SERMON 15 - SUNDAY 14 OCTOBER 2012

Sermon at St Mary’s Church, West Dean -  Morning Worship – Sunday 14 October 2012

Luke 19:1-10

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable to you oh Lord. Amen [Psalm 19:14]

I had quite a wide choice of biblical texts available to me as the basis for this morning’s sermon – indeed, the reading given by the lectionary for today was the very one I preached on last week at Whiteparish – except that it was Luke’s and not Mark’s interpretation of the meeting with the young rich man which we heard last Sunday.  In fact, I invited the congregation to fast forward from that reading from Luke to the next chapter where we meet Zacchaeus.  It’s very rare that I am ever ahead of myself, but for once that is exactly where I appear to be.  So having read and researched a little about Zacchaeus I thought that I would share that with you this morning as well as reflecting on my thoughts from last week.

But turning back a chapter, you will remember that in last week’s reading we heard that the rich young man had been told by Jesus that if he wanted to have eternal life in the Kingdom of God he must sell EVERYTHING! and distribute his money to the poor and only then come and follow Jesus!

He had asked a simple question – what must I do to have eternal life? - but the answer which the young man got was quite unexpected. EVERYTHING!  Yes EVERYTHING, ALL YOUR POSSESSIONS!

At face value that means that all of us who live in what we would all agree is quite an affluent part of Wiltshire, and on a larger scale an incredibly wealthy part of the world, appear to have no hope whatsoever of entering the Kingdom of Heaven or having eternal life.  In the words of Private Fraser of Dad’s Army – we’re all doomed!  Doomed unless we sell everything and become monks or nuns I guess.  The young man says to Jesus – “I have kept all the commandments given to Moses since my youth – I’ve been a good boy.  I have never done anything which would displease God”.  Surely he is an A* candidate for eternal life.  At the end of the passage, the young ruler cannot bring himself to give everything away and follow Jesus and so consequently he disappears off the pages of the bible never to be heard of again.  Jesus has one last thing to say though, which can only add to our discomfort “How hard is it for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!  Indeed it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God”.  Yikes, most of us are indeed doomed it seems!

But, in the following chapter we meet our “old friend” Zacchaeus.  Perhaps that isn’t such a good introduction because he certainly wasn’t a friend to many.  Indeed he was the chief tax collector – therefore a collaborator with the Romans and by his description a person who cheated and swindled his countrymen out of immense amounts of money which he kept for himself.  He was a thoroughly despised individual.  We also know, from his description, that he was quite short in stature.

Zacchaeus has become quite a well known character in Sunday schools and I can well remember drawing a crayoned picture of him stuck up what I thought a fig tree should look like.  Actually I also remember my picture had an aeroplane in it as well which I was politely, though firmly, told wasn’t around in Zacchaeus’s day and wasn’t something which would have been seen.  How boring the Holy Land seemed to seven year old! 

Just as my picture was unusual, so were two aspects of the story as told by Luke.  We are told that he “ran ahead to climb the sycamore tree” because he wanted to see “who Jesus was”.  What strikes me here is that Zacchaeus did two things which would not normally have occurred in those days and which would have exposed him to ridicule from the outset – first of all running – running would have seemed a very undignified act for a grown man (we also read about this happening in the story of the prodigal son too) – and to climb a tree would have been out of the question, just like my aeroplane.   

Those who witnessed these events must have looked on with amusement and glee – a horrible little man so hated by all and sundry - running along because the crowd won’t let him through and then climbing a tree like a monkey! 

We are not told exactly what it was that compelled Zacchaeus to act in this uncharacteristic and undignified way. In all probability he simply didn’t want to miss out.  We can only surmise that knowing Jesus was coming to his home town of Jericho he wanted to see what all the fuss was about and climbed the sycamore tree for a better view.  I don’t suppose for one moment he expected the outcome that happened – Jesus, as he passes the tree looking up and telling him that he must get down, go home and prepare his house for Jesus to dine and stay with him.  What a shock that must have been.

