November 3, 2013 at Calvary
Evangelical Lutheran Church – Mechanicsburg, PA
“And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since
he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the
lost.’”
“Zacchaeus was a wee little man,
and a wee little man was he….” So starts the famous children’s song. Countless
people have sung it, from preschools to church camps to Sunday School. And it
does an admirable job conveying the details of the Gospel Reading for today.
But there is a bit of an issue with the song. You’ve heard it; you’ve sung it;
you may have even tried climbing an imaginary tree. So what detail do you
remember about Zacchaeus? He’s small. He’s a wee little man. But that’s not really
the Gospel Writer’s main description of this man of Jericho. This event is not
just about a short guy going up into a tree to see Jesus.
The description about Zacchaeus
is a bit more sinister. “Zacchaeus was a rich, cheating man, and a rich,
cheating man was he….” That’s what the Gospel Writer tells you: “[Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing
through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a tax collector
and was rich.” This is how Zacchaeus is introduced to the world. He’s a
rich man. He’s an important man, a major collaborator with the Roman
government, holding and overseeing the tax collection franchises based in
Jericho. That description reveals the problem with Zacchaeus: it’s not his lack
of height; it’s his lack of integrity and character. Zacchaeus’ way of life has
shown him to be anything but a son of Abraham, anything but one of the Lord’s Covenant People.
You’ve heard other descriptions
of similar people in the Old Testament Reading for this morning. They were
involved in similar enterprises as Zacchaeus—cheating, extorting, swindling,
oppressing. They had forsaken their identity as the Lord’s Covenant People. It was so bad that the prophet
Isaiah came along and called them and their metropolis of Jerusalem “Sin City”:
“Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to
the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!” And the prophet read out
the statement of judgment against them: “Bring no
more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath and
the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your
new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they have become a burden to
Me; I am weary of bearing them. When
you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make
many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.”
The problems
of the people needed to be corrected. Their devotion to false gods had to come
to an end. Their open rebellion against the Lord’s
Law had to be put down. Their hearts, minds, and souls had to be changed. And
so the Lord exhorts them to do so:
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes; cease to do evil, learn to
do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall
become like wool.” With those words, the people of Jerusalem are summoned
back to their identity, the status of being the holy nation that the Lord had established through His work
for them.
The same
divine summons is what Zacchaeus receives. It came to Zacchaeus, as he heard of
Jesus and His work. And that is what drives him to go where Jesus would be
found: “And he was seeking to see who
Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in
stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for
He was about to pass that way.” This rich, cheating man was going to see
Jesus. And when the Lord summons Him, he welcomes Jesus with great exuberance: “And when Jesus came to the place, He looked
up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your
house today.’ So he
hurried and came down and received Him joyfully.”
The change
in Zacchaeus had happened. He was being transformed by Jesus’ words, by Jesus’
welcome, by Jesus’ work. The old way of life was being set aside. No more would
Zacchaeus be known as an oppressor. No more was he a lover of money. This rich,
cheating man was now devoted to the way of life that Jesus had established for
Him: “And Zacchaeus stood and said to the
Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have
defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.’”
Zacchaeus’
belief in Jesus brought about this great change. It moves him from being marked
by unholiness to righteousness. No longer can he keep what he had taken
wrongly. No longer can he have mammon as his god. His scarlet sins and crimson
crimes were being purged from him. Now Zacchaeus is following in the way of
life that the Lord had
established. And what does Jesus say about it? “And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since
he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the
lost.’” Jesus confirms Zacchaeus’ identity as one of the Covenant People.
He affirms that Zacchaeus had received the salvation that He had come to bring
to the earth. The lost was found. The prodigal had returned. The rebel was
reconciled.
But what
happened in Jericho is not just for ancient people in long past eras. No, what
took place there is how sainthood is given, even now. This transformation of Zacchaeus
happens over and over again. There is the initial giving of an identity of
being one of the Lord’s people. That
is granted in the marking of you in Holy Baptism. With that act, the Lord claims you as one of His own. He
gives you a place in His kingdom. He designates you as “a son of Abraham.” Even more, He declares you to be His child. And
with that comes great promises, along with an entire way of life.
So what
happens to that? Remember, the people of Jerusalem who were called “Sodom and
Gomorrah” by the prophet once had that identity given to them. Wee, little Zacchaeus
had possessed that same identity. But their devotion turned away from the Lord. Their actions revealed a desire
for unvirtuous living, for what the Lord
had proscribed. And the same occurs among you. Whether on a large scale or
small, the scarlet sins and crimson crimes are found in your lives.
But you all
have received the divine summons away from that. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” He came to seek
and save you. And His exhortation comes to you: “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds
from before My eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct
oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. Come now,
let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Jesus calls you to Himself
and says, “I must be present with you. I must give My Spirit to abide with you.”
With those
words of Jesus, He summons you to be where He is found. He brings you into His
presence, so that your status is restored as you joyfully welcome Him. Jesus
brings His forgiveness and restoration to you and says: “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of
Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
But what
Jesus says is not a static declaration of what has happened. The living word of
Jesus transforms and changes those who receive it. There is activity to move
you from being marked by unholiness to righteousness, even if it seems to be in
fits and starts. But that divine activity does have effect in you. Just as Zacchaeus
could not keep the profits of his cheating and could not remain a devotee of
mammon, so you also cannot continuously abide in your sinful ways or be devoted
to what is against the Lord’s
will. The Holy Spirit’s work done in you as you hear and abide in Jesus’ word
moves your hearts and minds away from that.
The
transforming that the Holy Spirit works through the divine word took place
among the people of Jerusalem who received the Lord’s
message from Isaiah. It happened in Jericho when Zacchaeus heard Jesus. It
occurred in Thessalonica while the apostle brought the gospel to Europe, as you
also heard read: “[O]ur testimony to you
was believed. To this end we always
pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill
every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power, so that the name
of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Lord
performs the same divine actions in you. As the Lord
works in your hearts and minds, the status He has given to you is confirmed and
strengthened. His grace bestows His righteousness to you, making you His holy
people. Belief in His identity and work is created and reinforced, so it grows
to be steadfast and abundant. The desire and resolve for good and the works of
faith are established, thus increasing the love that you have for one another
that is displayed in your deeds.
So you have become
like the restored people of Judah, like Zacchaeus, like the Thessalonians, and
like all the other saints who have gone before you. Like them, salvation has
come to you. Like them, you have been sought and saved by the Son of Man. Like
them, you have joyfully received Jesus in His words. “When He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be
marveled at among all who have believed,” it will not be a time of fear.
Instead, you will gladly welcome Jesus as He comes to be in the presence of those
sinners that He has made to be His holy people for eternity.
+ In the
Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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