Out on a Limb for Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1-10                                                                       October 31, 2004

         Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

         When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

         All the people saw this and began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner.' "

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

         Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

CCI: Jesus was reckless with his love and lives were changed.

You remember the song from Sunday School, don’t you? Sing it with me if you do.

         Zacchaeus was a wee-little man and a wee-little man was he.

         He climbed up into a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see

         And as the Savior passed that way he looked up in the tree

         And he said, “Zaccheaus, You come down.”

         For I’m going to your house today, for I’m going to your house today.

Of course I remember learning it with the last line, “I’m going to your house for tea!”

         The song made Zaccheaus seem like the winner of the lottery, Jesus chose him, the nice little man that could not see over all the other people. And when Jesus went with him, he went to have a pleasant lunch of tea and crumpets. In fact I can remember acting that story out in our back yard because we had a nice climbing maple in the yard.

         That is a nice story, but it is not the story Luke tells us.

         Instead, the way Luke tells it, Zac was not a nice little man, and the time Jesus spent with him was not a pleasant lunch with tea and crumpets.

         Zaccheaus was actually a hated little man. Throughout his life, he had not been given a break. He was “vertically challenged” as the expression goes today. And then, as now, short people received little respect. I image that as a child he was passed over by his friends, as teen he was passed over by the girls who were seeking husbands, and as a young adult he was passed over for the jobs that were available in Jericho.

         But Jericho was a unique city. It was an oasis at the mouth of the Jordan River. Known as the City of Palms, the dates and fruit that were grown in Jericho was traded by caravan all across the world. The Roman presence in the city was strong, but the economic value of the city, and the cosmopolitan nature of the city meant the Romans did not have to do much to keep the residents in line. They were prosperous. But the most prosperous was the tax collector.

         In West Virginia in 1983 when I moved there, each county sheriff was responsible for collecting the property taxes. He was given a minimum amount that he was to collect, and after he brought in that minimum he was permitted to keep a percentage of the remainder. As you can imagine, the system was at times abused. In the Roman Empire, the tax collection system was very similar. In each district there were a number of tax collectors assigned to assess the taxes of those who lived or did business in Jericho. In the Roman tax collecting business there were many levels of tax collectors. There was a person who worked the street, then there was his supervisor who may have been in charge of 10-12 other tax collectors. Over the supervisors was a manager for a region. At each level, the tax collectors would collect Rome’s share, and then they would add a percentage for themselves. The Region Manager, took a cut from every tax paid in the region. He quickly became a very wealthy man.

         He also became a very hated man for three reasons. One, he was rich and people were jealous of him. Two, the fees he charged were in essence extortion. And three, though tax collectors in Israel were Jews, they were working for the Romans, they had, in the minds of the people, sold out to Rome.

         Probably because he was, in the words of the song, a wee-little man, as a child Zac had learned to survive in the streets. And so it was a very natural step to begin collecting taxes until soon, he was the regional manager. He was rich, he was influential, he was known by everyone in town, but he was hated. It was a lonely existence for the little man. Oh, he tried to make the best of it, he wore the finest clothes, he walked especially slowly, his entourage followed him wherever he went, his presence was announced, but if they had a chance, the people would give him a hard time.

         However, on the day Jesus came to town, Zac’s whole life changed. He had heard of Jesus. He had heard that Jesus had healed people, some even suggested that Demons listened to him. He wanted to see the man. But the crowd was big, and the people in the crowd seemed even bigger. What could he do? Well, he did something that no respectable person in Palestine would do, first he ran ahead of the crowd. The more status a person had, the slower he would walk, but on this day, so that he might see Jesus, this little man ran ahead of the crowd, and then he scrambled up into a tree that spread out over the road. And there from his perch, Zac waited for Jesus. He heard the crowd begin its cheer, perhaps he heard the chanting of one of the Psalms of Ascent that were sung by pilgrims heading to Jerusalem. “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From whence shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord Who made heaven and earth.”

         He could see the crowd drawing near, and then, in the front of the crowd, there was Jesus, there was a sense of peace about him, suddenly just seeing the man caused all he self doubts to begin to melt. There was something about this man. Then Jesus stopped and looking up at the little man in the tree, he said, Zaccheaus, come down, I want to go to your house today.

         How would you have responded to that invitation? The man had run a big risk just going out to see Jesus, now Jesus wanted to see his house? That is where he kept his books, that’s where he entertained his other tax collectors. But it seems that without even thinking, he climbed down and led Jesus and the disciples to his home. There he fed him and entertained him, and there he declared that his life had been changed. It was changed because he had encountered Jesus. It does not say Zac stopped being a tax collector, but he did become different kind of tax collector. His life was transformed because he encountered the love of Jesus.

         And that is the message in this story for us today. When Jesus chose to go to Zac’s house, he was not making a move that would win him friends or influence people. In fact, as soon as he went there, the religious leaders became very indignant. “How can he do that?!” “Eating with sinners?” Jesus’ love for Zacchaeus was ill-advised. There were a whole lot of other people he could have gone to eat with, but he chose an outcast who was hated by the community, and Jesus chose to love him, we might say he chose to love recklessly.

         But his reckless love, changed Zacchaeus. It was risky for Jesus to love and reach out to Zac. There was risk in asking for the invitation, there was a risk to his reputation, there was a risk to his disciples, yet loving this rejected man, was worth the risk. Jesus did not know how Zacchaeus would respond, he simply chose to love him. Jesus also risked loving others as well. He risked loving the rich young ruler, and that man went away sad. Reckless love can change lives, but it may also be rejected.

         CS Lewis in writing about the risk of love said, "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to be sure of keeping your heart intact—you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries, avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safely in the casket of your selfishness. And in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will not change, it will not be broken. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable and irredeemable. The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from the dangers of love is hell."

         When Jesus loved Zacchaeus, that love transformed the tax collector, and that is the power of reckless love.

         Two years ago, at a conference in San Diego, I met two youth leaders who were talking about the presentation we had just experienced. Dr Tony Campolo had shared some stories of risky love that he claimed were his own. One of the youth leaders at my table said, “He has so many stories, I have to believe most of them are fiction.” The second young man said, “No, if you put yourself in a place where God can love recklessly through you, you will be amazed at what he can do.

         He then told us of being in a diner the year before and a group of friends were preparing to eat their meal and as they got ready to pray, they simply asked the waitress, “Mary, we are going to pray over this food, while we are praying, is there a prayer we can offer for you?” And the waitress broke down in tears, asked to go on break and they had a wonderful time of ministry with her. Why? Because they were willing to love recklessly.

         On Wednesday morning, Howard Perkins shared a story with me, that I would like you to hear this morning. Howard would you come?

That is a story of reckless love. But it is a story that we can make our own. Each day you encounter people who need to know that they are loved. They may be the people you work with, or maybe the people you walk with. Maybe your neighbor, or a person in a nursing home. Reckless love like the love Jesus shared is risky, but the fruit is worth every part of the risk.

         Jesus went out on a limb for Zacchaeus, is there someone God is calling you to go out on a limb for?

         Let us Pray.

         Each day, we are given the opportunity to reach out and risk loving others for God.

Citation: C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves