MARCH 18, 2007 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
Isaiah 9:2a-7; Psalm 32:1-7; Hebrews 2:1-10; Luke 1:57-67
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we may believe and in believing we may obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
As I mentioned in the announcements, the Stewardship theme for this month is to focus on our ten favorite stories of Jesus’ ministry. At first it was going to be our ten favorite stories from the whole Bible – but that proved to be a little broad. So the focus quickly narrowed to just the New Testament – but, even then, there’s far too much good stuff to choose from. Next came the idea to limit our search to stories just about Jesus – but that, too, was a daunting task. The events of his birth and death alone would fill up most lists of ten before we got to anything else.
So, the decision was finally made to choose ten favorite stories from Jesus’ ministry. Would anyone like to guess which texts made my list? Remember my hint: they include one extended teaching moment, three parables, three healings and three encounters with people.
Matthew 5 The Beatitudes
-The Blessed R’s plus the magnification of the law (You have heard
it said, ‘You shall not kill.’ But I say to you…)
Luke 10:25-37 Greatest Commandment/Parable of the Good Samaritan
-Love God/neighbor as self; Who acts like a neighbor? The Samaritan.
Luke 15:11-32 Parable of the Prodigal Son
-The offensive eagerness of the father to forgive/welcome the lost.
Luke 20:9-19 Parable of the Vineyard
-If owner =God/son=Jesus, then why does God forgive the world?
Matthew 15:21-28 Canaanite Woman’s Daughter
-Jesus cures illness; dogs/crumbs; Jesus=color/creed/race blind
John 9:1-38 Healing of Man Born Blind
-Blind man sees; seeing Pharisees are blind
John 11:1-44 Raising of Lazarus
-Jesus’ power over death
John 3:1-21 Nicodemus
-spiritual new birth = gift from “above”
John 4:1-42 Samaritan Woman at the Well
-first evangelist=woman of questionable past & a Samaritan
Luke 19:1-11 Zacchaeus
Let’s take a closer look at Zacchaeus – our vertically, morally, relationally and reputationally challenged friend. What do we know about Zacchaeus before he meets Jesus?
-short -rich -tax collector -cheater -despised -????
Tax collectors were the scum of the earth, Jews who had betrayed their country and religion by becoming toadies of the Romans. Their job was to collect money for those foreigners, but on top of that they were allowed to take whatever they could get – and no one could stop them.
In a previous congregation, I got to know a member who was an I.R.S. agent. His job was to check that people were paying what was legally right – and he did not have a lot of friends. Imagine how lonely he’d be if he could have collected whatever amount he wanted!
This account of Jesus’ interaction with Zacchaeus comes very near the end of his life. He is making his way up to Jerusalem like a lamb that is being led to the slaughter. From here on out, everyone will clearly be a follower or a foe, a friend or a fiend, until the day when Jesus finds himself surrounded by soldiers and fellow sufferers at the cross.
So this experience is very important because in it, Jesus’ ministry comes full circle: he ends where he began, demonstrating clearly in word and deed the truth about God’s commitment to seek and save the lost.
When Zacchaeus hears the hubbub and sees the jam-up of people trying to see Jesus, his knows that his short legs and shaky reputation will get nothing but elbows and glares. So he runs down the road and climbs up a tree to…what? Why do you suppose he wanted to see Jesus?
The text doesn’t say – but it does tell us that when the Lord stopped under the tree and invited himself over to this shyster’s house, all who saw it began to grumble about his desire to eat with such a sinner (19:7). But with that simple suggestion, that gentle gesture, that intentional intrusion into the interests of this irritating and insensitive imp, something happens!
Nothing is said about what is said between the two men, nor about the cause or credibility of Zacchaeus’ conversion. But there is something biblically poetic about the way that God continually calls crooks, convicts and cads to complete the course of the Kingdom.
Whatever happened and why, we would say that it’s nothing short of a miracle. Says this man who, only moments ago, had been widely known as a sneak-thief and snake-in-the-grass, Half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I’ve cheated anyone, I will pay back four times as much (v. 8). And Jesus says Today salvation has come to this house…for the Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost (v. 9-10).
Is this pronouncement by Jesus the result of a quid pro quo, a business transaction, an example of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours? In short, does the Lord bless the tax collector because of his promise to change his ways? No, the blessing began when Jesus said, Hi – get down out of that tree – I’m coming to your house for lunch!
Zacchaeus is saved not by his promises or his laundry list of good intentions, but by God’s intention to make the last first, to bring the lost home, to give the most to the least, to make the little feel big, to give love to those who are hated and life to those who have died.
“In other words,” says the theologian Robert Capon, “Jesus brings Zacchaeus back down to the only ground on which he can possibly stand and receive a favorable judgment: the ground of the last, the lost, the least and the little” (Parables, p. 416). Jesus comes to find us, that we, too, might join him in seeking out and finding all who are lost. Let us pray that our eyes and mouths, our hearts and arms, our hand-bags and wallets, will be so opened as well. Amen.