Luke 19:1-10

The Beauty of the Bride - Called to Generosity

Sermon preached October 26, 2014
Opening
Whos the most famous person youve seen up close?
For me, I guess its John McCain during the 2008 Presidential election - came to South
Carolina for its very important Republican primary, and spoke at the Downtown Rotary
Club, so being a Rotarian I got in to the packed banquet room. I got to see him up close
and shake his hand - had a great question about how to win the war in Iraq, had just
gotten the mike passed to me when they ended the Q&A session!!
Jesus passing through
In our reading there is great man coming to town and its causing great excitement - by
this point in gospel of Luke Jesus was famous, everyone had heard about him.
And Jesus comes to Jericho
One of the most ancient cities in the world, has springs and palm trees in a very
dry area, archealogists have found evidence that human beings have lived there
since 9,000 BC
Irony of Jericho
As battle of Saratoga the decisive battle of Revolutionary War, so the Battle for
Jericho was the decisive battle in the Israelites capture of the Land of Canaan.
But irony - the city that fell to Israelites and became a stronghold that allowed
them to conquer the promised land, is now part of Roman occupied Palestine and
here waiting to see Jesus is an agent of the occupiers wanting to get a look at him.
Who Zacchaeus is
probably a lot of you first heard of Zaccheus in Sunday School - flannel-graph with the
little man up in a tree - learned song, Zaccheus was a wee little man, and a wee little
man was he... All thats cute, but this was a seriously bad dude.
Hes a chief tax collector
Nobody likes taxes or tax collectors
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IRS jokes "The latest scandal in Washington, of course, is raising questions about the
IRA. You know, I have a question. Why is it called the Internal Revenue
Service? How is having your money confiscated a service?" Jay Leno
If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save
one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper?
but these guys a lot worse than IRS
Rome conquered Judea and as a way of keeping them weak they levied huge,
crippling taxes - keep them poor and weak and siphoned off wealth into their own
coffers for military and building projects. You ever wonder how Rome built all
those magnificent buildings and aqueducts and roads? They did it by levying
taxes on occupied people like the Jews.
These tax collectors shook down their countrymen for money that was sent
off to Rome. Since they were local boys, they knew who was worth how
much, and were an extra wealth might be stashed.
And not only that, they took a percentage of the receipts, so they
had some extra incentive to squeeze the locals that much harder.
And since they worked for the Romans, they were backed up by the
sharp swords of the Empires legions.
Tax collectors were hated not only because they took your money and gave
it to the hated Romans, they were viewed as collaborators with the
occupying Roman army.
After Allies liberated France - people who collaborated with the Nazi
occupiers were shot and hanged; women who slept with Germans had their
heads shaved and were paraded through the streets.
And not only was Zacchaeus a tax collector, he was a chief tax collector, with
others working under him. He was so good at squeezing those extra shekels out
of his countrymen, so ruthless, that the Romans promoted him. He is the head
bad-guy.
any Jew who became tax collector was selling his soul for money - he was saying he
loved money more than he loved his people, community, relationships
Money has a power over us and it can enslave us
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Back to Zach
But Jesus triggers something in Zaccheus, so he clambers up a tree to get a look at him.
Why? Not just because he was short - crowds will let shorter people go to the
front - me tall, doesnt bother me if short person in front of me in crowd - Ive
always been tall, Im the guy no one sits behind in the movie theater, and I like to
be magnanimous by letting shorter people stand in front of me. No, Zaccheus
went up in the tree to be away from the crowd because they despised him;
Now the people around Jesus - they are his fan club - cheering, Yay,
Jesus! - but they hate people like Zach and would keep him away from
seeing their hero - you despicable swine - you are not worthy of seeing
Jesus
like churches that preach a false gospel that you have to be good to come
in here, like we are - right
And maybe hes afraid that in the crush of the crowd, somebody would slip a
dagger into him.
So he cant hang back from the crowd and see Jesus - so he goes to Plan B and climbed
the tree.
What Zach wants
Now this is pretty undignified for a grown man to do - in an honor/shame culture men
were careful not to do something undignified - so what drives Zaccheus?
I think hes curious - wanted to see who Jesus was - and what this tells us the journey to
know God starts with intellectual openness - some people think you need to be desperate
for God - but Zach isnt - hes just curious, has heard about Jesus and wants to lay eyes on
him.
