November 11, 2007
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng of the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
If you are like me, you have no time to take the scenic route. We get from Point A to Point B in a straight line. When we key in our GPS, we push the “Most Freeway Used” to get to our destination as fast as we could.
When Joy and I went on our honeymoon over 35 years ago from Boston to Virginia, we didn’t have GPS in those days. We had AAA Triptik! Remember those multiple little pages that give you a zoomed-in view of each segment of your trip? They would draw this green line over the routes we are supposed to take. Well, because we were so busy with our wedding plans and just trusted whatever AAA navigated for us, we just got on the road and followed each page of the triptik. After driving for many hours, we began to realize that the triptik took us on a scenic route going away from our final destination. We were in Lancaster, PA! At that point, we had our very first fight after becoming husband and wife!
We went way out of our way to West Virginia and it took us the rest of that day to get us back on the right direction to our destination.
Jericho to Jerusalem
In our lesson for today, we have the very familiar story of Zacchaeus. As is always the case of exegesis, one discovers that well-known stories contain unexpected treasures upon closer examination. This is no less true of the story of the “wee little man, the wee little man was he,” who met Jesus on the road to Jericho.
Jesus on his way up to Jerusalem passes through Jericho. If you take a glance at a map of the Holy Land, you will find that this is a very odd way to get to Jerusalem from Galilee. Jericho is far down hill from Jerusalem. Jesus might have been using one of those AAA triptiks! Jericho was a wealthy city built by King Herod. In other words, Jesus is going out of his way. He wasn’t going from Point A to Point B in any straight line.
Two weeks ago in Luke 18:9-14, we heard about the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The tax collector was a sinner and as he begged for mercy, Jesus proclaimed that he was justified because he humbled himself. Jesus said, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Today lesson is about a chief tax collector, the person to whom the tax collector from two Sundays ago would turn in the collected fees, tariffs, and taxes. Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector was very rich. While he was very rich, he was probably very corrupt too. And for that reason, he was probably the most hated person in any town. But Jesus took time and went out of his way to visit Jericho so that he might meet Zacchaeus.
Physical Walls
Much has been said about Zacchaeus’ stature. He was a “wee little man, a wee little man was he.” Zacchaeus tries to see Jesus but he cannot on the account of the crowd. The crowd was blocking his vision from seeing Jesus. This may not simply be an accident but the crowd’s disdain for Zacchaeus may have led these people to intentionally obscure Zacchaeus’s line of sight. If they had their way, the crowd might have blocked Jesus from seeing Zacchaeus. They acted like a physical wall. While they clearly wanted to see Jesus for themselves, the crowd was determined to make sure another person they deem unworthy would not be able to see Jesus.
Now let’s not be too soft on Zacchaeus either. He had as much to be blamed for the crowd not liking him. There are not many walls that are higher and more formidable than those that rich people construct around them because they feel they are better than others. In California, we have many gated high wall communities. Zacchaeus was a man of small stature but he was wealthy and powerful as the chief tax collector.
Even with such wealth and status in town, Zacchaeus climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Maybe because he was so hated by the crowd who saw him as a traitor to his people who exploits others for his own good that he was willing to endure the teasing of others to climb up a sycamore tree. Imagine how funny it must have been for the crowd to see their chief tax collector was up in a tree!
But then it was Jesus who looked up and saw Zacchaeus and announces that it was imperative for Zacchaeus to welcome him into his house.
Jesus goes out of his way to not let the crowd block him from seeing Zacchaeus. Jesus goes out of his way to look between the heads in the crowd to see Zacchaeus up on the tree. Jesus goes out of his way to see a puny little man with little self-respect for himself up in a tree. It was not Zacchaeus who invites Jesus to come to his house, it was Jesus who goes out of his way and invited himself to visit Zacchaeus’ house!
The theologian Paul Tillich talks about salvation as “You are accepted.” God who is greater than you accepts you. You didn’t do anything. You didn’t perform anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted. This is what grace is. Jesus is the host and Zacchaeus is the guest in his own house. Jesus accepts Zacchaeus even when the crowd didn’t. Jesus accepts Zacchaeus even when Zacchaeus didn’t like or accept himself.
Grace
When Joy and I were on our honeymoon, we were lost somewhere between Boston and Hampton, Virginia. Zacchaeus is a man who had lost his way.
