December 14
Luke 19.1-10
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Having heard the story of how Rahab the prostitute was used by God in Joshua, a prominent story in the life of Israel as a nation, we might think that seeing God work in surprising places and surprising ways would become more natural. Or maybe it was only seen as a one-off event. Because here again we see the surprising place of God’s actions. One of their own who acts against his own. The dreaded tax collector.
We look back on it and see Zacchaeus changed by the encounter with Jesus. Paying back what he has stolen. Giving out of his wealth to the poor. Jesus commenting that one who was lost had been saved. And it makes me wonder about a pair of things.
The first is that Luke only focuses on the change in Zacchaeus. No mention of whether the people stop their muttering. We like to imagine that they began to change as well. Hearing Zacchaeus promise repayments and charity to the poor. Maybe just waiting to see if he followed through, as we often do when we hear promises from politicians.
The second is about us. Do we see our place with the crowd? We like to see our place with Zacchaeus. Which begs a different question, have we given half of what we own to the poor? But the real question is do we see the actions of God in others and rejoice. Even when those actions are by those outside of the church, or even harder, when it is the “wrong kind” of church.
Jesus welcomes Zacchaeus. Joshua welcomed Rahab on the word of the spies. How will we welcome the presence and actions of others who respond to God from places that worry us? Jesus welcomes. Will we follow him in that way as well?
Song – Zacchaeus
Prayer
God, our Father, the One who comes in your name comes again with grace and power, with forgiveness and strength, with truth and imagination, with gentleness and love. May the coming One enter the hearts of those who wait with quiet expectation for all that is good and holy and just. Amen.