Sermon by Mike Stutso, Deacon in Training, 10/30/2022, Luke 19:1-10
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
Boy! Come down out that tree! Have you ever heard those words? I have a few times but the ones I like best are, get down before you hurt yourself or you are going to fall and break your neck. I guess I got lucky, I’m still here. Now I’m not here to give y’all instructions on how to climb a tree, let’s face it there not many of us that need to be up a tree or we may be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. But just maybe after we leave out of here today we might have a better understanding of Zacchaeus and God’s love for us. First I will highlight some words in today’s Gospel that I found after a while to have important meanings that I overlooked at first. Also as we’ve seen in the past with Luke, this reading is only found in Luke as is “The Good Samaritan” and “The Prodigal Son”. Again showing us that Luke is one of the Canonical Gospels (that’s all four Gospel) not the Synoptic Gospels, because Luke’s stories are different and do not follow the others.
The reading starts off with “He” (Jesus) was passing through Jericho; note the words passing through, not heading or stopped. Well Jericho is a major town on the main route to Jerusalem back then and in Jesus’ day it was approximately 18 mile to Jerusalem, what’s funny that now it says it’s approximately 27. I’m sure it the route was changed probably due to the terrain but there are two things about the old route. They called it “the way of blood” because of the robbers along the way also you would descend 1/2 mile in altitude during this walk. So is this a story that just happened or was it divine intervention by Jesus because we all know what happens in the next town down the road, just food for thought. Now we have Zacchaeus and he was a chief tax collector, not just a tax collector. This means he works for Rome and is contracted to pay a certain amount of taxes to Rome. It also means he was probably protected by Romans, was not liked and could charge the Jews whatever he wanted. He might have even charged a road tax to travel through there on the way to Jerusalem. So he’d give Rome theirs and keep the rest for himself or his help that he might have had. In a typical Luke statement it says he was rich and he probably was. We all know that Luke was focused on wealth and poverty. So Zacchaeus had a title and status in Rome and Jericho and would have been resented by the Jews and probably just tolerated by Rome. Jericho was a rich town exporting Date Palms and Balsam, so Zacchaeus had plenty of opportunity to charge and over charge people taxes.
It says Zacchaeus came to see Jesus, how had he learned about the young Rabbi? Was he there out of curiosity or was he there to repent and seek forgiveness? Or it could have also been a Devine moment that Jesus was not going to let slip by, one more soul to save before Jerusalem and lesson for the Jewish community. It states Zacchaeus was a short man by stature, you could use the word small because he would have been small in acceptance by his own people. So this short or small was both a physical and moral smallness in society and he knew it, but his height was not going to stop him from being able to see Jesus. Even he if it meant embarrassing himself by something as degrading as climbing a tree. I can see what the crowd would have said about this approach but Zacchaeus was a man on a mission just as Jesus was and I believe this is a Devine moment. Again my belief, I don’t think anything Jesus ever did was by chance, that after he started his ministry and march to Jerusalem everything was to save the lost. Jesus confronts Zacchaeus which if you think about it is different from others they all confronted Jesus. He tells Zacchaeus to get out of the tree, why, because Jesus MUST stay at Zacchaeus house TODAY. Two thought here, first Jesus has reversed the role of Jewish customs and courtesies it would have been Zacchaeus’ responsibility to offer food and shelter to someone traveling especially someone like Jesus. But Jesus knew exactly what he was doing, he had work to do before he headed down the road and the words of the day are, “sense of urgency” because Jesus had a mission. So Zacchaeus comes down and welcomes Jesus and what happens next? The crowd begins to grumble that Jesus would stay at the house of a sinner, well isn’t that something new for Jesus. I’m sure somewhere lurking was a Pharisees or two leading the cheer against Jesus. This shows us again that the rich and privileged were not going to be accepted by a normal Jew, man they couldn’t accept Jesus as the Messiah. You know we see this today only too well what money, greed and corruption can do to a person, it can poison their souls vs using money and power for the good of all people and yes the Jews still think Jesus was a great Prophet but that ok.So apparently Zacchaeus got the memo because without any prompting or parables from Jesus, Zacchaeus understood you can’t serve God and money at the same time. Zacchaeus unlike the other rich man in Luke 18:18-23 would not give up his earthly riches for the treasures in Heaven. This prompted Jesus to say those famous words that it would be easier for a Camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. Remember Jesus never said that money was bad or evil, just what people do with it or don’t do with it. Now Zacchaeus asks for nothing but volunteers 1/2 of all his riches to the poor and then said if he defrauded anyone of anything, he would repay it back four times the amount. This is amazing because Torah requires restoration PLUS 1/5 not four times the amount and if it for the theft of an animal it was 2, 4 or 5 times based on the crime. Zacchaeus is not doing this to win over the crowd or to impress Jesus but I think this is true repentance that these are the fruits of his labor that he freely offs and are worthy in the eyes of God that should please the Creator. Obviously Jesus and God are well pleased because Jesus proclaims that salvation has come to this house today because Zacchaeus has shown his faith and repentance. Just think about this, anywhere Jesus went he brought forgiveness, love and salvation if we just come down out of our tree or high horse and repent then ask for salvation. Now it says he too is a son of Abraham, meaning that both Jesus and Zacchaeus are Jewish making them God’s chosen with all the promises of God.
Now we get to the real deal statement as a matter of fact the whole Gospel could have been “For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost”. The earlier writing was just to clarify his ministry and show just how hard it is to follow Jesus, which he told us it would be. That one sentence tells us what Jesus’ purpose on earth was and that everything he did was to fulfill Scripture and prophecy. Jesus has shown us how to live through his ministry. He came to save the lost and their very souls just like a Sheppard would do for his flock, now we must do for the flock as Christians.
So a question for you, are you ready to climb a tree with me so we can see our Master?
AMEN