Sermon for the 6th Sunday after Trinity

Sunday 3rd July 2005

Preached by Rev Brian Parker

Zacchaeus

In St Luke’s unique story of Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector in Jericho, we see a man who put his customers last.

Zacchaeus was a swindler. He abused his position, he was full of deceit and he made a great deal of money by fraud and double-dealing. He was a bully.

Not surprisingly then he was despised and distrusted. He cheated people.

No doubt over the years he had become hardened and cynical. He was totally self-centred.

So how, one wonders, does such a man come to be perched up a tree in the middle of a busy city centre waiting for Jesus?

He was waiting, as one translator puts it, ‘to see what Jesus was like.’

It just wasn’t idle curiosity. He had gone to a lot of trouble, and showed too much determination ‘to see Jesus.’
Nor does it seem likely that he was bored that day – he was never bored making money and working out yet more fraudulent schemes.

He didn’t go looking for Jesus just for entertainment’s sake.

If we look past the spectacle of this chief tax collector climbing that tree we see a man alone in the crowd: a lonely figure whose way of life has left him empty and devoid of true values.

A lost soul. In the Bible that word ‘lost’ is derived from a Hebrew word meaning ‘in the wrong place’. It does not mean ‘doomed’ or ‘damned’. Nothing so final.

There’s some hope in the word ‘lost’ – the hope that you may be ‘found’, like a lost sheep that is cared for by a faithful shepherd.

Zacchaeus had become ‘lost’ in life because he had taken so many wrong turnings. In his greedy pursuit of wealth he had taken the road of deceitfulness. In his grasping after position and power he had taken the road of self-interest with no thought for the well being of others.

He had arrived ‘in the wrong place’ in his life with no sense of true direction and purpose. He was lost, in a maze, entangled in his useless and self-seeking ways.

And now here he was, waiting, wondering and in his heart looking to Jesus for help.

But surely he was a hopeless case?

The sight of Zacchaeus high up in that tree is symbolic. In a sense we can see how he had risen above the negative things in his life and had determined to seek help.

He had found a measure of humility.

St Luke tells us that Zacchaeus ‘welcomed Jesus gladly.’ You can sense this lonely man’s experience of renewal, of rising above all the bitter years of his wrong doing.

Here was a man glad in heart and mind and more, a man determined to put things right.

His actions after meeting Jesus are not just ‘righteous’ – they go beyond the requirements of the law. They are good, spontaneous actions that leave us in no doubt of his genuine change of heart.

He rises above his failures and also above the disbelief and negative reactions of the crowd.

But the important focus of this story is not about Zacchaeus coming to Jesus, but rather about Jesus coming to Zacchaeus.

The Gospel gives us hope. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Jesus found Zacchaeus. It was heart-warming experience for Zacchaeus. There was gladness in his heart and the opportunity to make a fresh start in the knowledge of sins forgiven.

So it is by faith we have the confidence and hope that Jesus finds us in all the changing circumstances of our lives.

Jesus is with us no matter what our feelings may be or our sense of ‘being in the wrong place’ or our sense of hopelessness. None of these things separate us from the love of God.

We may indeed say with the Psalmist: “The Lord is my Shepherd, He restores my soul, he guides me in the paths of righteousness.”

Amen