Lost means that one is in the wrong place. Zacchaeus was in the wrong place when he took more money from the people than he should. He was in the wrong place when he lost the trust of his fellow citizens. He was in the wrong place when he neglected the needs of others especially when he had so much to give. He was in the wrong place when he didn’t follow John the Baptist’s instruction to the tax collectors to “collect no more than the amount prescribed for you” in Luke 3:13.
The unexpected treasure of this story for us is to identify with Zacchaeus. The United States is the chief tax collector in the world. Many countries owe us money and are unable to get the debt off their backs for economic recovery. Our multinational corporations are making more people billionaires than ever before. And while none of us here might say that we are the rich and famous, the mere fact that Joy and I went on a honeymoon or that we can go overseas for a vacation or that we can afford to take weekends off, we are better off than most of the people in the world. We don’t call California the “Golden State” for nothing!
But the good news from this story is that “The Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost.” Jesus goes out of his way to save Zacchaeus. When we seek after Jesus as Zacchaeus did, we too may catch Jesus’ eyes. We would be in the right place where we can get a good look at Jesus.
Whereas the Gospel is almost uniformly critical of people with riches, this story tells us that salvation comes to a very rich man who was also very bad. The qualification to be embraced by Jesus is not that one be good or poor. The one qualification to be found by Jesus is to be lost. Both rich and poor can receive that grace.
Transformed Lives
Zacchaeus dismounts from the tree and according to Luke, he stands up tall. He raises his chest and throws back his shoulders to increase his stature in the eyes of the crowd and in the eyes of Jesus. We expected that he would invite Jesus to his home for a fancy dinner like we might do. But rather, he proclaims that he would give away his belongings and repay what he took unjustly.
This grace isn’t cheap. Jesus comes to us just as we are, but he doesn’t leave us just as we are. Zacchaeus is transformed from a taker to a giver, a most generous, gracious giver. He gives half of all his possessions to the poor and makes restitution to anyone whom he has defrauded by giving them four-times as much back. Because God’s grace to Zacchaeus was so generous, the only response he could make to God is to be generous too.
John Calvin sees Zacchaeus as a man who “is changed from a wolf not only to a sheep, but even to a shepherd.”
What might we do today? As Jesus offers us salvation, we too respond with a repentant and changed heart. And our lives become completely transformed. We are no longer the old person we are; we are new persons in Christ. We have a new way of living in the world that is grounded in the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. We are not lost anymore.
There are many ways that our new living might take, but let me offer just one. One way this story in Luke suggests that we respond to God’s gift of salvation is to align ourselves with the poor and the outcast, just like Jesus himself did, and like Zacchaeus also promises to do.
In a world in which darkness and tyranny are still the norm for so many, we can go out of our normal way of life and stand up with and for those who need the presence of Christ the most. Indeed as saved sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, we are called to such lives.
We stand in solidarity with the Burmese people. We stand in solidarity with the innocent Iraqi people. We stand in solidarity with those who are paid unfair wages. We stand in solidarity with immigrants and migrants who contribute to this society and still have no vote. We stand in solidarity with Jesus who stood up for Zacchaeus even when the crowd ridiculed and hated him.
It is so easy to follow the clearly marked middle-class lives that we have and never get lost. Zacchaeus did that but he realized that there was still something missing in his rich and dishonest life. He sought after Jesus and Jesus went out of his way to bring him salvation. The only way we are going to receive salvation is to know our neighbors who may be poor, disenfranchised, marginalized, and lonely. We need to go out of our safe and comfort zones to stand in solidarity with those whom Jesus sought and stood for.
One of the most frightening experiences my family and I had in New York was when we drove through the Holland Tunnel and the people who waited for us while we were in traffic were the city’s unofficial car windshield washers. Our kids were quite young at this time. After I waved the washer off, he insisted to wash our windshield and when I refused to pay him, he took his squeegee and dented our car door. This traumatized our kids. I share this experience not so that I might blame all New Yorkers for denting our car nor to expect some delayed apologies. I share this story because I need to confess publicly that I should have treated this man more respectfully.
