Seek and Save the Lost

October 30, 2022
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Luke 19:1-10[1]

Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, was known for colluding with Rome and skimming from the top of the collections. He was rich but despised, an outcast among his people, called a sinner by the grumbling crowd. We don’t expect a happy ending for Zacchaeus.

Jesus has criticized the rich several times already in Luke’s Gospel. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God… But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation” (6:20, 24). Remember the parable, “The land of a rich man produced abundantly” (12:16)? And of course, there’s the one about the rich man and Lazarus (16:19-31). We expect a rebuke of Zacchaeus, and actual rich man standing before Jesus, caught red-handed if you will.

And yet, there is something different about Zacchaeus. He is the twist in the parable, the turning of the tables. We expect a rich and powerful man to push his way to the front of the crowd, or stand whispering in a doorway with the other rich men of Jericho as Jesus passes through. Instead, discarding all decorum, Zacchaeus runs ahead to climb a tree, just to get a good look at Jesus. And not only did he see, he was seen! Jesus called up to him, called him by name, and honored him by staying at his house.

A more pompous or self-righteous person might be apprehensive of what Jesus might say to him, a powerful rich man. Instead, “he hurried down and was happy to welcome him” (v. 6). The crowd was shocked by the social outcast being honored by Jesus. But Zacchaeus was joyful, overcome by love, and declares his lavish commitment to generosity. He will give away half his possessions to the poor, and repay his fraud with four times as much. Not with grudging acquiescence, but with a smile on his face and light in his heart.

“Salvation has come to this house,” announces Jesus (v. 9). Zacchaeus was who he was, but he is a child of Abraham, just like the rest of the crowd. He belongs to the family of God. He may have been lost, but now he has been found, and that is worth celebrating. After all, that is the mission, “to seek out and to save the lost” (v. 10). In seeking out Zacchaeus, Jesus shows the extravagant love of God who seeks out the lost, searching for those who have wandered away, because they still belong to the family of God.

We often focus on finding God, finding Jesus. We may think of ourselves as lost, seeking for the one light, for salvation. We stumble around in the dark, not noticing that our eyes are closed. Perhaps we’ve wandered away looking for quicker, easier, more seductive ways of life. What we have forgotten is that Jesus is looking for us. Jesus is seeking for us, walking miles and miles to find us, again and again. And it may only take opening our eyes or climbing a tree for us to be seen, to be found, to be called by name.

You may recall how, in the parable of two who went to the Temple to pray, the Pharisee bragged of his righteousness: “I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income” (18:12). He already thought of himself as righteous, justified, saved. Here we see a different response. Zacchaeus, who has not been so righteous before, has changed his ways. “I will give to the poor… I will pay back four times as much” (v. 8). In this moment, standing before the Lord, in the midst of the crowd grumbling about this sinner, Zacchaeus has been transformed. Without any sense of arrogance, and without being asked, he pledges his fortune in restitution for his crimes, in repentance for his sins. He is changed, and his mended heart will be seen in his new commitment to kindness, justice, and generosity.

We might think of repentance as the work required to earn God’s love and salvation. Here we see a better definition. Repentance is an act of gratitude for the grace extended by God. It can be an act of remorse, but it can also be an act motivated by joy. I messed up. I want to do better; I want to be better. And thanks be to God, I can be. The thing I find to be important is to remember that God doesn’t need us to pay back God for what we’ve done wrong. It is the people we’ve harmed who need our restitution. It is the poor we’ve ignored and those we have cheated who need our acts of repentance. It is our community that must see the change in us. God already loves us, has sought us out save us. Now we must commit ourselves to acts of justice and love among God’s people in thanksgiving and in joy.

Come, Lord Jesus, come and fill our hearts with your life. Let us be your voice of hope, of peace, and of love.  Amen.

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[1] The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Jesus Christ the Outlaw

April 10, 2022 – Palm Sunday
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Luke 19:28-40[1]

He’s been called by many names: Prince of Peace, the Nazarene, Teacher, Mighty Counselor, Rabbi, Prophet. The disciples reported that he was called John the Baptist, Elijah, or another ancient prophet. We know him as Messiah, Christ, Savior. But when he entered Jerusalem that Sunday, as the crowd waved palms in the air, there were some who thought of him in a different way.

He was an outlaw, a trouble maker, a rabble-rouser who hung out with sinners, tax collectors, even (sniff) fishermen. Those in power were threatened by him. John’s Gospel tells us, “Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.”[2] They came for him, finally, at the end of that week, and when they caught him, Jesus said, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit?”[3]

I mean really, what had he done that was so bad? Matthew tells us that “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’”[4] Breaking the laws about doing work on the sabbath could get you in trouble.

