Isaiah 60:1-5, 19-21
1Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
2For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.
3Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
4Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
5Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
19The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
20Your sun shall no more go down, or your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.
21Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land for ever. They are the shoot that I planted, the work of my hands, so that I might be glorified.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God
Luke 19:1-10
1He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5When 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.” 6So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7All who say it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 9Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God
One of the joys of William’s young life is that as he hits these milestones, I get to hear stories from his grandparents about when Leah and I were very small. Often, they’re stories that my parents and my in-laws haven’t thought in decades. Some stories stay in our childhood, and don’t get picked up again until the next generation discovers them.
Like the story of Jonah on which we focused last week, the story of Zacchaeus tends to be one of those stories that stays in our childhood. We hear it again and again in Children's Sunday School classes, maybe we even learn the song. You know the one, Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he... But when we become adults, that story stays in our childhood. We look on it with fondness, but never really pick it up and read it again.
And if we never read it again, all this text will offer us is some physical comedy about a short guy climbing a tree. We'll miss the ways that Jesus upends the social expectation. We'll miss the ways that Zacchaeus is restored to the community. We'll miss the ways that our unworthiness is reformed into a gracious invitation to share the Lord's Table.
Jesus is headed to Jerusalem, and we know that the last supper and the cross are waiting for him there. Reaching into our childhood stories, we meet him as “He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.” Zacchaeus is not the accountant or IRS agent we might picture today. Zacchaeus was Jewish, but was working for the occupying empire. He was benefitting from the oppression of his people. As a chief tax collector, he had proven himself good at his job. Even if all of Zacchaeus’s business dealings were totally legal and above board, he had still enriched himself from the oppression of his fellow Jews.
And that’s not a great way to make friends.
Scripture tells us “He was trying to see who Jesus was.” I don’t think he desire to see “who he was” is a statement of faith, I think it’s self-preservation. After all, if this radical, crowd-drawing preacher is going to cleanse Israel, that may mean that Zacchaeus going to cast out along with of the Romans. So maybe he climbs the tree to wait and see this “Jesus” and stay hidden behind some branches.
Jesus is not about to let him stay up there. “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down;” Imagine Zacchaeus’s terror as he grapples with the branches and slides down the trunk, still not know who he was going to meet at the bottom. Zacchaeus knew that the crowd gathered was not fond of tax collectors, and this man Jesus had called him down from his hiding spot. Zacchaeus, hurry and come down;”
My Uncle Charlie is a Baptist preacher. He is wise, energetic, and has a Doctorate of Ministry in Evangelism and Missions from the Billy Graham school. And he is really Baptist. He's as much a Baptist as I am a Presbyterian.
Which means we sometimes get into it. Much to the chagrin of my mother-in-law, Charlie's sister, who would rather everyone just got along and not talk about things about which we disagree.
For Charlie and me, though, arguing about theology is playful. We're as competitive about it as we would be a backyard football game, and as eager to share a meal together after.
Last time we got into it, Charlie had the last word. We were talking about salvation and how much people's actions effect it. As we got up from the table, he smiled and left with a great line. "I believe Jesus is a gentleman," he said. "He doesn't come in without an invitation."
Ooh what a great line. I was so impressed by his turn of phrase that I didn't even think about the story of Zacchaeus. "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” Jesus doesn’t wait for an invitation. He invites himself over to that same man’s house. There’s not even the politeness of “I would like to..” When Jesus calls you, he doesn’t say “please,” he says “hurry and come down.” No matter what tree you climb to see Jesus from a distance, he’s not about to let you stay there.
In that moment, when Zacchaeus hurries down to stand with Jesus, we saw who he was. He saw that Jesus is more than a rabble-rouser, more even than a prophet. He is salvation, even for those who are lost. Even for those who have enriched themselves while their people were ground down by the empire. “So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.”
How else could he respond? Jesus is inviting you to meet him at your house. It’s not an imposition, it’s an intervention by the Holy One of Israel “to seek out and to save the lost.”
But that free gift is not without consequences, and the crowd begins to grumble about Jesus. Suddenly Zacchaeus is face-to-face with the same crowd that forced him into a sycamore tree.
Sometimes Jesus pulls us out of the dust and heals us. But he also reaches up and pulls us down out of a sycamore tree so that we have to face the crowd, faces we may have wronged. But also so that crowd can see our face as Jesus restores us to the community. “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
Jesus didn't come to tell us that we were right all along. Jesus came to make us righteous, restoring us to right relationship with God, even though sin makes us unworthy. For Zacchaeus, confronting the crowd in Jesus’s presence led to reconciliation. It brought him back to the community even though he didn’t deserve it. Jesus’s invitation brought him out of the tree and into the covenant.
In the same way, when we climb down out of own trees, we we step out from the grumbling crowd, and come to the LORD’s table, we are confronted with Jesus’s presence. We know that our reconciliation is already accomplished, even if we’re not worthy. We have seen in scripture who he was. Here at the Lord’s table, and Jesus’s own invitation, we see who Jesus is.
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