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Zacchaeus - Repentance and Restitution

ZACCHAEUS ~ REPENTANCE AND RESTITUTION

ALL SAINTS' DAY

TEXT: LUKE 18:9-14

 


INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
Did you ever think that on a Sunday morning, the kids are downstairs doing Bible study? But adults? How many of us study the Bible. It's ironic that our most concentrated period of gaining Biblical literacy is childhood. But the Bible is most definitely NOT a children's book. Well, there are a few stories that work for kids and today's is one of them. The story of Zacchaeus. And wouldn't you know, the kids aren't here. First I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to sing "Zacchaeus was a wee little man" with them. But then, I thought, well, this story did not find its way into the Bible to entertain children. There's a lot more going on here. It may have a slightly comical twist, but it is a deep and meaningful and adult story.

 

LUKE 19:1-10
19 He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5 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." 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner."
8 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." 9 Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."
This is the second time Luke has turned the tables on his audience and made a tax collector a sympathetic character. Remember a couple of weeks ago he told about the tax collector who was willing to admit his sinfulness and humbly pray for God's mercy. Zacchaeus is another.

ZACCHAEIS, THE DESPISED TAX COLLECTOR
In case you don't remember from last time, the political milieu of first century Palestine was difficult for the peasants in the occupied territories of the Roman Empire.
They worked hard for very little and then the Romans levied taxes on them to support the army and their lavish public works projects. And typical of oppressors, they tried to disrupt social cohesion. In a set-up similar to the Vichy government in France in WWII, the Romans used residents of this occupied nation as their lackeys, co-opting leaders to help maintain order and recruiting ordinary folks to do their work.

So here's Zacchaeus, a fellow Jew, working for the Romans, collecting taxes from his countrymen and adding a bit to the bill because that was the deal. That's how you got paid. Zacchaeus was especially reviled because he was rich. Where was he getting his money? From the pockets of the poor folks he hit up for taxes.

In a book called Body and Character ln Luke and Acts, the author makes a case that physical traits are used symbolically by the Gospel writer. People who are blind, lame, deaf, bent over, exhibit these physical qualities for a metaphorical reason. Luke may be suggesting that the diminutive Zacchaeus is small in spirit as well as body or suggesting that he insignificant in the eyes of society.

A REVERSAL OF A REVERSAL
Now in a way, this is weird because it's a reversal of a reversal. Jesus is always surprising people by aligning himself with the poor and marginalized and calling down judgment on the rich. But here, he's befriending the rich man to the great shock of the masses who thought Jesus was on their side.

Goodness, Jesus so unpredictable.

Or not. The one thing that is predictable about Jesus is his ability to cut through social boundaries, accept the unacceptable, and see into the heart. This he does with Zacchaeus.

This summer I read a novel which skewers people who try to outdo each other in conspicuous consumption. The men buy cars and boats, the desperate housewives give charity luncheons in their Connecticut mansions. But the charity is forgotten as they check out each other's designer labels, vie for appointments with the hot new interior decorator, and serve food only from the most chi chi caterers. They are men and women whose lives are empty; who do not find meaning outside of their material possessions.

I imagine Zacchaeus as a similar type. Spurned by his fellow Jews, used by the Romans, he is a man without a friend who uses his wealth as consolation. What a surprise that rabbi Jesus would single him out.
YOU ARE ACCEPTED
Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but it is Jesus who sees him. Really sees him. And takes the initiative to enter his life. Jesus accepts him as a friend and chooses him to host a dinner party in his honor.

Paul Tillich says that this is the heart of the Gospel message. You are accepted. The message given at many churches is that you must accept Jesus. But this story puts the shoe on the other foot. Jesus accepts you! All we do is acquiesce. As Tillich puts it, accept that you are accepted. (The Shaking of the Foundations.)

REPENTENCE AND RESTITUTION
This sermon is supposed to be on the Christian virtues of repentance and restitution because that's what happens next. Moved by this new relationship with Jesus, Zacchaeus changes his ways. " 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."

I imagine virtues as qualities that you wrestle into your life by rigor and self discipline. But Zacchaeus seems to come almost spontaneously to the ethical response of repentance and restitution. It seems like he cannot help himself. His experience of faith is so powerful that it simply compels him to respond with compassion.

I see this not as a grudging moment of self-sacrifice. Zacchaeus doesn't calculate: "Oh being a friend of Jesus means I have to act like him, hold my possessions as lightly as he does." That may be true, but Zacchaeus seems to come to this with a sense of liberation. No longer does he need to depend on his wealth for meaning. He has been set free from that. Having seen Jesus, he can now see himself as beloved of God. His money does not have the same meaning for him. It is not the source of his value. He is loved and accepted. He can give away his material goods and even more importantly, he can give away himself.

ZACCHEUS, THE CHEERFUL GIVER
You know that phrase, "The Lord loves a cheerful giver." I think the meaning of this story is, "The Lord loves you and makes you cheerful so that you just want to give."

A colleague wrote a monolog imagining Zacchaeus's wife as one of the Connecticut snobs in my novel.

She is appalled at what Zacchaeus is doing when he starts giving away their wealth and tending to the poor. She sulks for months about losing her luxuries. But she notices the difference in her husband. He's becoming kinder to her as well. And then slowly, she too, "gets it."

"One day Zack asked me to go with him to take cold water to the people working the vegetable gardens behind our house. What could I do? It was such a simple request. When we got there the people were so grateful, I felt like crying. It was only water, not vintage wine like we used to drink. They showed me the gardens and explained their crops, the children took me to see a nest with two tiny birds in it. Before I knew it, I had a hoe and was being taught how to weed. When the sun went down and the people left the gardens and we went into the house, I felt wonderful, more relaxed and peaceful than I had ever felt. More tired too. (Zach's Wife. Janet Norman. St. Andrew's United Church. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.)



You don't have to change to make yourself acceptable to God. You are already precious in God's sight. But this story suggests that God will change us when we accept Jesus friendship. Do we dare chance it?