Maybe it was because he kept forgiving people’s sins. The scribes said, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”[5] Maybe it was because of that whole “God is my Father” business. According to John, they wanted to kill him, “because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.”[6]

There were some who clearly labeled him because of the company he kept. A tax collector, some fishermen, a bunch of women with questionable history – they were quite a motley crew. And Jesus even called them out on it. He said, “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”[7] He must be bad news, I mean, just look at his friends!

I think it probably had something to do with stirring up the crowds, and that show he put on of cleansing the Temple of the buyers and sellers. Whatever the reason, some people had it out for him, and they labeled him “Outlaw.”

There is a song I heard many years ago called “The Outlaw” by Larry Norman. It begins like this:

Some say he was an outlaw;
that he roamed across the land
With a band of unschooled ruffians
and a few old fishermen.
No one knew just where he came from
or exactly what he’d done;
But they said it must be something bad,
it kept him on the run.[8]

Some say he was a poet, a teacher, or maybe a storyteller. Matthew tells us, “When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them.”[9] This is the beginning of what is known as the “Sermon on the Mount” which encompasses three chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. The people listened for hours, and even for days. Later in Matthew we hear Jesus say, “I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.”[10] This begins the story of the “Feeding of the Five-Thousand.”

He taught them in parables, little stories that put the Kingdom of God in metaphorical imagery. “Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.”[11] Here was a poet, or perhaps a master storyteller, who mesmerized the crowds. Mark tells us they were “spellbound.”[12] The parables captured their attention, put the big cosmic questions into terms they could understand, and they were so simple that you could memorize them.

His voice could make the waves stand still. “A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’”[13]

Who is this? A magician? Is he a sorcerer? Is he an ancient alien, as the History Channel show would have us believe? “And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’”[14] He certainly did many things that can only be described as miraculous. “He could walk upon the water; he could make the blind man see… and did tricks with fish and bread.”[15]

John’s gospel is filled with the mysterious acts of power that Jesus performed. At the wedding in Cana, you might be OK with me leading the ceremony, but Jesus is the one you want at the reception. Wine conjured out of water, six large jars full, and good quality at that![16] John also tells the story of a resurrection that came before Easter. His friend Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha, had already been in the tomb four days when Jesus arrived. Deeply moved by the grief of Mary, Jesus shows them the glory of God. “He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’”[17] This was no zombie. Lazarus was himself again. Of all the amazing signs that Jesus did, this is probably the one which scared the Pharisees the most.

Jesus had another side, the politician. He did not fear the religious authorities, or the Roman authorities. He spoke out, and to large crowds, about the hypocrisy and corruption of the leadership of Israel. During the first days of his ministry, in the synagogue, on the sabbath day, he took up the scroll of Isaiah and read this quote: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.”[18] And then, in a manner we’re unaccustomed to with our own politicians, he went out and started actually doing it.

The Gospel of Matthew records a series of blessings, from the Sermon on the Mount, but there is also a series of “woes,” almost a tirade against the scribes and the Pharisees, which comes after the entrance to Jerusalem. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.”[19] “You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”[20] Pretty strong stuff. You can imagine Jesus using his fire-and-brimstone voice, and the crowd, at first stunned, soon cheering him on. It’s no wonder they wanted to get rid of him, yet they were afraid of the crowds.

Who do we say that he is? Christ, Son of God, Savior. The people may have expected him to be a conquering hero; that’s likely what the procession into Jerusalem was about. For the Pharisees, that may have been their great fear. He would incite rebellion, and bring down the heavy hand of Rome upon them all. But Jesus didn’t come to be served, but to serve. He told them in many ways, “The greatest among you will be your servant.”[21] He even went so far as to wash the feet of his disciples, just to drive the point home.

So, who is he? “When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’”[22] Some say he was an outlaw, a poet, a sorcerer, a politician. He is all of those things, and much, much more. This is the Messiah of God, the one who has come to make all things new. He is our loving, forgiving God, revealed in the flesh of a human being, and he has overcome the world.  Amen.

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[1] The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

[2] John 11:57.

[3] Mark 14:48.

[4] Matthew 12:1-2.

[5] Mark 2:7.

[6] John 5:18.

[7] Luke 7:34.

[8] Larry Norman, “The Outlaw” on Only Visiting This Planet © 1972 MGM.

[9] Matthew 5:1-2.

[10] Matthew 15:32.

[11] Matthew 13:34.

[12] Mark 11:18.

[13] Mark 4:37-41.

[14] Matthew 14:25-27.

[15] Norman.

[16] John 2:1-11.

[17] John 11:43-44.

[18] Luke 4:18.

[19] Matthew 23:13.

[20] Matthew 23:24-25.

[21] Matthew 23:11.

[22] Matthew 21:10-11.