"Getting Zacchaeus out of his Tree"

by Revd Bruce Waldron - 22nd April 2007

Luke 19: 1-10

Luke 19:1-10 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 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." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner." Zacchaeus 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." Then Jesus said to him, "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."

The story about Jesus and Zacchaeus that we read here is a very truncated account of something a lot longer and more involved. It's like the account of the calling of the disciples, there's a lot more to it than the abbreviated version we get in any one of the gospels. The gospels tell skeleton stories, and the writers expect the hearers to fill out the rest with imagination.

What we have here is a précis of something a lot bigger and more involved, and I want you to keep that in mind.

I've known a few Zacchaeus. They are people who other's find it easy to label. And usually labelling someone like Zaccheus is fairly safe because there will be other people who will very readily join in the labelling. It's a safe and comfortable place to be, when someone so obviously fits the bill that people paste onto them.

Mean old miser.
All he thinks about is money.
Not an easy person to like.
All he thinks about is himself.
She's a user.
He's a typical traveller
She's really narrow minded.

Jesus' response to Zacchaeus couldn't have happened if Jesus paid attention to the labels that people had wrapped around Zacchaeus. But then, Zacchaeus's response to Jesus couldn't have happened either, if Zacchaeus had believed that there was no way out of the cocoon that he had wrapped himself in.

I don't feel very comfortable when I find out that I've joined in sharing people's labels of another. I am always conscious, when it's happened that I've done something rather un-Christ-like. I'm always conscious that if Jesus had done that, this story about Zacchaeus wouldn't be in the Bible.

The story brings to my mind a story my older sister Verity once told me. She's a Salvation Army Officer. She and her husband had been posted to a new corps. When they arrived there, everyone told them to watch out for Fred (not his real name). Fred was a trouble maker. Fred wasn't a real Christian. Fred was a thorn in the side, a burr in the saddle, a grass seed in the sock. Look out for Fred. He was trouble maker, a manipulator.

Do you remember the words of Jesus, "Don't judge if you don't want to be judged."

They hadn't been in their new corps long, when one Sunday, at the Holiness Meeting, Fred walked down to the Mercy Seat when the invitation was given, as it is in the Salvation Army meetings, and he sobbed his heart out before God. And people muttered, "Well, we'll see how real that is tomorrow."

But God had touched the man's heart, and for the years they served in that corps, that man was the most faithful, helpful and kind, Christian gentleman you would ever meet. And I remember my sister saying "You should never say such things about a person. It's between them and God and it's not right to prejudice people that way.

How can we judge another.

St Paul said, "Who are you to judge the servant of another. It is before his own Lord he must stand or fall."
If we look after our own relationship with God, that's hard enough work. Most of us have got quite enough holes in our perfection to keep us occupied with ourselves all our life, without judging anyone else.

Jesus knew that in Zacchaeus there was a possibility still alive. And the judging crowd would never see it, because their eyes were closed to everything but their experience, but God sees inside, sees the possibilities that are locked away, sees the scars that mar a persons potential, sees the parts of a person that are frozen inside a protective shell, not dead, but dormant, wrapped up and unseen, forgotten. But still able to be pulled back into life by the warmth of God's love.

It would have really cost Jesus, that little interchange with Zacchaeus. People were properly turned off him when he invited himself to Zacchaeus's for lunch. It was things like that, that got him killed, and it was things like that which gave new life to the people he touched.

By refusing to abide the popular prejudice, Jesus gave Zacchaeus the room to move. Someone believed he was more than just a turncoat, Roman collaborator who ripped off his people. Someone trusted that God's creation was still alive somewhere in this rapacious little man, and by faith, by God's presence, was able to unlock that, and set it free.

Jesus was able to give this man a place to acknowledge what he'd done, someone who came close enough for Zacchaeus to trust him enough, to say who he knew he really was, and someone who he could talk to about what he could do about it.

We who follow Christ, need to hear the story of Zacchaeus, because it challenges us to remember what we are here for. God offers grace to us, and we celebrate and symbolize that every time we take communion. As followers of Christ, we are called by God to be the agents of that potential for each person we meet, for Christ lives in us, so we believe and hope.

That symbol of grace that we so often share at the communion table challenges us to take seriously the potential for rebirth and resurrection in the life of the people whose lives we touch, and it can't happen through us if we are standing comfortably with the judging crowds.

The most amazing Christian of the early church, could not have become who he became if an unknown chap called Ananias had not been willing to put aside his own safety, his own prejudice, his best friends opinions, even their censure, and go to sit down and talk with Saul, the Christian's persecutor.

May God give us the faith to see what God sees, and be what Christ calls us to be.

Amen