By inviting himself into Zacchaeus’s home, Jesus is, in fact, doing exactly what he has told his disciples to do in his first commission in Luke 10:5-6 – When you enter a house first say “Peace to this house.  If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him, if not it will return you”.

Jesus is demonstrating precisely what he expected and still expects from his disciples today – household evangelism. Going out and spreading the good news to people where they are. Note, he doesn’t say to Zacchaeus, “I would like to stay” but “I must stay” indicating a divine imperative. Zacchaeus was so humbled as a sinner that during that visit he agreed to give away half of his possessions to the poor and pay back four times as much to everyone he had swindled.  Judging by his immense wealth he would probably still have some left over for a relatively comfortable life but still, what an amazing turn around this was.

Likewise, what an amazing turn of events for those looking on.  For one moment they would have enjoyed the wonderful humiliation of seeing Zacchaeus acting like a primate at Monkey World and then in the next breath, experiencing intense envy and jealously, not to mention incomprehension, that Jesus is going to eat and sleep at this sinner’s house. Again this is an echo back to the grumblings of the Pharisees earlier in the gospel when they complain that Jesus surrounds himself with “ne’er do wells”, prostitutes and other “low life”.  Jesus offers Zacchaeus, who merely wanted to see Jesus, an opportunity to be recognized prominently before the whole of the community. Jesus exalted a man who was prepared to stoop so low in social graces as to climb a tree to see him.

This contrasts significantly with the story of the young ruler from last week. 

The young ruler had, unlike Zacchaeus, observed all the commandments – he hadn’t stolen anything and certainly not cheated or swindled anyone like our short tax collector.  It is interesting that with the notable exception of Zacchaeus, the poor and needy always seem to get the blessings of God whilst the rich, wealthy and influential struggle.  The young man is told to give away ALL of his possessions.  I think that in that case Jesus is emphasising that the trappings and lifestyle which often accompany wealth sometimes make it difficult to understand the sacrificial nature of giving.  Zacchaeus on the other hand must have sacrificed a lot to give away half of his wealth.  He was despised, unloved and to humbly go to all those whom he had swindled and say sorry must have been truly difficult – in a similar way that restorative justice can often be harder on the criminal than community service or a jail sentence.  Just imagine the humiliation he faced.

The young man was equally being asked to make a sacrifice.  Perhaps the only sacrifice he could make. At face value, it does seem very harsh and unfair but when compared with Zacchaeus’s sacrifice maybe we can see it for what it is.

How much do we want to see Jesus? How much do we love God? That’s the question.  He loves us unconditionally yet we often fall short in our love for him and our service to him. Being Christians isn’t easy.  We are required not just to talk the talk, but walk the walk. When we don’t we are often labelled hypocrites. That was what Jesus was doing when he chose to call down Zacchaeus from that tree – a man who had so wanted to see Jesus that he was prepared to humiliate himself in order to do and to extend that humiliation to humility by paying back what he had swindled from his fellow Jews. Jesus was walking the walk.

As we leave this church today let us each of us, during this period of stewardship and beyond, ask ourselves, and God through prayer, about what sacrifices we can make to show our love.  How can we humble ourselves and be ready to accept his call to service. It might not be giving more money, it might be a greater devotion to his word, it might be the use of our skills and talents which we have so far not used to their fullest extent but have hoarded for ourselves and our own self glorification. Like Zacchaeus we are not called upon to give everything away but we are called upon to sacrifice our greed, envy, mean spiritedness, or selfishness and give our life for him who gave his life for us. Like Zacchaeus, we will be given prominence and reward in Heaven if we only answer his call to serve him and serve others here and now during our Earthy existence.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, it is so hard for us to find the source of our true wealth in you.  Fragile beings that we are, we often feel so insecure when we take steps outside our own comfort zone. We know that it is not all about money, Lord; but about our willingness to offer you freely anything that occupies the central place in our lives and therefore excludes you.  Give us honesty and courage in our consideration of this matter, Lord Jesus, that we may, like Zacchaeus, have cause to dance in our trees.

Amen