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Sermon October 30, 2022
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
21st Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 26, Track 2
https://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp26_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__October_30__2022
Video: https://youtu.be/6TNQO8IeK0k
He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax-collector and was rich. Luke 19:1-2
Please be seated.
As most of you know, I attended the University of Kansas and I am a Jayhawk fan, especially when it comes to college basketball. Now I was a fan before I even went to the University. You see, when you live in Kansas, you really need to choose. Are you for Kansas State – Kstate or are you for Kansas – UK??? So, when I moved to Kansas and didn’t even know where I’d go to school for my Master of Social Work degree, I chose to be a fan of the University of Kansas.
I was studying for my Master’s degree and it was finally basketball season. I was able to get lower priced tickets for a game. The seats would be in the student section. I was so excited to go to my first game in person. Prior to that I’d only watched on TV. Yet, to my dismay, the students in the student section stood for the whole game. And the seating was not done by height, so I could not see most of the game. I was too short.
In our Gospel reading today, we hear of Zacchaeus, a rich man and a tax collector in the city of Jericho who was short. Jesus was in Jericho on his way to Jerusalem…on his way to the cross. He had walked from Galilee for a number of days. It is at least 85 miles. Now, he was just over the hill from Jerusalem, about 20 miles and probably a day’s walk. Jesus knew he was going to the cross.
Jericho was known as a city for the rich and wealthy. I read that often people who were living in poverty would line the streets of the city to request money from the wealthy people passing through. Whatever the reason, the word was out that Jesus was passing through and people gathered to get a glimpse of him.
Zacchaeus was short and couldn’t see, so he climbed a nearby sycamore tree. Imagine what would have compelled him to climb a tree!
What happened next is also amazing! Jesus, midst the crowds, saw Zacchaeus. He saw Zacchaeus in that tree. Right then and there, he told Zacchaeus to come down from out of that tree. Jesus said that he, and I imagine his disciples, were going to have dinner at Zacchaeus’ house that day!
I wonder what kind of panic ensued when he unexpectedly brought Jesus and the followers to Zacchaeus’ home for dinner.
But it was an honor and also unexpected for Jesus to choose to go to the home of a tax collector. We talked about this last week. The tax collectors were reviled. They were aligned with Rome and often overcharged. Even then no one liked to pay taxes and if the taxes were onerous or unfair, imagine the hatred of the person collecting them. Especially if that person had a wealthy lifestyle.
In any event, just in Jesus noticing Zacchaeus and telling him he would come to his home, Zacchaeus knows how he must change his life practices. That encounter of being noticed, even, we could say, being sought out, and then being chosen for the honor of visiting his home, does something to Zacchaeus. Maybe he had been contemplating a change all along and just wasn’t sure if it was the right thing or wasn’t sure exactly how to make it happen. Maybe he knew what he needed to do would affect how he lived his life…maybe what he perceived to be his economic security and even.
That encounter with Jesus prompted him to take action. He’d sell half of his possessions – half of his stuff and give the money to those living in poverty. Then, if he had been unfair to anyone or committed fraud in his tax collection, he would repay that person 4 times the amount!
There is such a controversy in our country about economic reparations for those whose ancestors were enslaved or affected by the Jim Crow laws in this country. Yet, our Gospel example of Zacchaeus is interesting – if I have defrauded, maybe substitute made a fortune off of the unpaid or underpaid labor of anyone, I will pay back four times as much. Just something to think about.
Zacchaeus was changing his relationship with his possessions, with money and with the people in his community. He was rearranging his priorities. He was acknowledging his past and taking action to change his life in ways that affected him personally and professionally as an individual, but also in ways that profoundly affected his whole community. He was changing how the system of tax collection had been working in that community, for instance.
And that’s what an encounter with Jesus can do, so following Jesus isn’t always easy. We are asked to look at our resources and how we use them. We are asked to let go of some of our ideas of what we need to live. We are asked to take stock of our community and provide help and assistance when we can. We are asked to change the way systems work when they harm people.
Notice what Jesus says in response to how Zacchaeus will change his life, “Today salvation has come to this house….” That is the reward of this hard work. We will be saved and that is something to rejoice about.
Amen
