Seeking to See, Seeking to Save - 10/30/22

2022.10.30 “Seeking to See, Seeking to Save” (Luke 19:1-10), Michael Newheart, FBCEG.

Jesus was in transition. He left ministry in Galilee, and he was on his journey to Jerusalem, where he would die, rise, and ascend. Just before entering Jerusalem, Jesus passed through Jericho, where he met Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was seeking to see Jesus, but Jesus was seeking to save him. Today we will look at Jesus' encounter with Zacchaeus, with a view toward what the story has to say to us today in our transition.

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, going through Jericho. You may remember that Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling' down. The name Jesus is another form of the name Joshua. What walls would this Joshua, this Jesus be pulling down?

Luke says that there in Jericho was a man named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and was rich. Luke has already shown Jesus hobnobbing with tax collectors. These people helped the Roman oppressors and were considered by many as "sinners" (Luke 15:2). Zacchaeus, or Zack as I like to call him, was a "chief tax collector." He supervised the tax collectors. He was a lynchpin in Roman occupation. And he was rich. Jesus has already said, "Woe to you who are rich" (6:24). So, Zack is a chief tax collector, whom Jesus likes, and rich, whom Jesus doesn't like. How will he respond to Zack?

Zack was seeking to see who Jesus was. Why? Was he curious? Did he consider Jesus a holy man? Luke doesn't say. Apparently, there was a crowd outside gathered to see Jesus, but Zack was a short-stuff, and he couldn't see over the crowd. So he ran ahead on the parade route and climbed a sycamore tree. Now this is interesting: a rich man climbing a tree. So Jesus came and looked up and saw Zack and said, "Hey Zack, get down here 'cuz I MUST stay at your house today!" Jesus says, "MUST!" Or “it is necessary.” Jesus says that a lot in the Gospel of Luke. The very first time that Jesus appears in the Gospel of Luke, he was in the temple at age 12. His parents had been searching for him, and when they found him, his mother said that they'd been “searching for him anxiously." Jesus said, "Didn't you know that I MUST be in my Father's house?" (2:49). Jesus in Luke operates under God's "MUST". He operates on the divine necessity. And it is necessary, by God, for Jesus to stay at Zack's pad today. Today is the day of salvation for Zack and his house (19:9). Yippee skippee! So Zack hurried down from that tree in order to welcome Jesus into his house. 

But the people watching, the crowd, began to grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. "He's gone to be the guest of a sinner man!" This guy's rich and he's a chief tax collector. What is Jesus doing with him? He should be with us! These are like the scribes and the Pharisees, who grumbled at Jesus' association with sinners, and to them Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost--or prodigal—son (15:1-32). People were grumbling at Jesus. Grumble, grumble, grumble. I remember back in the late 70s or early 80s, Pope John Paul II was making his first US tour. He was scheduled to go by--but not stop at--a small Polish town outside of Chicago. Townspeople gathered along the route. The television news talked to one woman. She said, "I know that the holy Father will stop and bless me." But the time came, and the Pope went right on by, just as his schedule said. The news reporter talked to this same woman. She said, "Dang it! I wanted a blessing!" And apparently so did this crowd at Jericho. They grumbled that the holy man Jesus was cavorting with one whom they considered a sinner.

Zack doesn't take kindly to being called a sinner. He makes a vow to the Lord Jesus: "Half my possessions I give to the poor, Lord, and if I defraud anybody, I'll pay back four times!" Is Zack speaking about what he customarily does, or is he making a promise, based on Jesus' favor to him and the crowd's grumbling about him? It's hard to know. Whichever Zack said, Jesus celebrated it. He said, "Today salvation has come to Zack's house because he too is a child of Abraham." Now is Jesus saying this because of what Zack said? Jesus had already said that today he was going to stay at Zack's house, and then he says that today salvation has come to his house. Today is Zack's day! Oh boy! He has won the lottery. But better he has won Jesus and salvation! No matter what the grumblers said about Zack as a sinner, Jesus said that he's a son of Abraham, a member of the chosen people of God.

Jesus calls Zack a son of Abraham, and Jesus calls himself Son of Man. Another way to translate that is Human Being. This is the typical way that Jesus refers to himself in the first three Gospels as Son of Man, or the Human Being. Jesus doesn't refer to himself as Messiah or Christ or Son of God but as Son of Man, as the Human Being. And this human being, this Son of Man seeks and saves the lost. Zack was seeking to see Jesus, but Jesus is seeking to save Zack, who was lost. So Jesus circles back to the parables of the lost sheep, lost coin, lost son. There people say, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, my coin that was lost!" Jesus as the Human Being goes in search of the lost, such as Zach, and saves them.

Where does this story find us in the transition? I find that when I read this passage aloud, I have the most energy for the grumblers: “All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner” (19:7). Grumble. Grumble, grumble. In bible study this past Wednesday a participant said that they identified most with the grumblers. I think that this person was speaking for many in Bible study. It is simply human to grumble, grumble, grumble. With these Jericho grumblers, they were happy with the fact that a holy man had taken up with a sinner. How dare he! Holy man/sinner man! The two just don’t go together! Our grumblings, as human as they are, often come from rigid judgments. “Well, that’s just not supposed to happen! Holy people are over here, and unholy sinners are over here, and they do not mix.” Sometimes we become lost in our negative judgments, lost in our grumblings.

But the Human One, the spirit of Jesus, seeks us out and saves us in our grumblings and assures us of grace. God shows love to all, even us, in our negative judgments. Even us. So we forgive ourselves. We forgive others, accepting that grace and extending to others. Grumble, grumble, grumble becomes gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. We may still grumble, and that’s ok, but our grumbling is in the context of gratitude and grace.

Today many Protestant churches are celebrating Reformation Sunday, and Martin Luther famously said that the believer is at the same time justified and still a sinner. Or as someone has said, the line between saint and sinner goes right through all of us. Can we love the sinner and the saint within all of us? If so, then we can go out in the community and proclaim God’s grace to our neighbors, but only after we have extended grace to ourselves and to one another here in the church. Grumble, grumble, grumble becomes gratitude, gratitude, gratitude.

I have been reading Providence, Rhode Island author Ann Hood’s novel The Knitting Circle. Someone here in the church recommended it to me. As many of you know, it is the story of Mary Baxter, whose only child Stella has died at the age of five. Mary is lost, and she grumbles at life. But she finds grace, acceptance, love in a knitting circle in a Providence knitting shop. Other folks in the circle tell their stories, and they knit together the fabric of community. And Mary and others in the circle are healed. In some ways, Mary is Zacchaeus, up a tree in her grief. She is also among the grumblers. But love finds her, community finds her, as it does all of us, so that our grumble, grumble, grumble becomes gratitude, gratitude, gratitude.

And all God’s people said, Amen.