Sermons always deliver very differently than they are written, but here is Sunday’s transcript, even though a bit different from Sunday.

Zacchaeus
Luke 19:1-10

Zacchaeus has always been a Sunday School story. I remember the song that I sang as a kid and my daughter sang as well. But the only message that really stuck with me about the story was that Zacchaeus was short.

But there is so much more to this story than Zacchaeus’ stature. The Jews in Jesus’ time were pretty unhappy about Roman rule. Even though it had been a very long time – hundreds of years by now – since they had possessed the land and ruled it themselves, it was deep in their story as a people that this promised land should be theirs, and that one day a great king would rise up and deliver them from the oppression of occupying rulers and re-establish the throne of David. Being forced to live under the thumb of Rome and having to pay taxes to these foreign pagans was a great burden.

And the tax burden was made worse by the general corruption of the tax collectors – who were often Jews who were looked on as betrayers of their people for collaborating with the Romans. Why would a Jewish man want to join in helping the pagan oppressors? Money. The system of tax collection was designed to be corrupt. The Romans would auction off the job in a particular area to the highest bidder. They didn’t provide a salary to the tax collector, but gave him power to collect as much as he could get above and beyond what was required by Rome. Tax collectors were despised because they were able to get very rich by exploiting the poor and demanding money from people at their own whim. They were generally greedy, ruthless and hated. So when we read that Jesus was a “friend of tax collectors and sinners” that wasn’t really considered a virtue in his time, even though it has taken on a sentimental tone to us who are removed from the context.

So here we have Jesus coming through the city of Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. His reputation has preceded him and excited crowds are gathering around him. Zacchaeus can’t see, so he does something rather undignified for a man of his situation and climbs a tree to get a view of Jesus. Of all the people in the crowd clamoring to get a view of Jesus, the one he picks out is probably the most hated in the entire community. And the people don’t appreciate it. The most undeserving gets the greatest honor! Is Jesus really the great person we’ve thought him to be?

But I think the grumbling stopped pretty quickly when the people saw the result of Jesus’ actions. Zacchaeus’ natural response to the presence and attention of Jesus with repentance. His sin has been exploiting his own people, of his own community in order to get very rich. He gives away half of his possessions to the poor, and will pay back four times what he has cheated from people. His words in the Greek text have implications into the future – that this is not a promise of the moment, but a change in his behavior going forward.

And here is where the story makes a profound turn – Jesus declares that salvation has come on his house, and that he is truly a Son of Abraham.

So what is salvation? We have spent the past couple of days talking about evangelism in our class at school, and what the message of the gospel is. According the Jesus, the good news is that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The expected response to this good news, is to repent and believe. Zacchaeus responds to Jesus with a faithful repentance shown by a transformation of his behavior. He will no longer oppress the poor and he will make right what he has done wrong. And even above that, he will give away half of his possessions to the poor.

How does this compare to what we have heard about salvation in church? What have we always been taught to do that would bring us salvation? How is this different from what we read in this passage?

Jesus also restores Zacchaeus to his community. By pronouncing that he is truly a son of Abraham, he restores his connection to those around him. He is no longer a ruthless collaborator with the enemy – he is one of them again, a true son of Abraham. This is a beautiful work of reconciliation.

In this story, who do we most identify with? Are we one of the crowd, resenting and grumbling the attention that Jesus gives to someone we hate? Are we Zacchaeus, aware of the ways that we collaborate with the oppressor and hoard our wealth and harden our hearts to those in need around us? Are we like Jesus, who seeks out the most hated of society?

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We shared some beautiful conversation about salvation and reconciliation and the ways that this story challenges us.

This week following communion we talked about the value of Redistribution – what happens when people begin to love each other across class lines. We talked about resources and what it looks like when resources are justly distributed in a community. We talked about the resources we have already among us, and how we might work toward using those resources in the future. We talked about the relationship of redistribution to reconciliation and relocation.

We talked about our desire to make sure that our finances as a church reflect our values, and while we didn’t feel that we were ready to come to consensus on a particular percentage, that we will be deliberate about setting aside and protecting a portion of our church’s income for direct needs.

Since the youth snow trip got canceled due to, well… snow, they got their gear on and got to spend much of the day playing out in the park across the street. We had a spontaneous inspiration to put on a big pot of soup, made a trip to the store for some additional food, and had a really fun afternoon cooking, eating, and laughing together following the service.