and it fits in with Luke's overarching concern to demonstrate that God's love is for absolutely everyone -- especially for those who are deemed unacceptable. Jesus' ministry is a barrier breaking outreach with the seeking and saving love of God.¹
Note the last verse of our text: "For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost." [19:10]
God’s Love Meets Us Where We Are
It is amazing to see just how many different ways people met Jesus in the gospels. Jesus had a "go out and find them" -- a seeking and saving approach to ministry. We tend to have a "come to us" approach. "Come to church and worship with us." "Visitors welcome!" millions of church ads in the yellow pages proclaim across the land.
Many churches begin their worship with a "Call To Worship". We do that. Almost every week. And don't get me wrong -- that's a good thing and it is a good thing to gather for worship. But... if we are to be faithful to the model of ministry Jesus gave, we might consider concluding our worship with a "Call To Service". Something along the line of, "Now that we have been renewed in worship and refreshed in spirit, let us go out into the world to seek and save the lost."
You see, worship isn't the thing. It's a preparation to go and do the thing. We miss the boat when we think along the line of, "Well, I've done my duty today -- I went to church." In fact, the duty part comes after worship.
Fortunately, Jesus went to people and met them where they were. Matthew was sitting at his tax collector's office, Peter was washing his nets down by the lake, a woman was out by the well, Paul was on a horse on his way to Damascus. On and on the story went. Where there was pain and suffering and searching and longing -- Jesus went.
He still does. It is good to know that the love of God meets us where we are. In good times and in bad times. When we are doing well and when we are absolutely falling on our face. In happiness or in hopelessness. He comes to us and stops and says, "Come to me. I want to join you in your living. I want to love you!" And if you have ever had a time when you felt unworthy or unacceptable, it is especially then that God's reaching, saving love is available to you.
In other words, the "right place" and "right time" we spoke of earlier is any time you decide to look for the love of God and make the discovery that this love is right there for you. Calling you down from your tree, or away from the boats, or out of the tax office -- or out of your sorrow, or shame or difficulty.
That's good news!
God’s Love Changes Us
You have likely heard the saying, "Jesus loves you just the way you are -- but way too much to leave you that way!"
At the beginning of Zacchaeus' day he saw Jesus at a distance. From a tree. He was, in the eyes of the people of Jericho, a sinner -- unacceptable, a hated person. There is no doubt he felt the pain of isolation and loneliness, for he wanted to see the Jesus who was passing through own. The Jesus who reached out to people other teachers wouldn't bother with.
At the end of the day the view is up close and personal. A greedy, rich tax collector is about to open up his bank account to give to the poor and make restitution to those he had defrauded. Wholeness (salvation) brings healing to the household of Zacchaeus. This is a new Zacchaeus.
How did it happen? Wouldn't it be wonderful to have been a part of the conversations which took place between Zacchaeus and the Lord? What did Jesus say to him? What did he say to Jesus?
Lloyd C. Douglas in his classic, "The Mirror" from the American Pulpit series imagines this exchange between Jesus and Zacchaeus. "Zacchaeus," said the carpenter gently, "What did you see that made you desire this peace?" "Good master -- I saw mirrored in your eyes -- the face of the Zacchaeus I was meant to be."
The love of God does not change us from who we are into some other -- better person, but calls from within our souls the essence of the person we were created to be. To be lost is to be dissociated from the person God made us to be. Salvation is to discover who we are and who we can become through the love of Christ. We do not have to make ourselves into anything. The power of God will create us from within. Paul's statement in the Thessalonians text explains:
"To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." (II Thess. 1:11-12)
[Apply It]
1. Zacchaeus' view of Jesus from a tree was a safe view. We are sometimes more comfortable with the view from a distance. Keep him at "arms length" so to speak. If Jesus Christ showed up in your life and asked for an "up close and personal" conversation with you, what would you be feeling?
2. In the 12-step program of AA, the eighth step reads, " [We] Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all." In fact six of the twelve steps have to do with self examination and making amends. When we are becoming who God made us to be through the love of Christ, outward actions flow naturally from a renewed inward spirit.
¹ It is interesting to trace Luke's use of the word sinner(s). He uses the term 16 times compared to Matthew's 5, Mark's 4 and John's 4. It is almost always used in the context of Jesus reaching out to "sinners" or the bystanders "grumbling" about Jesus associating with sinners.
v.2 The name Zacchaeus is likely derived from the Hebrew "Zakkai" = "the righteous one". Clement of Alexandria (Hom.111,63) says that Zacchaeus was later bishop of Caesarea.
