AUG. 28, 2005 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
EZ 11:14-20; PS 25:1-10; ROMANS 12:9-21; LK 19:1-10
Seek and You Will Find
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we believe and in believing we 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.
When Jesus began his ministry, he was a breath of fresh air. Unlike most TEACHERS of the day who filled their lessons with what others said, Jesus taught as one with authority. Unlike other PREACHERS who praised the piously proud, Jesus “comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable” (Finley Peter Dunne).
Unlike GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS who sought to confirm their own careers, Jesus was devoted to the downtrodden. And unlike PROPHETS who rebuked the reprobates, Jesus was known as a friend of the fallen.
Jesus was a mystery…to the good and bad, to his enemies and friends. And by this late date in Luke’s Gospel, he has attracted attention from every group along that spectrum, from those who loved and praised him, to those who loathed and hated him.
Today’s account of Jesus’ interaction with Zacchaeus comes very near the end of his three years of ministry, the end of his life. He is making his way up into Jerusalem like a lamb that is being led to the slaughter. From here on out, everyone will clearly be a follower or a foe, until the day when Jesus finds himself surrounded by soldiers and fellow sufferers at the cross.
So this tidbit of time with a tax collector is important because in it, Jesus’ ministry comes full circle: he ends it where he began it, demonstrating clearly in word and deed an important truth about God in our lives.
Would anyone want to share with us their vision of this truth of God in our lives? Here’s mine in a nutshell: God loves all people, but is especially concerned about seeking and saving the lost. Let’s take a look at the text to see if my theory holds water.
v. 2 Tax collectors in general…Z was a chief tax collector…and was rich.
v. 3 Z wanted to see Jesus: driven by faith? By curiosity? Short ???
v. 5 What does Jesus do? Speaks to him 1-to-1. Invites himself to Z’s house
v. 6 Pleases the tax collector (scorned person blessed by popular icon??).
v. 7 All grumbled – holy man eating with a sinner
v. 8 Z promises: ½ possessions to the poor, 4X amount if cheated.
v. 9 Today salvation has come…because of promise? lineage? faith?
v. 10 Son of man came to seek and save the lost.
Listen to what the theologian Frederick Buechner says about our vertically, morally, relationally and reputationally challenged Zacchaeus.
(He) appears just once in the New Testament… one of the few places in the Gospels where we’re given any visual detail. We’re told that Zacchaeus was a runt…That is why, when…the crowds gathered to see (Jesus), Zacchaeus had to climb a tree to get a good look.
We’re also told that Zacchaeus was a crook – a Jewish legman for the Roman IRS, who (following the practice of the day) raked in as much more than the going tax as he could get and pocketed the difference. When people saw Zacchaeus oiling down the street, they crossed to the other side.
The story goes like this. The sawed-off shyster is perched in the sycamore tree. Jesus opens his mouth to speak. All Jericho hugs itself in anticipation of hearing him give that man holy hell. “Woe unto you! Repent! Wise up!” that’s the least of what they expect…
What Jesus says is, “Come down on the double. I’m staying at your house.” The mob points out that the man Jesus is talking to is a public disaster… Jesus’ silence is deafening.
Buechner continues, It is not reported how Zacchaeus got out of the tree, but the chances are good that he fell out in pure astonishment. He said, “I’m giving everything back. In spades!” Maybe he even meant it. Jesus said, “Wahoo.”
The unflagging lunacy of God. The unending seaminess of humanity. The meeting between them that is always a matter of life or death… and usually both. The story of Zacchaeus is the gospel…It is the best and oldest joke in the world (Beyond Words, Frederick Buechner. Harper: SanFrancisco, 2004, pp. 423-424).
Why would Buechner call this story the best and oldest joke in the world?
For one thing, Zacchaeus thinks he’s getting away with something. His initial self-interest is simply to get a better look at the miracle-worker. Then he kind of gets caught up in the spirit of impressing this holy man. And before you know it, he’s making promises he’ll never be able to keep.
I love the words he chooses. “IF I have defrauded anyone…” pppfffttt! The only way he made a living was by cheating people. Yet Jesus accepts Zacchaeus’ self-serving statement as if it were 14 carat gold, 99 44/100ths percent pure Ivory soap, money in the bank. And then he proclaims, Today salvation has come to this house…
What brings salvation to the house of Zacchaeus? Is it because of his promise, his pledge, his assurance? We all know what they say, that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. No, says the Lord, salvation comes to the shyster’s house simply because he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save…the lost.
“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).
Zacchaeus is saved not by his pulp-fiction 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 give life to those who have died. To seek and to find and to save…you and me.
Then Jesus calls us to seek and find others who are lost, to share this “best and oldest joke in the world” with the world that all people might hear it, and laugh, and believe. Amen.