What Jesus gives him - acceptance
So Jesus is walking down a street in Jericho and there are crowds around him and people
lining the streets to see him, when suddenly he stops and the whole procession stops and
his gaze swivels towards the tree where Zaccheus is perched and the crowd gets excited,
Jesus has spotted this little twerpy Roman collaborator and is going to let him have it...
But instead, Jesus calls him by name - not the usual insults - dirtbag, Roman-loving
scum...
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And then the Lord does something completely astonishing - he invites himself over to
Zaccheus house for dinner. Even and even more than dinner - the Greek phrase means
room and board - Jesus is going to stay with him.
Why astonishing? In that culture to break bread and stay with someone had huge
symbolic significance - it meant deep acceptance and a commitment to a loving
relationship
The writer Earl Palmer tried to help us understand the shock of this by coming up with
the following illustration Pretend that Jesus is a modern-day evangelist, and he's got a crusade in Las Vegas.
His chartered jet pulls up on the tarmac, and he and his entourage climb down
those moveable steps to the asphalt, where there are members of the press, and
official greeters, and people who just want to get a glimpse of Jesus. But over
against a building a hundred yards away is a long, black, stretch Cadillac
limousine with tinted windows. One of the power windows glides down a bit so
someone inside can see out. Jesus looks over at the limo and calls out, "Joe! Joe,
I see you in there! Come on over here, I'm going to stay with you tonight in your
penthouse suite on the top floor of the Sands hotel."
You see, it's Joe Gambino in that limo, head of the Gambino Mafia family, and he
owns the Sands hotel. That's how hanging out with Zaccheus looked to Jesus'
contemporaries.
All Zaccheus has shown, is a little curiosity - and Jesus goes over the top with his grace
and not only doesnt condemn Zaccheus, not only doesnt tell him to repent, straighten
up, stop being a dirtbag - he pushed right into Zaccheus life and says I want to enter into
relationship with you, Im coming to your house for supper.
Couple of quick things to note First, you give Jesus the slightest opening, and hes going to do everything he can
to drench you with his love and acceptance and mercy. As was said last month,
Jesus Christ is incredibly aggressive with his grace.
And Jesus extends his love and mercy and acceptance not after Zaccheus repents
and promises to make restitution - which is what human religion always expects you repent first, you clean up your act, and then maybe God will smile on you Jesus totally inverts human religion and our notions of religious righteousness his grace precedes and enables repentance.
Human religion is you change first and then Ill come to you - that we must earn
our way into Gods good graces - even the evangelical formulation of inviting
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Jesus into your heart is problematic - here we see how Jesus really works - he
invites himself into our lives before we even thought of it - invites himself in,
accepts us, and the only question is whether we accept his acceptance.
Zachs response
And look how Zaccheus responds to Jesus acceptance.
Weak translation in most English translations - welcomed him gladly? No, what it means
is Zaccheus welcomed Jesus to his house with joy - word means to rejoice - he knows
what Jesus coming to his house means - I am loving you first
And the joy of Jesus acceptance hits him and thats what changes his life
Zach had radically changed life
he becomes incredibly generous and makes restitution for the money he unfairly extorted.
what this shows is that he no longer needs money as a vehicle for worth
and this is astounding - remember he has traded everything for money when he
became a tax collector - chose money over family and friends and community and
being a Jew...
fascinating that this man whose whole life has been about extracting from other people
and getting for himself doesnt ask Jesus for anything - he instead is motivated to give
and set things right
goes beyond Mosaic law which said tithing - 10% a year - he goes beyond it to 50%
and he gets up and says anybody Ive cheated Ill pay back four times - in OT worst
penalty for economic crime - worst crime was stealing cattle - if you did you had to pay
back four times - this most dire economic penalty in bible - and applies it to himself
action incredible, attitude more - is eagerness here - look, Lord - like look, daddy - I
want to bring delight to you because you embraced me so now I want to do this for you
Application to us
this is what grace always produces - esp. in regard to money
person who grasps what Jesus has done asks not what do I HAVE to give but what CAN I
give?

if you think this is nuts you havent grasped what Jesus had done for you
Giving out of grace
bible teaches tithing - cant get around it - which to some appears as outlandish and over
the top as Zaccheus giving here - and tithing also to some people appears harsh and
legalistic and oppressive, like a tax God is trying to squeeze out of you or the preachers is
trying to guilt out of you.
but cant be faithful in presenting what is expected of followers of Jesus Christ - but I
want to be really sure we understand the motivation for giving - and we see it in Zaccheus
- gratitude.
