Luke 18:31-19:10
“Living a Life”
02 April 2017 St. Andrew’s
Military Chapel Singapore
Whenever I hear the
story of Zacchaeus climbing a tree I start to silently sing the words of that
song in my head. It makes me remember learning Bible stories through song when
I was younger. I also have memories of felt boards and felt characters helping my
Sunday School teachers tell eager young minds not just about Zacchaeus, but
about many of the familiar stories in the Bible.
Did anyone else just
have a trip down memory lane during the reading of today’s Scripture or when
the song was playing?
Sometimes,
romanticizing a story ends up smoothing out the rough edges of stories.
Sometimes, it makes us lose the deeper meaning because we have turned the story
into soul candy. A sweet treat to bring a smile to our faces and provide
temporary pleasure and a momentary escape from the day to day reality in which
we live.
In the first part of
our reading today, we learn, yet again, that the disciples don’t quite
understand Jesus and his full message. But, are they really that different from
us? Here we are two weeks from Easter, but have we even taken just a few
minutes to ponder Lent and what this season means. Or are we just too wrapped
up in Spring Break, work, life in general? Not a dig, just an honest question
because I too fall into that trap. So did the disciples. They seem to have
failed to see the forest for the trees and lost sight of the larger narrative
that Christ was pointing them to. Perhaps they, not the man on the side of the
road, were the blind for whom Jesus was seeking to restore sight.
The disciples, even
after traveling with Christ for extended periods of time and personally
witnessing his miracles and compassion still don’t see who he is. A blind
beggar on the side of the road into Jericho physically can’t see Jesus, but
makes sure Jesus knows he is there. Jesus sees that man despite the crowd
blocking his line of sight. And little Zacchaeus climbs a tree to just catch a
glimpse of Christ, who stops, looks up, and invites himself into the tax
collectors home for dinner. Jesus doesn’t just see us, he notices us, even when
we have trouble noticing him in our lives.
But, Jesus doesn’t
stop at noticing us. He comes into our lives and opens our eyes. Not just to
his presence before us but widening our vision to see the world around us as Christ
sees the world. Full of compassionate love towards everyone he encounters. And
he shows that compassionate love by opening our eyes and giving us life. We
just have to be like the blind beggar and desire and allow Christ to open our
eyes. We also have to be like Zacchaeus and recognize the life Christ is
offering us once our eyes are opened.
One note about
Zacchaeus. This is one of those passages where the translation of a small
portion can change the story in meaningful ways. In verse 8 the tense can be
read in the present. If read in the present, he may have had his eyes opened
long before this story and it is already his practice to give to the poor and
provide restitution to those he defrauds. Regardless of when Zacchaeus’ eyes
were opened to Christ, before this episode or during his conversation with
Jesus, Zacchaeus was now living life instead of making a living.
So what is the
difference between making a living and living a life? Because the disciples
haven’t really figured it out at this point, we’ll look at Zacchaeus. At some
point, Christ came into his life and changed the way he went about his life and
how he did his job.
Back in that day,
Rome was such a large empire that it had to hire out many of its functions.
They would bid out various functions of governance to private businessmen, who
were referred to as publicans. In this case, Zacchaeus put out a bid that he
could get the most amount of taxes for Rome at the lowest cost to the empire.
Lowest bidder was a thing even back then. Pretty much standard business
practice.
Most likely,
Zacchaeus wasn’t collecting personal income tax for Rome. He was probably
collecting import/export duty for goods coming into and out of Jericho. He was
a Jew working for Rome. This made him despised in the eyes of his fellow Jewish
residents of Jericho.
To add insult to
injury, the publicans that collected import/export duties were on the hook to
give Rome what they had promised in their bid. They had free reign to charge
what was needed to give Rome the promised amount while still making a living.
Because of the lack of controls on how they collected the money during the
contract period, most would charge wildly varying and discriminatory rates.
Hence the bad reputation the profession had rightly earned.
But, something
happened with Zacchaeus either before Christ came to town or in that moment.
When it happened isn’t as significant as how an encounter with Christ changed
his focus from making a living to living a life.
Zacchaeus no longer
defrauds his fellow countrymen. He is a beacon of integrity among a sea of
shady businessmen. If he defrauds anyone, they get four times the amount he
swindled. He also gives half his possessions to the poor. There are few people
in business today that can match the commitment Zacchaeus has towards
alleviating suffering in the world.
Does this story mean
that we are all called to give half to the poor? Not necessarily, though that
can be what God is calling people to do in his name. This story shows us how
Christ calls us to life. We just have to want to see him and live the life to
which he is calling us. Like a sporting event on TV, we have to turn down the
crowd noise so we can hear Christ speaking clearly to us. We have to be willing
to risk some injury to climb a tree so that we can see Christ and what he
expects of us.
At this moment, the
disciples are listening more to their cultural expectations of the Messiah
rather than looking at what the Messiah was doing right before their eyes. That
is why Christ’s teaching in the beginning of this passage was hidden from them.
The crowd turned
against the blind man blocking his view of Christ. Not just that, but they
firmly told him to be quiet and not disrupt their chance to glance on the
famous preacher that was walking by. But, the blind man didn’t let that stop
him. He shouted above the crowd telling Jesus he wanted mercy and wanted to
see. Jesus heard that cry and granted him literal sight that the crowd praised.
Yet the crowd failed to receive the true life and sight that Christ gave the
persistent blind man.
Zacchaeus climbed a
tree to see Christ. I’m sure there was some risk of falling to the ground. Had
that happened, I’m sure his ego would have been wounded to the extent of his
reputation among his peers. However, he threw caution to the wind because he
wanted to truly live. And Christ honored that drive in Zacchaeus by dining with
him in his home, the home of a despised tax collector.
Christ seeks the
lost. Not lost souls that don’t know Christ. Rather, Christ seeks those who are
lost in life because they don’t truly see Christ at work in the world and are
just trying to survive in life and make a living by cultural standards. Jesus
came to give us life. A life only Christ can provide.
It’s fitting that for
his last recorded miracle in Luke Christ restores sight. Because that is the
reason he is headed to Jerusalem and the cross. He went to the cross so that we
can live a full life. So that we can do more than survive and make a living. He
went to the cross to meet us exactly where we are; right beside him, behind a
mocking crowd, or sitting on the shaking limb of a tree. And when he meets us
there we know that making a living isn’t what we were created for. We were
created to find our life and live it fully for God’s glory.
So, mute the crowd
noise, don’t let the crowd keep you from asking for a life, and come down out
of the tree to meet the living God and the life to which God calls you.
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