A Sermon from First Church…. 

A sermon offered by the Rev. Ian F. “Jack” Steeves in the public worship of the First Congregational Church of Scarborough, Maine on Sunday, November 4, 2007.  The principal reading was Luke 19:1-10. 
 

“A Swinger of Birches” 

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). 

Zacchaeus, a “chief farmer of the tax” (Architelones in Greek) owned and operated the tax collection business in ancient, wealthy Jericho (the home of many of the Temple priests and levites).  He was probably a wealthy man with few friends.  He labored under none of the civilized limitations imposed on today’s tax collectors.  Zacchaeus could gouge the people he lived with and get away with it because the power of Rome backed him up.  The people despised him and his assistants.  Their career choices and their methods placed them outside the pale of good Jewish society.  Tax collectors were lumped together with sinners of all descriptions as being unclean and outside the Jewish law (TORAH).  According to his neighbors, Zacchaeus was no “son of Abraham.” 

He was literally a man up a tree.  It may have been the only safe place in town for him.  Perched like a wee bird out on a limb, where others would have him hanging by his neck, his posture reminds me of a line from Robert Frost’s poem, “Birches.” 

      “I’d like to get away from earth awhile

      And then come back to it and begin over.” 

“…And begin over.”  Zacchaeus is desperate to begin over, but there is more to the story. 

If the entire gospel was reduced to nothing more than this story, the Good News of God in Jesus Christ would nevertheless be fully proclaimed.  In both word and deed, in this single vignette, Jesus defines and lives out his purpose on earth: “The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost” (19:10).  In this story, Jesus makes it crystal clear that no one is disqualified from God’s loving concern.  Reversing the values and expectations of his contemporaries, Jesus offers salvation and a place in the kingdom to anyone who will hear his words and recognize the invitation. 

The gospel says Zacchaeus was “lost.”  Jesus discovers him.  Zacchaeus discovers Jesus.  In a sense, Zacchaeus has gone out on a limb, risking the security of his office and making himself vulnerable to the scorn, if not also the violence, of his neighbors.  A hurried command brings the man down to Jesus and to safety.  The risky limb sitting gives way to the balance of God’s forgiving and accepting love.  Zacchaeus is a beloved, forgiven sinner, a restored child of Abraham and Sarah, a child of God.  For him, this knowledge is the root of all change.  Where Zacchaeus lives – at home on the ground or up the tree – is where God in Christ visits him.  So it is for us, each and every one of us, no matter how small or tall we may be, no matter how large our problems or our bankroll may be, no matter how real or imagined are our sins. 

Because of a hostile attitude toward tax collectors in general, then and now, this story is usually interpreted and presented as the story of one man’s repentance for becoming rich from dishonest financial dealings.  Recent scholarship, however, points out that both the Greek verbs that Zacchaeus uses in his response to Jesus: “I give” and “I pay back” are in the present tense not the future as they are usually translated.  It is, therefore, possible that Zacchaeus is already practicing a new kind of personal and professional behavior and that he is already giving half of his wealth to the poor and is paying back four times what he has defrauded others, as required by Jewish law.  The remaining problem for our reformed tax collector is that the crowd does not believe him.  The story can be viewed as a healing story about the restoration of relationships within the community rather than as a story of the repentance of only one man.  BUT…. 

In any corrupt, human system the loftier one’s position, the greater one’s complicity is in that system.  No one can be privately righteous wile participating in and profiting from a program that robs and crushes other persons.  Although our perception of Zacchaeus as an individual may change, we must still deal with the reality of his former participation within a system that perpetuated the oppression of his own people.  Simply, we are all in this life together.  Can any of us claim to be personally moral without any complicity with the principalities and powers of oppression – even within the church? 

Jesus accepted Zacchaeus, called him by name, and refused to treat him as a scapegoat for the problems of the whole society.  May we also allow our perceptions about people to be similarly effected.  Many times it is the system and not its immediate agents, towards which we should be directing our new perceptions of reality.  The gospel challenges us to change our perceptions about certain members of society and bout where the real problems lie. 

We would like to think that Zacchaeus got a new grip on himself, and a new outlook on life.  Did he really give up the tax farming business?  We don’t know!  The scripture suggests that he did.  But, then, why are we asking?  Are we really concerned about the man, or are we only giving subtle vent to our cynicism? Neither cynicism nor backsliding prevented Jesus from entering the life of Zacchaeus. 

Here in worship, we climb out on a tree limb, and, in the sight of God, make our confession as Zacchaeus did, promise to do much better, to make amends, to make restitution as Zacchaeus did.  Here there are no taxes to pay.  God’s love and forgiveness are free, gratis, pure gift and ours for the asking.  Every time we come to worship together, we give each other a little boost up the tree of prayer and help each other to climb into the sight of God. 

It can be a little crowded out on our limb.  But, here we are together.  Remember, the Good Lord does not ask for your name or your history.  God knows it already.  The Lord will, however, ask you to name the person sitting next to you on the tree branch. 

We may not know each other very well at all; but by being present here, together, one to the other, each one of us is in debt to the person next to us.  Our thanks to God in this worship service must include our mighty thanks, our humble thanks, to one another.  And at that moment, when we are face to face with Christ, Christ will say to each one of us, “I am coming to your house today.” 

If Jesus is going to come into our house today, we have to be ready to move some things out.  No more room for selfish attitudes, for personal interests, for competitive tactics.  No more room for empty or broken promises, for half-baked commitments, for lukewarm Christianity. 

The real meaning of salvation is not looking at what we are doing but recognizing what God has already done for us.  When Jesus is sitting across the table from us, we know already what we need to be doing for him. 

We know that it is a joy to do good for others, a pleasure to obey God’s will for our living, and a privilege to worship God for all God is still doing in and through us in the lives of others.  Amen.