But we struggle with this
Christian Smith, a sociologist at Notre Dame, did the definitive study on giving
and Christians in our day. A lot of it is published in a book called Passing the
Plate. Very interesting stuff. One of the things he found was most Christians
experience chronic guilt around money, particularly giving. Here's what fascinated
me: He said, "We were struck by what seemed in many American Christians as a
kind of comfortable guilt.
They were aware they're not giving as God would want them to. Initially they can
say the right stuff. Under the surface, they're guilty, but it's comfortable guilt.
They keep that awareness at a low enough level of discomfort so they don't
actually have to increase their giving." Just low-level, chronic financial guilt. Not
a good strategy.
Example of ringing the bell at Salvation Army
You ever want to see this up close and personal, volunteer to ring the bell at the
Salvation Army giving kettle at Christmas-time in front of Wal-Mart or Target its just fascinating - you can watch people get out of their cars and walk towards
the store - and then they spot you right by the entrance - some people just hate you
being there, they act like youre making them run the gauntlet of shame - they will
make as wide a detour as they can to keep their distance, and carefully avoid any
eye contact. Some people walk right by and ignore you like youre not there.
Some people will give out of a sense of guilt, grudgingly, maybe toss some loose
change in the bucket ..but some people are grateful that youre theyre and they
stop and talk a little, stuff five, ten or twenty-dollar bills in the bucket and you can
tell it makes them happy to do so.
And what Ive observed is that the people who give the most are the ones who
look like they can least afford it.
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Thats backed up by all kinds of data - People who make less than $25,000 a
year, give on average four point two percent of their income away. You might
expect wealthier people to give a higher percentage. But they do not. More
money does not make you generous. Gratitude makes you generous.
Gratitude, said John Calvin, is the heart of the Christian life. Not guilt or compulsion.
Gratitude - for what God has done for us.
Listen to what the author Stephen King said. In he was hit by a car while out
walking near his home. The accident left him with severe injuries. After his
recovery, King wrote that having a close brush with death taught him to
contemplate the real meaning of life.
As he writes, . . . I want you to consider making your life one long gift to others.
And why not? All you have is on loan, anyway. All that lasts is what you pass
on. . . . Giving isn't about the receiver or the gift but the giver. It's FOR the giver.
One doesn't open one's wallet to improve the world, although it's nice when that
happens; one does it to improve one's self. I give because it's the only concrete
way I have of saying that I'm glad to be alive . . .
How to find motivation to give
Zach can come down the tree because Jesus goes up on the tree - cursed is he who is hung
on a tree - worst kind of execution was to be nailed to cross
heres Zach who deserves to be despised and rejected and who is Jesus who does not and
they switch - Zach comes out of being despised and rejected because Jesus becomes
despised and rejected
and if you see that it will change your attitude towards money because Jesus did not tithe
his life to us - he gave it all - he who was rich became poor for us
and so we want to bring life to the world thru my wealth by sacrificing like Christ did and
you dont ask how much do I have to give but how much can I give
If you are not sacrificing in the way you live in order to give, to tithe, you need to give
more
and if you are not excited about giving your money in order to give life to the world, then
you havent gotten gospel. And I would invite you to ask Christ to give you a Zaccheus
experience of grace.
Conclusion

A Presbyterian pastor tells about worshiping at a St. Sabina Church on the south side of
Chicago. It was an interesting church: Roman Catholic, almost all African-American, a
charismatic church. Thats kind of an unusual combination. Their worship services go
three hours long, and their sermons regularly go well over an hour.
The highlight of the service is when they take the offering. Its real different than in a
Presbyterian church. At St. Sabina, no one just sits there and waits for the plates to come
to them. At St. Sabina, everybody stands up and when its offering time. Everybody comes
down to the front of the church. No kidding. They come down singing and worshiping.
Remember, many of these folks have nothing, but the thought of being able to give to God
well, they will come dancing down the aisle, waving whatever it is that theyre going to
give to God, because there is such a sense of joy. In that moment, there are people who are
experiencing, at the core of their beings, It is more blessed to give. I can be a giver.
May it be so for us. Amen.