October 30, 2016: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
I loved the 1985 movie “Back to the Future.” It features a teenager, Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, who ends up changing the present circumstances of his life for the better, when he accidentally ends up in a time machine that brings him to the past, when his parents were his age. The sequels were not as good (are they ever – really? – I mean think about the Rocky movies). Anyway the second movie, in which Marty McFly travels to the future, changing the present, or is it the past…well, anyway…they did get one thing right…back in 1985 when the movie was shown, the future had the Chicago Cubs in the 2015 World Series. Okay, so they missed it by a year – but hey, considering that the Cubbies hadn’t been there since the infamous billy goat mishap of 1945, the future of the past was not far off. But if all that past-future-present stuff gives you a headache, just wait till we talk about the gospel.
Today we hear the story of Zacchaeus, who climbs a tree to see Jesus. Most of us know this story really well from Sunday School, right? How many of you are singing in your head “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see.” And as the gospel (and the song) tell us, Jesus was passing through Jericho, and Zacchaeus, described by the author of Luke as a CHIEF Tax Collector, couldn’t get a glimpse because of the crowd and his “short stature,” so he climbs a tree. Jesus sees him there, calls to him to come down from the tree, because Jesus plans to stay at his home.
Now here is where it gets a little tricky (it is the gospel of Luke and Jesus after all – we should all expect this by now, right?). Because everyone around this scene grumbles that Jesus asked this tax collector to be his host, and the tax collector responds, saying, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” So, this is about a sinful person encountering Jesus, and through it, being redeemed and changing his life. Right?
Remember…this is Luke. Do you still think that is what is going on?
The problem here is with the Greek. I know, eyes have just started rolling into the back of your heads, but bear with me a moment while we go back from the future. See, the translations, including our beloved NRSV, the one used in most scholarly seminaries, have Zacchaeus saying he “will give to the poor,” he “will pay back” those whom he has cheated. But if we look at what this author actually wrote, Zacchaeus was using the present tense for giving. In other words, if reading directly from the Greek, we get: “Zacchaeus said toward the Master; Be-perceiving the half of the belongings of me Master, I AM giving to the poor-ones; and if of any I have taken any I allege (think blackmail or extortion) I AM giving quadruple.”
Oh Luke, why must you make everything so complicated?
When I came across this in scholarly circles I wondered how possibly did this happen. As one commentator noted when also wondering about the mixup, “Well, it turns out those who translate the verbs as future oriented appeal to a grammatical category called a present-future tense. [anyone else having nightmares of English classes?] The trouble is…the only occurrence of this verb tense is Luke 19:8. Yes, that’s right: rather than translate this sentence in the present tense — which of course would muck up interpreting this as a repentance scene — translators have actually created a new grammatical category that occurs once and only once to justify their theological interpretation and bias.”[1]
Wow! Rather “Back To The Future” like…taking something written in the past, about the present, and making it the future! You can’t make this stuff up! This is why I love this gospel – full of the unexpected every time Jesus shows up. Now we shouldn’t really be surprised. Not really. Because no where in this story, no matter what translation you read, does Jesus pronounce forgiveness or speaks of repentance. Instead, Jesus speaks of inclusion. And perhaps that is the meaning of this Gospel all along.
So with fresh eyes, let’s revisit this story of our pal Zacchaeus.
The story goes that Zacchaeus was short in stature. So many have taken this to mean literally that he was a short guy. It could be, but stature is one of those words with multiple meanings, and generally it is a relational word – stature in relation to something else. But let’s just go with the idea that he was short for the sake of argument. He climbs a tree so that he can see Jesus, and Jesus sees him, and the crowd isn’t happy about Jesus including this little guy in his plans. They didn’t like Zacchaeus – they called him a sinner.
I think, in many ways, Zacchaeus climbed that tree, because he was being shut out of the community life. He wasn’t being allowed to stand with the others to get a glimpse of this renowned teacher coming through the town. And then when he hears the mumbles of the crowd, that’s when he speaks of what he does. It’s almost like he is saying, “Jesus, I am doing my best. I have a job, and yet, while I could totally profit off of it, I give back. But they still hate me. Nobody understands me.” Or maybe he is really saying “Nobody sees me for who I really am.”
But Jesus does see him. Jesus always sees the ones we don’t want to see. And the earliest hearers of this gospel would have seen this coming too. Why? Because Zacchaeus means – “pure or innocent!” And you thought Ancient Greek wasn’t any fun. Well, actually, when I was studying it in seminary, it wasn’t – but let’s not go there.
Yup. As soon as the name would be mentioned or read to those in the time of this author’s blockbuster and sequel (remember, he also wrote Acts), which was the late part of the first century, it would have been clear that this character was not the deeply flawed sinner who repented.
So, what was Jesus talking about when he said “”Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” Okay…got your Greek hats on? The word for home used, οἶκος, can mean “a dwelling…[or] by implication, a family (more or less related, literally or figuratively):—home, house(-hold), temple.”[2]
See, here’s the thing…Jesus didn’t make that pronouncement at Zacchaeus’s house. They are still standing there by the tree. Jesus said it while everyone there was watching, and he speaks about the family of Abraham – the larger family – in which Zacchaeus, and presumably all standing there, were included. And he says that he “came to seek out and save the lost.”
The real question is – who did Jesus save that day? For whom was salvation proclaimed? Who was lost?