This reminds me of another story of a Presbyterian pastor who saw a man named Roger standing on a street corner soliciting donations from drivers that stopped at an intersection. Seeking to avoid Roger, because his appearance frightened her, she was finally “caught” by him. Probably because she was wearing her clergy collar, Roger asked her to pray for him. She asked his name, saying that she needed to know his name in order to pray for him—and asked him to pray for her. When Roger approached her car another day, she called him by name. Roger was visibly amazed that she remembered and went away shouting, “She knows my name! She knows my name!” I pray that in God’s mercy that someday, I will learn the name of the car windshield washer who welcomed me to New York.
God’s grace is not cheap because he gave his only Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. Jesus could have gone straight to Jerusalem without making a stop in Jericho and Zacchaeus would not have received salvation. Jesus could have bypassed Jerusalem altogether and avoided his arrest, trial, denials, and Calvary itself. But Jesus goes the way of God’s will and took upon himself all the sins of the world so that Zacchaeus and all of us here would be able to find our way home to God. Jesus is not bypassing San Francisco today.
Going Out of Our Way
One of the childhood games that I can still remember playing is “1,2,3 Red light.” Someone who is “it” turns his/her back from the rest of the group. The rest of us would take steps as far as we could without the person who is “it” turns around and catches anyone who is still running or moving.
The reason why we all love this story is that we can identify with Zacchaeus. We find that we are seeking God like Zacchaeus. You may not have climbed up a tree to see Jesus, but you have come to church this morning to see Jesus and that’s good. This story says that if you would take just one little step toward Jesus like playing “1,2,3 Red Light,” he’ll take a giant step toward you. Jesus will come in and be with you, eat with you, no matter what the world thinks about you.
Perhaps one of the greatest sins of being an American is our pride. We are the richest empire in all of human history. If Zacchaeus, a rich grown-up man with the backing of the Roman authorities, would suffer the indignity of climbing up a tree to see Jesus, might we, members of the wealthiest of humanity willing to come and see Jesus too? Just as Zacchaeus was willing to climb up a tree like a little child might do, are we willing to climb the cross, a tree that is “folly to the Gentiles” (1Cor. 1:23) but a tree of the cost of discipleship?
Let me tell you a modern-day parable. One day, a shopper at the local outlet mall felt the need for a coffee break. So she bought herself a little bag of cookies and put them in her shopping bag.
She then got in line for coffee, found a place to sit at one of the crowded tables, and then, taking the lid off her coffee and taking out a magazine, she began to sip her coffee and read.
Across the table from her a man sat reading a newspaper. After a minute or two, she reached out and took a cookie. As she did, the man seated across the table reached out and took one, too. This totally surprised her, but she smiled and didn’t say anything.
A few moments later she took another cookie. Once again the man did so, too. Now she was a bit irritated. He should get his own cookies and not presume upon her good nature.
After having a couple of sips of coffee, she once again took another cookie. So did the gentlemen seated near her. Now she was upset—especially since now only one cookie remained. Apparently the man also realized that only one cookie was left. Before she could say anything, he took it, broke it in half, offered half to her, and proceeded to eat the other half himself. Then he smiled at her and, putting the paper under his arm, rose and walked off.
Was she steamed. Her coffee break ruined, already thinking ahead of how she would tell this offense to her family, she folded her magazine, opened her shopping bag, and there discovered her own unopened bag of cookies.
If Jesus comes to us and sees us as sinners, then we need to go out of our way to see others too. If we are going to stay close to Jesus, share bread and wine at his table, then we better be willing to be close to sinners—sinners on the inside of the church and sinners on the outside of the church. Setting aside our self-righteousness, Jesus comes to us with grace and mercy even when we don’t know it like the woman who ate the gentleman’s cookies.
He has come to seek and to save the lost. So if we want to be close to him and not get lost from him, we’ll have to be willing to share him with others who may be lost. People don’t have to be lost when we go out of our way to share Jesus Christ with them.
Let us go out of our way to seek the lost because Jesus goes out of his way and comes to San Francisco to seek after us. Jesus doesn’t need an AAA triptik to find San Francisco. When we repent and realize that we have so much to give to others who are in need, Jesus will also proclaim that we are sons and daughters of Abraham, God’s family. By such sharing, amazing grace, salvation comes to my house and your house this day and always.
Let us pray.
We give you thanks, O God for your mercy and grace. We are grateful that you would go out of your way to come and see us. Draw us near to Jesus so that we may have the faith and commitment to go out of our ways to reach the lost and to bring peace and reconciliation to many. Amen.