Proper 26C – George Yandell
This is the traditional rendering of the song many of us learned in Sunday school:
Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And when the savior passed that way he looked up in the tree, and said, “Zacchaeus you come down for, I’m going to your house today, I’m going to your house today.” Zacchaeus was a wee little man but a happy man was he. For he had seen the Lord that day, and a happy man was he, and a happy man was he.
The song seems most intent on letting us know he was small of stature and was extraordinarily happy to entertain Jesus. Many of us would have quailed at what Jesus did to Zacchaeus. Yet Zacchaeus became not only happy but grateful to Jesus.
The background: Jesus is nearing Jerusalem. He has just warned the friends traveling with him that in Jerusalem he will be handed over to the Roman authorities and be killed. He is passing through Jericho. Just prior to this story of Zacchaeus, Jesus had healed a blind beggar on the outskirts of the city. It is a miracle healing- the crowd didn’t think the blind man worthy of Jesus’ attention. Yet Jesus heard the blind man crying out, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” Those in front of the blind man ordered him to be quiet, but Jesus stood still and ordered the blind man brought to him and asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied, in front of the throng who’d shushed him, “Lord, let me see again.” And Jesus said, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.” The man immediately began to see again, saw the face of Jesus and followed him. When the people saw the man blind, now seeing, they all praised God.
We heard last week about another tax collector who was praised by Jesus for his humility. In Zacchaeus we meet a tax collector who is anything but humble. The tax collectors in Palestine made unregulated profits by preying on the poor, the working class.
Zacchaeus would have been considered a sinner of the worst sort- he was the ring-leader of employees who extorted taxes and much more. Jesus knew Zacchaeus’ name- he must have had notoriety beyond Jericho. Strangely, the name Zacchaeus means ‘pure, righteous.’ [New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 5, p. 952] If you look closely at the two back-to-back stories you find Zacchaeus is also healed by Jesus- the blind man wanted to see, Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus. In both stories the crowd tries to suppress the ones who want to see- and both exult when Jesus heals them. Zacchaeus’s healing is no less a miracle than the blind man seeing again.
The rich do not fare well in the gospel of Luke. But in this story, the rich Zacchaeus shows others how to respond to meeting Jesus. Jesus came to his house and the crowd grumbled, berating Jesus for being a guest in the house of one so notoriously sinful.
Then Zacchaeus stood in front of Jesus, in his lavishly decorated house, fine food being served, and did what was a hallmark of a true disciple of Jesus- he made a declaration, “Half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and those I have defrauded, I will pay back four times what I stole.” This is not only confession, but restitution. Jesus then states to Zacchaeus and all gathered in his house, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. The Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost.”
I usually don’t appreciate the sayings pastors put on their Church signs, but I keep revisiting the sign I spied last Tuesday in front of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in John’s Creek: “If God is your co-pilot, switch seats.”// Don’t you hear the urgency in Jesus’ inviting himself into the house of a notorious sinner? Zacchaeus responded to that urgency and switched seats, he put Jesus in the driver’s seat. He was now in the presence of the one his soul longed for. Jesus had offered Zacchaeus the way to leave behind completely the notorious life he was living. His ethics had immediately shifted toward the God whose people had condemned him. He was now in a bold new place, salvation had come into his household.
I believe Jesus in that house was teaching not only Zacchaeus but his followers, and us, a new way of living in God’s domain now. This was a moment when God gave the chance for Zacchaeus to stand on new ground. He grew up into a new person in that exchange. He now was in the vanguard of the Kingdom movement of Jesus- an unlikely new example of grace.
There are moments when God gives us new opportunities. We get the chance to dive deeply into the transformed life Jesus offers. Jesus offers the miracle of transformed life. That life is always in company with the others being reshaped by the Holy Spirit. Our hearts are opened, new freedom flows into us. The mark of that change is not only within our hearts but in thankful responses of grace. Zacchaeus leapt at the opportunity to make things right by giving back that which he had received, albeit by extortion and theft. When we yield to the transforming spirit of Jesus, we pool our gratitude in generous giving. God blesses and multiplies our offerings. That’s what we aim for in consecrating our lives in Christ. That’s growing into the full stature of faith. There is urgency for us as well. Our community needs us more than ever to lead others today, lead them intograce-filled giving.
Zacchaeus wasn’t just a wee little man- he had become a towering example of soul-filled gratitude to the Son of God. He had invited Jesus to become the pilot of his life, the captain of his household. Jesus became the source of new life. The ‘righteous one’ had earned his name. So may we.