The lost were those who could not see, but didn’t realize it. Zacchaeus knew there was something more to be seen. He lived it! If money were everything, he never would have climbed the tree in the first place. Yet, he knew that there was something to strive for – to see – and he climbed that tree just to get a glimpse. For that matter, he never would given over money to the poor, or ensure that those he was to blackmail on behalf of the empire were paid back four times as much. Or, if he did, he would have lauded his great acts of charity for all to see to enrich his own life in town. But he didn’t do that either. And so, nobody saw him, they saw only what they wanted to see, so when they had pushed him to the margins, he climbed a tree. In today’s parlance, “when they went low, he went high.”
It was the crowd, not Zacchaeus, the pure one, the one others refused to see, but the mumbling crowd. They were the ones that couldn’t see, the ones that really did not understand Jesus. In fact, one could argue, only Zacchaeus understood who Jesus was, the others, even with a better view, didn’t know him at all, not yet.
I am reminded of a story about a Holy man who lived in a small house atop the mountain. Word had spread all over the village below about the great wisdom that he possessed. A man from the village decided to make the long and difficult journey to visit him. When he arrived at the house, he saw an old servant inside who greeted him at the door. “I would like to see the wise Holy Man,” he said to the servant. The servant smiled and led him inside. As they walked through the house, the man from the village looked eagerly around the house, anticipating his encounter with the Holy Man. Before he knew it, he had been led to the back door and escorted outside. He stopped and turned to the servant, “But I want to see the Holy Man!” “You already have,” said the old man. “Everyone you may meet in life, even if they appear plain and insignificant… see each of them as a wise Holy Man. If you do this, then whatever problem you brought here today will be solved.”
The salvation for this house – this oikos – this community of faith, comes when we break free from the bonds of our preconceived understanding of how the world works. That is what makes this gospel so powerful – we have to think outside the box to really grasp what is being offered to us within it – what Christ is offering to us all the time. When we do that, we will see the holy in our midst, the pure ones wrapped in the cloak of invisibility that we have placed around them. We will see the marginalized and the oppressed and we will respond as the body of Christ alive in the world today – seeing them – and making sure others see them as well.
As we have been doing in this stewardship season, today you will again be given a gift, blessed at the altar. It is a picture of a tree decorated by the children of our nursery school, and signed by them on the back. Children are really the ones who are short in stature, not to mention loving to climb trees! Children also have, like Zacchaeus, a pure heart. They can also teach us so much about how to be in the world…that is, until they learn from us.
There’s a song from the musical “Into the Woods,” with lyrics that drive this point home:
“Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn
Children may not obey, but children will listen
Children will look to you for which way to turn.”
We can teach them to be the best they can be, and treat others with kindness, as Zacchaeus did, or we can teach them that it is more important to get ahead, to be the best soccer player, to get only A’s in school. We can teach them to love one another as Christ loved us, the Christ that saw the ones we don’t see, the Christ that hung out with those we would not go near, or we can teach them to not hang out with the fat kid, the nerdy kid, the black kid, the gay kid, the poor kid.
Careful the things you say and do, children will listen, and see, and learn.
Perhaps that is why I feel we are so blessed that we have as our primary ministry, our nursery school, which now has over 100 children, and due to our recent renovation, space for more. While it isn’t our only ministry, of course, it is the one, I think, where we have such a wonderful chance of changing the world for the better. Every day they learn from us, and we from them.
I was asked the other day by one of them “Mother Diana, where does God live?” Where does God live? So, being the wise adult I responded, “Where do YOU think God lives?” And he answered, after looking all around, at me, at the other kids…”HERE!” And I said, “That is right…and you know where else?…God is in here too” (pointing to his heart), and here (pointing to another kid’s heart), and… And as they giggled and laughed, I added “And you know where else?” Now they were pointing at my heart. “I said, well yes, but guess what? God lives there too!” (pointing outside). God is wherever you are, and also in places you and I can’t even go.
Children, these small of stature, pure of heart wonders of God’s creation can, like Zacchaeus, offer a glimpse into the life we are to live as followers of Jesus. I love that the very symbol of that is what is depicted over the front doors of our church. You must walk past it to get here on any Sunday. Take a look back around. That is a stained glass window showing in beautiful colors Jesus welcoming the children to his side, telling us that we must be like them to enter the kin-dom of God. A perfect image to place in our hearts when we worship here.
And because of those who have gone before, we have that beautiful image, and this worship space, and also our Nursery School, which has been able to teach children since 1967. Think about that – there are now children in our school whose parents once were children here too! Through the gifts from estates, and through the pledges in decades past and today, we have been able to teach and to learn from the children who grace this place six days a week. Monday-Friday in our school, and on Sundays too.
The gospel of Luke is one that persistently asks the question – who do you see and not see? And responds with the Jesus that sees everyone. This is a story, and a gospel, about inclusion – the radical reality that God’s grace and love is for everybody! Luke topples our preconceived ideas about how things should work, which often blinds us to how God actually IS working in the world.
If we are to be Jesus, as we are called to be – the body of Christ in the world, we must see as he sees. Looking not only at what is easy to see – the ones we like, or who are like us, but the ones others do not, or will not see. We have to look in the valleys, and up in the trees for them. And then we must turn others to see them too, as Jesus did.
When we do that, we really have a chance, a real chance, to change the world!
Amen.
For the audio from the 10:30am service, click here:
[1] David Lose. Workingpreacher.com
[2] Lexicon :: Strong’s G3624 – oikos
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
October 30, 2016
Pentecost 24 – Year C
1st Reading – Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Psalm 119:137-144
2nd Reading – 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
Gospel – Luke 19:1-10
