The Reverend John E. McGinn, Rector
Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Sandwich, Massachusetts 02563
November 11, 2007 Pentecost
24
Today’s sermon is taken from
the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19, verses 1-10.
One of the best known stories
in the New Testament is about a man who was up in a tree. His name was Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector which meant he was wealthy and powerful, but despised by his
own community. Tax collectors
perpetuated the oppressive practices of the Roman Empire and their
government. They practice a form of
legal extortion, charging whatever fees they wanted and pocketing the extra
money for themselves.
Zacchaeus, the tax collector, wanted to see Jesus, and being a short
man, he could not because of the crowd so he climbed a sycamore tree to get a
better view. Now that certainly says
something to us about Jesus’ popularity.
At this particular time in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus was,
what we could call today, a star. And
eventually the crowds would turn against him and even cry out for his
crucifixion. But when he had his
encounter with Zacchaeus, Jesus was a public sensation, a celebrity, an icon
with groupies following him around. It
is amazing how taken ordinary people can be with celebrities. Zacchaeus reminds me of one of those
people. And that’s the sort of situation
that Zacchaeus found himself in. Too many people wanted to see this stranger,
this superstar from Nazareth. A short
man didn’t have a chance, but Zacchaeus was determined, and so he climbed a
tree and waited.
I have this image of all of
the people that gathered for the Red Sox players’ parade a couple weeks ago,
and people that maybe were back ten or fifteen or twenty people from where the
duck boats were going by. There were people
I am sure who wanted to climb trees or get up higher so that they could
see. You know, I suspect that Jesus was
pleased with Zacchaeus’ zeal.
A grown man, after all, up in
a tree. Forget about pride, forget about
dignity; Zacchaeus wanted to see what kind of man that Jesus really was.
Zacchaeus was what we would
call today a seeker. He wasn’t one of
the religious crowd.
In fact, they looked down on Zacchaeus, they despised him. He was a tax collector acting on behalf of
the Roman Empire, a traitor to his own people.
He was wealthy but not in a way that would bring credit to his
name. So you probably would not find
Zacchaeus in the Synagogue on the Sabbath.
He would not have been welcome there.
And yet Zacchaeus had something missing from his life, and he was
painfully aware of it. He was searching
for something more, something that his wealth could not provide.
There are many people like
Zacchaeus in our society today. They are
lost and alone, and they want desperately to find what is missing in their
life.
There are many people like
Zacchaeus, people who are seeking, people who need somebody to show them
Jesus. Jesus was impressed with
Zacchaeus’ determination, and when Jesus reached a spot where Zacchaeus was
perched in his sycamore tree, Jesus looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come
down immediately. I must stay at your
house today.”
Now it was Zacchaeus’ turn to
be impressed. Jesus knew his name. He wasn’t just a face in the crowd, and when
Jesus looked on the crowd of people who thronged to see him, he didn’t see a
teaming multitude - a faceless mass of people, a blob of humanity. He saw Mica and Mary and Josiah and Ruth, and
he saw Zacchaeus.
This is part of the wonder of
this message. Jesus knows each of us by
name.
Many years ago, after the
tragic war in Viet Nam, the Daily Congressional Record printed the names of
thirty-one thousand, three hundred and seventy-nine young people. This listing appeared to be a seemingly
endless column after column covering a hundred twenty-one pages, and this at
the time was the roll of the United States war dead in Viet Nam. Now years later a memorial was built for
these soldiers in Washington D. C. And
some of you have probably visited that memorial. I myself have six times. A great slab of black marble rises out of the
ground, and it too bears the names of those who paid the ultimate price. Often you will see family members or former
comrades in arms reach out and touch a name.
It is important for us not to think of the war dead as merely a number
(we think it is somewhere near fifty thousand), but as individuals with their
own personal dreams, people they love and people who love them.
My best friend when I was
growing up (I went through junior high and high school with him) was named
Richard Polowsky.
Every time I go to the Viet Nam memorial I touch his name. It gives me a sense of identifying with his
sacrifice, of identifying with the friendship that we shared.
