Jill Minnich                                                                          11/04/2001

“Looking Up, Looking Down”

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4

Luke 19:1-10

 

We’re all familiar with the story of Zacchaeus. It’s a popular story in Sunday school perhaps because children can immediately identify with someone who is too short to see over the crowd.  And besides there is a cute little song you can sing with the story.  I’d like to look at this story with you again through the eyes of an adult.  There is more to this story than just the cute song in Sunday school.

First, what do we know about Zacchaeus?  We know he was short.  Our text puts it this way: “[Zacchaeus] was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was a little man and could not see Jesus because of the crowd.”[1]  Many of us here can identify with that situation. It is something short people deal with all the time.  But there was more preventing Zacchaeus from seeing Jesus than just being short in stature.  Why couldn’t Zacchaeus work his way through the crowd to a place where he could see Jesus?  I’ve done that many times.  If I am polite and people can see that I’m short enough and won’t block their view, they usually move aside so I can move forward in the crowd.  Jewish society in Jesus’ time was still very close knit and everyone was aware of everyone else.  They were especially aware of their status in society.  Zacchaeus was a rich man and should have gotten the best place everywhere he went. But his neighbors wouldn’t move aside for Zacchaeus.  Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector.  He was in charge of all the tax collectors in the region.  Tax collectors are never popular. In Roman occupied territories in the first century, each tax collector added a little to the tax bill for himself and a little more for the chief tax collector who got him the job. That was expected, it was part of the job. Everyone knew it. Zacchaeus had acquired his wealth at the expense of his neighbors.  In essence, he robbed and cheated his fellow Jews, poor and wealthy alike.  Of course, they wouldn’t move aside for him.  Zacchaeus was short in stature, but he was also short in ethics and so he was short of friends.  What do you think that kind of job involving cheating others for your own material gain would do to you after a while?  What would that kind of isolation from friendship, neighbors, the support and acceptance of the community do to your heart and soul?

What else do we know about Zacchaeus?  We know that he wanted very badly to see who Jesus was.  When his neighbors wouldn’t let him through the crowd, he could have given up and gone home.  Instead he climbs a sycamore tree.  I want you to picture that for a moment.  Here is Zacchaeus: a short, wealthy man dressed in long robes climbing a tree to see what is going on.  He must have looked completely ridiculous!  Because he was not well accepted in the community I think he probably would have been even more sensitive to how he looked to other people.  He would have guarded very carefully what little dignity he could.  But little Zacchaeus climbs a tree so that he could look down and see Jesus.  He must have wanted to see Jesus very badly to risk even more ridicule and rejection on the part of his neighbors. 

We know what his neighbors thought of Zacchaeus.  The people labeled Zacchaeus “a sinner”.  That is pretty strong condemnation in the Jewish community.  But that is a very accurate description of Zacchaeus’ dilemma and perhaps one we should use more often.  Zacchaeus’ sin, cheating and stealing from members of his own community, has cut him off from his neighbors and from God.  God has lost Zacchaeus to materialism and greed.

The remarkable thing to me is that Zacchaeus climbs that tree so that he can see Jesus.  Most people, I find, are “lost” in their sin. Do you know what I mean?  They build such a wall of reasonable arguments, excuses, and self-deception that they cannot see the truth about their behavior even when you wave it right in front of their eyes!  But Zacchaeus climbs that tree to see Jesus.  He risks what little dignity he had left in order to see who this Jesus was.  What is not surprising to me is that Jesus notices Zacchaeus.  Jesus always notices the little people.  He notices women.  He notices lepers.  He notices fishermen.  He notices children.  And Jesus looks up into a sycamore tree and notices Zacchaeus-- because Jesus is always looking for those who are lost. 

And looking up to see Zacchaeus, lost as he was, immediately Jesus announces: “Hurry down, Zacchaeus, because I must stay at your house today.”[2]  Jesus goes to Zacchaeus’ home. He stays with him long enough to share a meal.  Hosting a visiting teacher was a great honor in Jewish society and this honor normally would have gone to the most wealthy and righteous member of the community.  Zacchaeus is filled with joy and welcomes Jesus with gladness, but his neighbors grumble:  “This man has gone as a guest to the home of a sinner!”  Jesus doesn’t wait for the lost to come to him.  He seeks them out and goes where they live to dine with them. 

Zacchaeus responds to Jesus’ visit with joy and gladness.  A change is taking place in his life.  The Son of God has come to visit and they have eaten a meal together.  We must ask ourselves, who was right about Zacchaeus?  Was it the crowd who labeled him a sinner?  After all, he became wealthy by cheating and stealing from the poor and the wealthy alike.  Or was it Jesus who looked up at Zacchaeus in that sycamore tree and saw a sinner, yes, but also a lost soul looking down?

Zacchaeus welcomes Jesus into his life and his life is changed.  Yes, of course, Zacchaeus is a sinner. Jesus never denies that.  For Jesus it is a given.  But now Zacchaeus is no longer lost.  Welcoming Jesus into his life, Zacchaeus also accepts the verdict of Jesus and of his neighbors that he is indeed a sinner.  But Jesus, the Son of God, has come into his home and so Zacchaeus has now been found by God.  A few years ago there was a very popular evangelism campaign that featured billboards and bumper stickers with the phrase, “I found it!”  The intent was to have people ask you what you had found so that you could tell them about Jesus Christ.  Frankly, I had a problem with the campaign and my objection was more than grammatical.  I firmly believe that, though it may seem to us when we are lost that we have found God, the truth is that God is always seeking for us.  We find God when we finally climb that tree and finally look down to see God is looking up at us!

But whether you find God or God finds you, a change takes place in your life.  A new relationship always changes and rearranges your life, as anyone who has ever fallen in love or had a baby knows only too well.  And when the new relationship is with God, circumstances change and your heart changes as well.  God heals everything inside and out.  We see that clearly in the life of Zacchaeus, a worldly materialist willing to cheat his friends and neighbors.  Jesus turns Zacchaeus’ life inside out and upside down.  Jesus’ visit affects not only Zacchaeus spiritually by bringing him into a new relationship with God, but Jesus changes Zacchaeus materially.  “Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Listen, sir! I will give half my belongings to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times as much!’”  Jesus brought salvation to Zacchaeus’ heart and to his pocketbook as well.  Jesus changed Zacchaeus’ daily life, his relations with his neighbors and the whole focus of his life.  I have often wondered if Zacchaeus could go back to being a tax collector after Jesus came into his life.  What would the other tax collectors think of someone who gave half his property to the poor and repaid everyone he had cheated?  How would a disciple of Christ succeed in such an inherently unethical occupation?

Here we are this morning about to sit down at the same table with Jesus.  That is what this table is all about.  This is our Lord’s Table-- the same Jesus who went to Zacchaeus’ house and turned his life upside down.  This is the Lord’s Table—the same Jesus who changed the focus of a tax collector’s life from wealth and greed to charity and righteousness.  Zacchaeus looked down to see who this Jesus was.  Jesus looked up because he came to find and save the lost.  Salvation has come to this house today because Jesus is still seeking and saving the lost.  Are you looking to be found?