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Sermon - November 4th, 2007
Zacchaeus & Saints
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Luke 19:1-10
Prayer of Preparation: We give thanks, O God of sacred stories, for the witness of our holy scripture. Through it you nurture our imaginations, touch our feelings, increase our awareness, and challenge our assumptions. Bless we pray, our hearing of your word this day. Speak to each of us; speak to all of us; and grant that by the power of your Spirit, we may be hearers and doers of your word. Amen.
I like the story of Zacchaeus. Because if there is hope for Zacchaeus, then certainly there is hope for me. He was so short he climbed a tree to see over the crowd to catch a glimpse of Jesus and so rich the crowd labeled him a sinner. Now Luke liked writing about people like Zacchaeus, who didn’t make it into any of the other gospels. Undesirables—people who begged along the roadside, people who had been bent over for years, people who weren’t remembered by name but by their affliction, and people who got rich from other people’s money like Zachchaeus. Luke wrote about people nobody else liked.
Now Zacchaeus was called a sinner for good reason. He was Jewish and he worked for the Romans. He was a traitor and a thief. He cheated people very successfully. He had worked himself up to the top—to the chief tax collector position. This term implicated him even more deeply in the corrupt tax system of the Roman government—a tax program that robbed and crushed the common citizen. It also appears that he was vertically challenged. Not a helpful characteristic. He had to learn to survive by his wits. It meant that nothing had been easy for Zacchaeus. Not even seeing Jesus.
Zacchaeus had an intense desire to see Jesus. He climbed a tree just to catch sight of him. Not a dignified thing to do, especially for a wealthy man. It was ridiculous and impressive and it got Jesus’ attention. I wonder if that was what Zacchaeus wanted or was he totally shocked when Jesus came over and looked up into that sycamore tree.
“Zach! Come down from there! I’m having dinner with you tonight!” If Zacchaeus was not all that surprised, the crowd was shocked! What kind of Messiah has dinner with tax collectors? How dare Jesus give him preferential treatment! Of all the people surrounding Jesus—Zacchaeus was the one closest to being the scum of the earth! I know that’s how I would have felt. The crowd was full of envy and distrust; their hearts were closed to the possibility of redemption and transformation for the man in the tree. And do you know what happens when people start feeling that way about someone else? They close off the possibility of redemption and transformation for themselves. How quickly that can happen.
But the message that Jesus gave the crowd that day, and the message for us today, on All Saints Sunday is that every single life is precious. Every person has been created as a child of God. Every life is capable of making a difference in the world. Our Protestant way of remembering the saints is to remember that they are not necessarily the GREAT heroes and heroines of the faith represented by grand statues in old, musty sanctuaries. Saints are as flawed as we are. They made mistakes. They were not without sin. A Swedish bishop defined saints this way: “Saints are those who make it easier for people to believe in God.” They are people who point us beyond ourselves to God, people who love when it isn’t easy or profitable to love, people who hold up hope when there is plenty of cause for despair.
I would have loved to have been a “fly on the wall” while Zacchaeus and Jesus were having dinner. It would be every evangelist’s dream to hear those “magic words” that completely changed Zacchaeus’ life. What did they talk about? Did they laugh? Did they cry? We don’t know. We only know the result—that Zacchaeus did a 180 degree turn around. A small, stingy man climbed out of that tree. A big, courageous man gave half of his possessions to the poor and paid back those he cheated four times over—way more than what was required by law.
Now, there have been some skeptics, or some opportunists (depending on your perspective) who have said that Zacchaeus bought his way into our Lord’s good grace by paying for his forgiveness, or once again, he was a small man attracting attention with a grandiose gesture. I could take advantage of this story at this time, and say we are all sinners. Everyone of us. But here’s how Zacchaeus became a saint—he gave half of all he had and paid back a lot more than he owed. So, when you receive your pledge letter for next year’s church budget this week—how much will you give? How high will you go? As high as Zacchaeus?
Well, the trouble with that message is that, simply put, it is not the gospel. It is not Luke’s message. It was Jesus who paid with all that he had—with his last breath. It didn’t cost us anything. Grace and forgiveness are free. There are no strings attached, no pay back, no indulgences. Salvation is free. It doesn’t cost us anything. Yet it gives us everything—our whole life! It’s not that complicated. But it is rather paradoxical. Jesus looked up at poor embarrassed Zacchaeus, called him down from his self-made pedestal, ate dinner with him, and helped him realize that the personal, social, and religious price of his wealth was too high. The cost was too high. I believe Zacchaeus knew that already, before he climbed that tree. He was seeking something else, something new. He was seeking a way out. What Zacchaeus did after he had dinner with Jesus was his personal faith response to Christ’s radical, totally unexpected grace. The moment that Jesus looked at him in that tree, he was set free, he was forgiven, transformed, liberated, converted, whatever you want to call it. And from that moment on he simply could not go on living the way he had been living all those years. He had to do something in response. That’s what grace does to us. It MOVES us. So he chose restitution and generosity—the total opposite of what anyone who knew him expected. Except God, for with God, nothing is impossible, even the radical turn around of a rich tax collector, the chief tax collector. For with God—everything, all things are possible. God meets us where we need God the most. God will lift us up. Or God will call us down. The question is what will our response be? Will it be YES? Because if it is—be ready, because it will involve redemption, transformation, forgiveness, generosity, and maybe more. It will change your life.
Amen.