Sermon of the Month - September 2009
Come As You Are (Back to Church Sunday, 2009)
Reading: Luke 19:1-10
What do you think of those bankers who are giving themselves fantastic bonuses, or trying to do so, even after they’ve gambled away millions of our pounds? What do you think of Bernard Madoff, the man who made off with $50 billion – the biggest swindle in history? If you’re honest, you’re probably not too keen on the people who have been making fast money by causing hardship to others.
Zacchaeus was that sort of a man. His scam was to collect money for the Romans, and skim off what he could get away with. That’s what tax collectors did in Roman-occupied Palestine 2,000 years ago. And they’d got the entire might of the Roman army to protect them. The Romans wanted their money, and they were happy that the collaborators got their unfair share. Indeed Zacchaeus was more than that: he was a chief tax collector – top man in that corrupt zone. If you resented having foreign soldiers bossing you at every point, these cheats were the people you really hated – traitors who sold their souls for a quick buck.
But of course Zacchaeus would have got rich quick by that method. He had wealth, and in his own circles he had the staus and influence to match. But money is never enough. Even success, status, and powerful friends are never enough. There’s something about us human beings that means that material prosperity and success is never enough.
We don’t know exactly why Zacchaeus climbed that tree to see and hear Jesus, but we can make a pretty good guess: he was curious. No doubt he’d heard about this unconventional rabbi, the man who had even called another tax-collector, Levi, nicknamed Matthew, to be one of his trainee leadership team. And he was curious. What was it about this religious man that could attract Levi, and make a tax-man want to quit the trade? What was it about this holy man that would actually want to have a tax-collector in his group? They say he’s a prophet. But what kind of prophet behaves like that. Questions, questions – and Zacchaeus wants some answers.
And now he’s heard that Jesus is actually coming this way. Fantastic? No! Zacchaeus is not going to succeed! He’s too short to see over the crowd, and far too unpopular to be allowed to get anywhere near Jesus. How frustrating! Then he sees his chance. The milling crowd is slowly moving forward, and Zacchaeus sees it is going to have to pass right next to a tree which he can climb. So he can wait there. He won’t hear everything. Who knows? It may be completely irrelevant. Jesus may be answering some tedious lawyer’s question. Still he decides to give it a go. He will wait. At least he will see and hear.
And then he gets far more than he bargained for. Imagine you’re Zacchaeus. You’re up that tree. You’ve never seen Jesus, and he’s never seen you. You don’t what he’s like; but now you get your first chance to see him and hear him. The crowd gets near; the plan works: Jesus is right by the tree, and you can actually see him and hear him. How do you feel? And then Jesus stops whatever he’s saying, and looks up straight at you. And then he calls out, “Zacchaeus!” The prophet calls you by name! What do you feel? ‘Now I’m in for the high jump! He’s a prophet. I’ve never met him and he calls me by name. What’s he going to say. Oh! Something like, “Zacchaeus! Thus says the Lord! By the hand of the Romans you have cheated the poor, and by the sword of the Romans you will die!”.’ Well Zacchaeus, that’s what you’re expecting. But this is what Jesus says: “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” And now one shock turns to another. The shock of the expected rejection replaced by the shock of unexpected invitation. To eat with someone, to share table-fellowship, to be their guest was a very high form of acceptance. Zacchaeus’ initial shock of apprehension immediately gives way to a shock of delight. Disbelieving delight, perhaps? No! The call is genuine. He can’t get down fast enough. The man who called Levi is calling him, and something inside him tells him that this is the missing thing in his life, that money, influence, power, prestige, wealth could never fill.
Zacchaeus is not the only one who is shocked. The crowd is dismayed. They know Zacchaeus, and all his scams! Jesus can’t be a prophet! He’s just invited himself to the house of the most hated man in town. But Zacchaeus proves them wrong: in that moment of encounter Jesus has changed him forever. The man who lived for money now treats it like confetti. “Right now,” he says, “I give half of all my wealth to the poor. And if I’ve cheated anyone I’ll give back not just the quarter extra the rules demand, but four times the sum.” To cap it all, Jesus uses a phrase that would not be lost on all those Jews listening. He calls this ex-villain a “Son of Abraham” – in other words a true Jew, a true man of God. And then he makes his own mission statement in this. ‘The Son of Man’ was a neat phrase – on the lips of Jesus it’s a roundabout way of saying “I”. But it also carries some promises from the old prophets about the Messiah. When Jesus says “the Son of Man”, he says, This is how I am going to be the Messiah. And he says “The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.”
Jesus says to Zacchaeus, and to the crowd, to you, to me to everyone here, to everyone who will listen: “Come as you are!” Zacchaeus did not have dress up or pretend. He did not have to try very hard to be a good man before Jesus would turn to him. He came as he was, with all his faults. He came to Jesus, and Jesus accepted him.
And he will accept you and me if we will dare turn to him open and ready for him to turn to you and invite you down from your tree.