2022.10.30 |“Dining with the Down & Out”
“Dining with the Down & Out”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ, Hayward, California
Reformation Sunday 2022
October 30, 2022
This story about Zacchaeus is one of my favorites. It’s one of the first Bible stories that I remember hearing and studying. Perhaps you, like I, learned the children’s song and hand gestures that go with the song about this unlikely disciple.
Zaccheus was a wee, little man,
And a wee, little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree,
For the Lord he wanted to see.
And as the Savior past that way,
He looked up in the tree,
Spoken: And he said,"Zaccheus, you come down from there,"
Sung: for I’m going to your house today!
The call of Zacchaeus is among my favorite Bible stories because it is so scandalous that card carrying Christians--true believers--struggle with it. They--we--struggle because we have a hard time accepting God’s grace, especially when we deem it undeserved.
Ironically, in today’s passage and several others in the gospels, those who--on the surface--seem to need God’s grace and mercy the most are more able to readily embrace it than those who have always walked the so-called “straight and narrow.”
Notice, for example, how Luke explains in chapter 19 verse 7 that everyone in “the peanut gallery” heard Jesus tell Zacchaeus to come down from the sycamore tree, because he was going to his house that day. Rather than celebrating Jesus’ decision to visit with Zacchaeus, Jesus’ followers grumble and criticize him saying, "Jesus has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner."
II
To better understand the nature of the scandal that unfolds in Luke 19, it’s helpful to know more about the role of tax collectors in first-century Palestine and how persons in this role were perceived. For these insights, l turn to Professor R. Alan Culpepper, Dean Emeritus of the Theology School at Mercer University, in Atlanta, Georgia.
In his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Professor Culpepper explains that tax collectors in those days played a dubious role in society. For example, he writes:
Roman officials contracted with local entrepreneurs to collect the prescribed indirect taxes, tolls, tariffs, and customs fees in a given area. [They]…were required [by Rome] to pay the contract in advance. [The chief tax collectors]… then employed others to collect the taxes with the hope that the amount collected would yield a profit. The system, not surprisingly, was open to abuse, and Jews who collected taxes for the Romans were assumed to be dishonest and were hated by other Jews for their complicity with the Gentile oppressors. (Ibid., pp. 356-357.)
As a result of how the tax system was structured and operated by the Romans, tax collectors, like Zacchaeus, were not generally liked or trusted, and were treated as outcasts. (R. Alan Culpepper, Luke, in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX, 356.)
Imagine, then, how surprised Zacchaeus, and the crowd, were when Jesus ordered Zacchaeus to come down from the tree, because he was going to his house that day.
To go to someone’s house, Professor Culpepper explained, assumed that the host and the visitor were friends, that their relationship was mutual, and that there was reciprocity in the giving and receiving of each other’s hospitality. Outcasts and members of the status quo did not mix in first-century Palestine. They were not equals. They did not have mutually reciprocal relationships.
So what in God’s name was Jesus doing at Zacchaeus’ house? Jesus was a devout Jew, and a citizen of Israel. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, a disappointment to his people, and an outcast. Why did Jesus even associate with him?
The answer is simple, according to Luke, Jesus was fulfilling his calling.
Jesus was sharing the good news of God’s redeeming grace. Jesus was showing and telling Zacchaeus, and the audience around them that he was calling disciples based on their potential, not their credentials.
Jesus was inviting Zacchaeus to fulfill the vision that God had for one and all. Rather than dwelling on the tax collector’s past, Jesus was focusing on his future. Rather than banking on Zacchaeus’ resume, Jesus was trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit to work in and through his life to build the kin*dom of God.
III
There’s a story told around seminary campuses that always strikes fear in the hearts of young preachers. It goes like this:
There was once a preaching professor who required each of their students to deliver a 20-minute extemporaneous sermon for their final exam in homiletics class. To make the experience more realistic for these students who were headed into parish ministry, they held the exam in the seminary chapel instead of a classroom.
The students were asked to draw straws to determine the order in which they would deliver their sermons. Then, one by one, each student was called forward in numerical order to randomly select their scripture that was written on one of several index cards that the professor had prepared before class.
After each seminarian had drawn their scripture, they climbed up the high pulpit via its winding staircase, and they were expected to immediately begin delivering their sermon. Their classmates listened tentatively and empathetically, while their professor scrawled a few notes on a sheet of paper, and wrote the students’ exam grades in the grade book. No pressure.
There were 15 students in the class that year. Each took a turn at the exercise with varying degrees of success. When it came time for the 15th student to preach, they picked up the last index card in the professor’s basket. The student studied the card carefully as they climbed the pulpit steps. When they got to the top, the student put one hand on each side of the pulpit, slowly scanned the congregation, and said in a strong, clear voice: “My text today is Luke 19:1-10, the story of Zacchaeus. Like this famous tax collector, I find myself up a tree.”
To be sure, both Zacchaeus and the seminarian were up a tree, but the story doesn’t end there, because they were well suited for ministry. They both knew that they were living under the mercy of God. They both knew that they were in need of God’s grace. The young preacher couldn’t yet deliver a sermon at the drop of a hat, but he was eager to learn--and he had a sense of humor and could laugh at himself.
Similarly, Zacchaeus knew that his life was far from exemplary, but he was willing to do the self-reflection needed to name his wrongdoings and amend his ways. In chapter 19 verse 8, Luke says to Jesus, “Look, half of my possessions,...I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”
Through the lives of both people, we see the Good News of the Gospel unfolding: it is when we feel the most vulnerable, the most ill equipped, and the most contrite, that God can and is able to do God’s best work in and through us. And as a result, we experience healing and growth, and the vision of God’s beloved kin*dom comes into clearer focus. Thanks be to God. Amen.