Luke 19:1-10
“Payback”
October 30, 2022 Reformation Sunday
This sermon was composed before last night’s $825 million Powerball drawing – one in which 32 of my family members and I each kicked in $2 – for the long shot chance – about 1 in 292 million – that one of our numbers will make us a family of millionaires.
The fact that I’m here this morning means that we did not get rich overnight.
Mind you, we are not regular players of the lottery – we only go in together when the jackpot is over $500 million – we do have standards after all.
With today’s reading there are multiple entry points into the story.
For some of you, the words to that Sunday school song, “Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man” may be playing over and over in your head and probably will for at least the rest of the day – sorry about that earworm.
We might also enter the story with a focus on Zacchaeus’ profession – tax collector – the same as in last week’s parable only Zacchaeus would be even more despised by the folks in Jericho which was a major customs center because Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector.
This meant he managed a whole bunch of other tax collectors.
Jericho would have been a vibrant place where imperial taxes would have been collected as it was a major city for the trading of goods.
Tax collectors would pay the Roman Empire up front and then go about gathering the tax, of course always more than the Empire was owed.
All that extra tax they charged – that was how they made their living so charging as much as he could and getting a cut of what those working under him collected would explain why all that grumbling was going on when Jesus called Zacchaeus down from the tree and invited himself over for a meal.
The other defining feature in this story is the fact that we hear that Zacchaeus was rich.
Throughout Luke’s Gospel we have heard often about the rich – and not in a good way.
In Mary’s Magnificat when pregnant with Jesus we hear all the God has done – “he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”
When it comes to blessings and woes found in Luke 6, “…woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”
And then there was that rich man who after death witnesses the poor Lazarus who gets carried away by the angels to Abraham while the rich man is tormented for eternity and begs that his rich brothers be alerted so that they would change their ways to avoid the fate of eternal damnation.
The amazing part of this story, though, is that Jesus does not condemn Zacchaeus for his wealth but rather he declares salvation – not in some future time – but right now.
Zacchaeus doesn’t beg for forgiveness.
He makes, in front of Jesus and all his neighbors, a commitment of great generosity and justice.
He is giving half of everything he has to the poor and he will payback four times over anyone he has ever defrauded.
We can’t tell from the language used whether he’s about to start doing this or he already has been living this way.
The Greek translation is not “I will give to the poor” but rather “I give to the poor.”
The salvation that Jesus speaks of and that Zacchaeus in his spirit of generosity and justice is about much more than what happens when we die.
The salvation that Jesus comes proclaiming and living out – here using Zacchaeus’ as a prime example – may be our call to change our relationship with money and possessions.
If a rich chief tax collector who is reviled by his whole community can find it within himself to be more just and generous, what’s to stop us?
Another way of hearing this story might also be that acknowledging as followers of Jesus that those we have the most difficulty with, the ones we assume are wrong or even evil might need to be reconsidered.
Getting off the judgment seat and recognizing that role models come from all walks of life and that we always have something more to learn may also be a takeaway from this interaction between Jesus and Zacchaeus.
Jesus describes salvation as seeking out and saving the lost.
In the part of Luke’s account that was between last week’s reading and this week’s was the account of the rich ruler who rejects salvation because he can’t bear the thought of selling off his treasures and giving the money to the poor.
Jesus recognizes the dilemma uses the camel going through the eye of a needle as a measure of how hard it is and responds to the crowd who wants to know who can be saved.
Jesus responds that “What is impossible for mortals is possible for God.”
Maybe we are not leaning into God far enough.
Perhaps there is a way out of no way and we just haven’t figured it out yet.
Salvation is not just about heaven after our days on earth are over.
Salvation is what happens when we offer kingdom love and kindness and justice and mercy.
Jesus is saying that salvation is here and now.
On this Reformation Sunday when we mark the day 505 years ago when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the castle church door, we recognize that huge changes were set in motion.
One of the biggest things that happened was a breaking down of the boundaries between what was considered worldly and heavenly and between what was thought to be spiritual and secular.
Just as Jesus embodied – a God that people could see and hear and break bread with so too did the Reformation provide a context for experiencing God in the here and now, in the world.
This was in contrast to the distant God, one who the people could only access by going through a religious hierarchy.
Jesus met Zacchaeus where he was, just as he was, and in so doing, the work of salvation was lifted up by Zacchaeus righting wrongs and helping care for those most in need, whether he was just starting this practice or just revealing what he had been doing.
We are in the salvation business, too.
Not so much in saving souls – only God has that power.
Rather it is in valuing each other and caring for each other as God cares for us.
We are meant to figure out who needs our care and attention and then share that with a spirit of generosity and justice.
No one is beyond God’s love – that’s what we get to share.