32nd Sunday after Pentecost / Zacchaeus Sunday / St. Euthymius the Great / 1 Tim. 4.9-15; Luke 19.1-10
F/S/HS. Brothers and sisters, hard to believe: Today is Zacchaeus Sunday, the Sunday that begins our five week march to the start of Great Lent. Five weeks where mother church gives us a wealth of counsel in preparation for entering into that season of seasons, dedicated to humility and repentance, fasting and almsgiving.
This morning the story of Zacchaeus. Next Sunday the Publican and the Pharisee. The third Sunday, the Prodigal Son. The fourth Sunday, the Great Judgment. And the fifth and final Sunday, Forgiveness Sunday. Followed that next morning with the start of Great and Holy Lent.
And so this morning: Zacchaeus’ encounter with our Lord. Jesus has entered the community of Jericho, where Zacchaeus lives. He is passing through Jericho.
When we first meet Zacchaeus, Matthew’s Gospel in no way narrates him a pleasant man, never mind a righteous or virtuous man. For at least two reasons. First, Zacchaeus is a tax collector (v.2). That Matthew so blatantly names Zacchaeus’ vocation is his way of informing his reader just how despised Zacchaeus is by the local people.
Remember a few weeks back, when John the Baptist is baptizing in the river Jordon. Do you remember who is the first group of persons to approach John, asking him what they must do related to their baptism? It was the tax collectors (Lk. 3.12-13).
Teacher, what shall we do? these tax collectors ask John. And John’s answer:‘Collect no more than what is appointed for you’ (v. 12). In other words, John well knows of the practice of many tax collectors to bilk the people by collecting from them far more taxes than should be collected. Self-enriching! Stealing! What our church fathers and mothers refer to as the passion of avarice: Love of money.
Which is why Luke then goes on to identify a second dishonorable characteristic of Zacchaeus, in the same sentence wherein he names him a tax collector, saying now that Zacchaeus was rich (v. 2).
Then the following verse, v. 3, Luke piles it on by noting that Zacchaeus, who wants to see Jesus, will be unable to because he is of such short stature. Zacchaeus is a tiny man who won’t be able to see over the top of the crowd when Jesus passes through Jericho.
Let’s pause here dear ones, as I want to render the portrait of Zacchaeus’ short stature as narrated by our church fathers and mothers. Zacchaeus’ short stature is not just a reference to his short physical size. Rather, it is a commentary on just how tiny and truncated Zacchaeus’ spirit has become, by the time he meets Jesus.
Short stature is Luke’s way of identifying that Zacchaeus, somewhere along his life journey, has forsaken his deepest identity in God. Zacchaeus, you, like all of us, you are made in the image of God. Your deepest identity is in God; your deepest identity is to become light as God is light. Your truest destiny is the measure and stature and fullness of the One you are about to meet, Jesus Christ. But you, you Zacchaeus have forsaken that identity; you have forsaken your destiny.
And, too, you have forsaken your namesake. Do you not remember that the name Zacchaeus literally means the pure and innocent one. You, however, are anything but pure and innocent! Which is precisely why Luke records that you are a man of such short stature; a man who is but a tiny shadow of who he is supposed to be.
A warning to all of us, dear brothers and sisters; a warning to watch and remain vigilant, lest we too shrink and become of short stature.
The one redeeming quality in Luke’s opening narrative about Zacchaeus is that something in his soul wants to see Jesus. Like so many of us, maybe Zacchaeus, after the psalmist, has a heart [that] is restless until it finds rest in Thee O God.
Maybe something deep in your spirit, Zacchaeus, lacks contentment, leaving you restless and anxious. Maybe this one Jesus, who so many call a savior, a prophet, a holy man, has answers for your restlessness? Which is why you are taking time out of your day to go and catch a glimpse of Him.
I smile! Because don’t we know what happens when people, throughout the Gospels, come into contact with this one Jesus. Either they outright reject Him, or they are drawn to Him like moths to the light. Because that is what is going to happen to you, Zacchaeus, when you meet Jesus in a few minutes.
A smart man by IQ standards, Zacchaeus devices a plan: To go ahead of the crowds and climb a sycamore tree, so that he can look down on Jesus when He passes by. Our Lord then does indeed pass by. But now he stops. And looks up. And sees Zacchaeus. And calls him by name. Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house (v. 5).
How many times in the Gospels does Jesus call someone by name … only to have that person then become His Disciple! How many times does our Lord call out to those who are sinners, and loves them as He does, thus beginning their transformative healing!
And how many times are those who witness Jesus’ love for the sinner scandalized that He would reach out to try and bring such a scandalous lost sheep back into the flock.
Which is exactly what happens in Zacchaeus’ case, when the crowds hear that Jesus wants to be a guest at Zacchaeus’ home. V. 7: But when they saw it, they all complained (other texts say murmur), saying, ‘He has gone to be a guest to a man who is a sinner.’ Still, after all of this time with Jesus, the people have a hard time understanding who He is, that He has come to save sinners!
Zacchaeus’ transformation begins. And rapidly blossoms. V. 6: And Zacchaeus received Jesus joyfully. V. 8 brims with the radiance of a Zacchaeus as he was created to be, full of grand stature, no longer of short stature. He boldly declares to Jesus and to the murmuring crowd that he will give half of his goods to the poor, and if he has taken anything from anyone by false accusation, he will pay it back fourfold (v. 8).
Now, now Zacchaeus will enter into that journey named in this morning’s Epistle, in Paul’s letter to Timothy, where Paul exhorts Christians to become an example. Be an example, Paul says, in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity (1 Tim. 4.12). This will now become Zacchaeus’ task: To be that example; quite the opposite example of who you once were as someone of short stature.
And the task of the people, of the Church that Jesus and His Disciples will found, will be to accept this former scoundrel Zacchaeus into their midst, just as the prodigal son’s father received his wayward son back into the family (Luke 15.11-32); just as Jesus filled the spirit of the Samaritan woman Photini with the living water of eternal life, in spite of her terrible track record with multiple marriages (Jn. 4.1-26); just as the early church accepted the Apostle Paul in spite of his murdering ways with Christians after he, like Zacchaeus, was touched by the transforming love of this one Jesus.
Dear ones, dear sisters and brothers, every Gospel story is in one way or another about us, about you and about me. So too the story of Zacchaeus. Perhaps we too are Zacchaeus the scoundrel, of short stature. Or the restless Zacchaeus, yearning for something more in life. Or one of those murmurers who zeros in on the moral impropriety of the various Zacchaeus’ in our midst, victoriously naming the speck in their eye while ignoring the log in our own eye. Or perhaps we are the Zacchaeus who is now striving to become a role model of righteous conduct to others.
Thank God for the story of Zacchaeus and his encounter with Christ. So much in this short but rich story. So much to invite us to: To the fullness of the stature and measure of Jesus Christ. And so much gratitude down in our heart for the mysterious ways of God with Zacchaeus. To our Lord be all glory, honor, and worship, He who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