But, you know, God never
thinks in numbers. That’s what Jesus was
saying to us in the parable of the 19th and 9. The shepherd does see merely a flock of
sheep, a mass, a blob of white. Every sheep, every sheep is individually
prized.
A few years ago a faculty
member of the University of Pittsburgh made a survey among his students and
colleagues to evaluate how many persons each one of them knew well enough to
remember their first name. The answers
ranged from eight hundred to twelve hundred.
Many adults remember more than twelve hundred persons by name. The politician, James Farley, boasted of
knowing seven thousand and achieving a certain fame by
this kind of memory which he had cultivated for professional reasons. But knowing the name does not necessarily
mean knowing the person.
God knows each of God’s children
by name. God knows our needs. God knows the road that we’ve traveled. Jesus called Zacchaeus by name, and needless
to say, Zacchaeus hurried down out of his tree, and he welcomed Jesus into his
home. Of course, the rest of the crowd
wasn’t too happy about this. They began
to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” That’s very human, isn’t
it? The crowd sees Jesus eating with
Zacchaeus, and they begin to criticize.
“He has gone to be a guest of a sinner.”
They couldn’t know Jesus’ intent.
They couldn’t know why he chose to visit Zacchaeus. And true, Zacchaeus was a tax collector, but
they couldn’t see what was really in his heart. You and I are often guilty of
passing judgment when we do not know all the facts.
Years ago Karel
Capek wrote a short story with an intriguing concept
of God. It is about a murderer who when
to heaven to face the final judgment.
God was called to stand to
tell the truth about the man’s life. God
gave details about each one of the man’s nine murders -- about his greed and
his indifference to the suffering of others.
And when the judges left the room to debate the sentence they were about
to hand down, only God and murderer were left in the courtroom. The man asked God who the judges were and why
God wasn’t among them. “Because I know everything.” God replied.
“Because my
knowledge is infinite. If judges know everything, absolutely
everything, then they would also understand everything. Their hearts would ache. They couldn’t sit in judgment, and neither
can I. As it is, they know only about
your crimes. I know all about you.”
God knows all about us. God knows what is in our heart. God’s knowledge is infinite and
intimate. If you are a seeker, do not be
deterred by the judgmental spirit of others.
God offers his love and his grace without condition. And obviously this is what Zacchaeus had been
looking for. He stood up and said to the
Lord, “Look Lord, here 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.”
We have a word for that. It is called repentance. And when Zacchaeus understood who Jesus was
and how much Jesus cared about him, he couldn’t continued
in his old lifestyle any longer. No
longer could Zacchaeus be a cheat. No
longer could Zacchaeus use his office to exploit other people. Instead, he would use his resources to reach
out to others.
So often we
hear the word repentance used as a synonym for being sorry, being remorseful
for our sins. Repentance is far more than that. Zacchaeus said, “Look Lord, here and now I
give of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of
anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Now that’s repentance.
Zacchaeus found what he had
been looking for. He found it in this
man Jesus. And Jesus said to him, “Today
salvation has come to this house.”
Zacchaeus was a changed man. He
wasn’t simply a better man, he was a man who had moved
from darkness to light.
In 1898 a young bank clerk
named William Porter was convicted of embezzling money from a bank in which had
worked. He spent the next three years in
prison. In prison William Porter was
determined to change his life. He began
writing short stories to earn money for his family. One of his prison guards, a man by the name
of Orin Henry, encouraged William Porter.
He believed that the former bank clerk could make a fresh start after
his release. One day the prisoner asked
the prison guard for an unusual favor.
Could he have Orin Henry’s name.
You see, a new man starting a new life needed a new name. And Orin Henry graciously agreed, but he made
William Porter promise that he would take good care of that name. In 1901 after his release from prison William
Porter became a well-known writer. His
short stories are considered classics of English literature. You
may have heard of this reformed writer yourself. His pen name was O. Henry.
Zacchaeus had a new name
following his encounter with Jesus. Now
he could be called Christian. I have a
feeling he took good care of his name.
Now, how about you? Are you a seeker? Is there a void in your life that only God
can fill? God knows your needs. God awaits you with open arms. Is today, this day, a time to begin?
Amen