PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

A Celtic Blessing

Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the flowing air to you,
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
Deep peace of the shining stars to you,
Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.
May the road rise to meet you;
May the wind be always at your back;
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
May the rains fall softly upon your fields.
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of God’s hand.

Luke 19:1-10

Jesus and Zacchaeus

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.”

“Zaachaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he…”

I grew up listening to that song in Sunday school.  It’s ingrained in my brainwaves.  Our Gospel reading this morning, Luke 19:1-10, is about the story of Zaacheaus.  And, I think we can find ourselves in this story.  I know I can…there are times in my life when I’ve been curious, when I’ve wanted to see what’s going on…and have found myself being discovered, or discovering something about myself.  

The writer of Luke wants its readers to see someone who is on the journey towards seeing themselves in a different way through the generosity of God.  By showing God’s love for those on the margins of society, the writer shows Jesus as being very generous and that invokes a response of gratitude.

Throughout Luke, there is a central theme on “seeking and saving the lost” in preceding stories before today’s passage.  Jesus’ perspective on what it means to be “in” or “out” is fundamentally different from what society at that time believed which is evident in the crowd’s “grumbling” about Jesus’ desire to stay with Zach who was considered a “sinner” and thus one who was ostracized to a certain degree in that society. Oftentimes in the church today, we can relate as we are called to love those on the margins and to call out, in love, those in power and on the “inside”.  

Luke’s gospel has been referred to as the “Gospel of the Outcast”.  Each time Jesus encounters someone marginalized, he sees something more in them than the culture of that time…he sees someone made in the image of God and created for relationship.  

Zacchaeus ran to the front of the crowd in Luke 19:4 and climbed a tree in order to see Jesus.  Was this because he was short or because he wanted others to notice him?  What was his stature in the community?  There is a “larger” narrative here than Zacchaeus’ physical size. In this passage, the Greek word for “stature” comes from “mikro” which means “small”.  In the NSRV this is translated as Zacchaeus being a small man or short.  It could it also mean that he was simply not well regarded in the community and was not looked upon with respect.  He was a chief tax collector, his job was to collect money owed to the government and he was “wealthy” as he collected more money that was required…and those around him resented him for that.  Yet, Jesus saw something deeper in Zach, his humanity and called it out.  

In verse 9, Jesus identifies Zacchaeus as a “son of Abraham” and that “salvation has come to this house”.  The Greek word for salvation in Luke 19:9 is defined in this verse as meaning salvation in the NSRV, it could also mean “preservation”.  It could also be referring to Jesus as being salvation.  The point is that he saw Jesus as Lord in 19:8 and Jesus saw him as a “son of Abraham” and he is somehow “saved” now.  This passage reverses the societal order and gives Zacchaeus validation as a “clean” member of the community. 

Zacchaeus, “with joy” welcomes him into his house as he asked to do.  Not only does he recognize that Jesus is Lord with words, he responds to Jesus’ request to come to his house with action. This joy and desire to act faithfully leads him to give away half of his possessions to the poor and to repay any he may have wronged in Luke 19:8, well beyond what was required by Jewish law. God sees faithfulness in an entirely different way than simply following all of the laws.  Faith has to be genuine and based on God’s generosity to us and his coming to us, not us to him.  Jesus sees a deeper faith in Zaachaeus on that day…a curiosity that led Zach to a deeper trust.

Recognizing God’s generosity as Jesus sees Zacchaeus brings a fundamental change, transformation, in the way Zacchaeus sees himself and how others may see him.   

Friends, on that day in Zacchaeus’ life, he died to his old self and was raised up into the beginnings of his new “self”.  It’s fitting to know that this transformation happens throughout life.  We all have the invitation to die to our selves at some point in order for new life to begin.  As we remember those that have died in the flesh, may we remember that their Essence, their souls, are in the Resurrection, the new birth of Christ within and all around us.  It is fitting that we remember these folks and then baptize dear Blakelee, remembering that that the cycle of life, death, and rebirth are a part of all of us…and that just as Blakelee’s baptism symbolizes humanity’s dying, being put under the water, that all of us also rise up with Christ out of the water into new life.  It’s an unending cycle…may we live in awareness of it, be awakened to it, just as Zacchaeus was.