Jericho was an important customs station as well as an agricultural gem. The position of a chief tax collector wold have provided exceptional opportunity for gain.
v.3 "The desire of Zacchaeus' desire to see Jesus, although commendable, was surpassed by the desire of Jesus to see him." (Walter Liefeld - EBC)
v.5 "I must stay at your house today." -- " See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!" (II Cor 6:2) The importance in the biblical drama of "today" is implied here. Today is the day we must respond. cf. James in terms of counting on tomorrow. (James 4:14-15) Proverbs 27:1 "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring"
v.8 Zacchaeus goes quite beyond what the law required. Only in violent and destructive acts of robbery was a fourfold restitution necessary. (Ex22:1) If it was a non-violent robbery and the original goods could not be restored, a double restitution was made. (Ex 22:4,7) If the thief voluntarily confessed and restitution offered, the offender paid the original amount plus one fifth. (Lev. 6:5) Zacchaeus shows the liberality and generosity of the one who has been redeemed by grace. (II Cor. 9:7ff)
v.10 Verse 10 is the gospel of Luke in a nutshell. It expresses the heart of Jesus' ministry as Luke presents it. He has come to seek the lost. Chapter 15 is an exposition of the whole theme of lostness. More than any other gospel, Luke presents Jesus as associating with "sinners". The story of Zacchaeus and his meeting with Jesus is an example of the mission of Jesus as he spells it out in chapter 4. The conflict of Jesus' mission and the establishment's expectations is engaged immediately when Jesus addresses the synagogue in chapter 4 and the attendees attempt to throw Jesus not only out of town -- but over a cliff to his death.
It is also significant that v.10 comes just before the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem and the terrible implications of his mission of seeking - saving love is finally worked out in the passion narrative.
Isaiah 1:10-18 ~ Religion Without Repentance is Revolting
At the very least, Isaiah's warning to Israel should bring anyone who desires a relationship with God to attention. The mention of Sodom and Gomorrah would be appalling to Isaiah's hearers. They represented the absolute worst of gentile sin. In verse 10, Isaiah shows the shocking depths to which the religion of Israel has sunk by calling their leaders "rulers of Sodom" and the people, "people of Gomorrah!" It is difficult to get the sense of how this would have absolutely jolted those who heard it!
Here's an attempt. Imagine going to worship one day and the pastor says, "Listen to what God has to say -- you disgusting hypocrites! Your worship makes me sick. Don't bother praying -- I won't listen to your prayers!"
1. Here's the key to the passage: Religion without repentance is revolting to God. When people come to worship without any sense of the holiness of God and their own need of forgiveness in light of God's holiness, they functionally dismiss God and turn the worship into pagan idolatry. The resulting religion has nothing to do with a relationship with God.
2. Repentance restores the relationship. All the lectionary texts speak of turning away from self to God. Isaiah says, "do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed." The Psalmist writes, "I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not hide my iniquity." [And in this they find freedom and restoration) (PS. 32:5) Paul, in II Thessalonians 1:1-4 & 11-12, speaks of the fruit of the relationship with God as an increase in love between people in the family of faith and Zacchaeus turns from greed to gratitude and generosity.
3. The key to spiritual vitality is self examination. Worship that does not include looking within and confession of our need for God's grace and goodness will finally turn from God to self and become pagan idolatry. It will dismiss the "Holy one of Israel!"
Words of Welcome (Perhaps for the beginning of your bulletin)
We welcome you today in the name of the one who frees us from every burden, renews our spirits and inspires hope and joy in our living. May this time of worship encourage and lift you up.
Call To Worship (Based on Psalm 32)
Blessed are those whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered. They are happy for the Lord declares them "not guilty" and there is no deception in their hearts. Let us worship and rejoice in the One who is our hiding place and our refuge in times of trouble.
Prayer of Dedication
With these offerings, O Lord, we bring our resolve to care for one another, seek those who are in need of your love and pray for the reign of Jesus Christ in all the world. Amen.
Responsive Benediction
Leader: We have come to give praise and thanks,
People: To him who seeks and saves those who are lost.
Leader: We depart now to honor and serve,
People: The one who now seeks through us.
[Ask all to hold out their hands]
Unison: Take these hands now O Lord, and use them to reach out this week to all who need your love. Amen