Luke 19:1-10 19 He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. SLIDE 5 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. 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner. 8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, 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. SLIDE 9 Then Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost. SLIDE 1
11.3.2013 What's in a Name? In my back yard growing up we had an apple tree. To my knowledge, no one planted the tree; it simply grew wild. It yielded small green apples that were too sour to eat. Still, my friends and I were able to find use for them by throwing them at each other. Because they were small they were the perfect size for a school child's hands. Many of them were rotten, so they were especially unpleasant to be struck with. But aside from the apples, the tree was fun to climb. It was my go-to hiding spot for games of hide-and-seek. From high atop the tree I felt a sense of power in being able to look out over the entire back yard and watch my friends as they looked for me. But I also felt a sense of security, knowing that I was hidden from sight. I wonder whether Zacchaeus felt that same mixture of emotions from atop the sycamore tree. Luke tells us that Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, so you would think that that made him a powerful figure in society. Yet the crowd that has gathered to see Jesus doesn't exactly part ways to make room for Zacchaeus, the powerful tax collector. Zacchaeus, perhaps a bit frustrated at being unable to see Jesus from street level, instead climbs a sycamore tree to get a better view. What an odd image he must have made, a chief tax collector for the Roman Empire perched atop a sycamore tree to get a better view of this man Jesus! As eager as he is to see Jesus, Zacchaeus seems content to observe him from a distance. Zacchaeus, the man of power, sits securely out of sight up in his tree. What has led him to this unusual spot for a man of his stature? Zacchaeus has learned that Jesus is passing through Jericho. Jericho was a town just a few miles east of Jerusalem. Jesus was passing through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem, a journey that began back in 9:51. SLIDE 2
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. SLIDE From 9:51 until now, Jesus has been traveling with the disciples from Galilee in the north, through Samaria, and eventually to Jerusalem. Jericho was the last town that Jesus visited before reaching Jerusalem, where he would be crucified. SLIDE Why is this tax collector so interested in seeing Jesus, a wandering preacher? Perhaps it has something to do with what Zacchaeus has likely heard of Jesus as word of his preaching has spread. Zacchaeus is not the first tax collector that Jesus has encountered. In Luke 5, Jesus sought out a tax collector named Levi. Jesus says to Levi, "Follow me," and immediately Levi does. Luke writes that Levi was at his tax booth, the place where he worked, and yet he got up and left everything. Then, in Luke 18, not long before this passage about Jesus and Zacchaeus, Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector who have come to the temple to pray. The Pharisee offers a prayer of thanks that he is not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, and the tax collector next to him. He is quite pleased with himself that he fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of his income. By contrast, the tax collector stands far off with his head bowed, beating his breast as he prays for mercy, God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Jesus ends the parable by saying that the tax collector went home justified before God, but not the Pharisee. It is quite possible that Zacchaeus has heard of Jesus reputation for showing mercy and love even to someone as hated as a tax collector. Now, none of us enjoy paying taxes. I assume that that s a safe assumption to make. The one day each year that no American looks forward to is April 15 th, the day that Federal Income Tax is due. Is there a similar day here in Korea? Tax collectors have it easier nowadays than they did in biblical times. Most of us have tax taken out of our paycheck automatically. We don t need to think about it. 3
Things would have been quite a bit different in the time of Zacchaeus. As technologically advanced as it was for its day, there was no e- filing and no automated deductions in the Roman Empire. Instead, taxes were paid in person to the tax collector. SLIDE Tax collectors were despised for a number of reasons. First of all, Roman taxation symbolized Rome s authority over Israel. Actually, there was no Israel anymore. What was once the independent nation of Israel was at this time the Roman province of Judea. Imagine Koreans paying taxes to Japan during the occupation. That s what it was like for Jews to pay taxes to Rome. Second, the Romans sold the task of collecting taxes to the highest bidder. This person then hired locals to collect the taxes, someone like Zacchaeus. The person appointed did not receive any salary for his work; he simply collected as much money as he could, and he kept for himself what was left over after he had paid the agreed sum to the Romans. You can imagine the opportunities for corruption. But corruption wasn t the only reason that tax collectors were despised. Farmers who tried to move their goods to a market outside their immediate territory were forced to pay taxes that ate up any profit. Goods sold in some markets were also taxed. All of these taxes meant that farmers were often in debt to tax collectors. Among Jews, tax collectors were also rejected because they had contact with Gentiles, i.e., non Jews, and were therefore ritually unclean. SLIDE And speaking of unclean, the name Zacchaeus is a Greek form of a common Hebrew name, Zaccai, meaning clean or pure. So Zacchaeus s very name was like a slap in the face to Jewish society. The man whose name meant clean was anything but clean to his own people. Yet here comes this Jewish prophet from Galilee who is a friend of tax collectors. 4
By contrast with last week s passage from Matthew 25, in which Jesus was portrayed as the judge of nations, here in Luke 19 Jesus is depicted as a friend in need of a place to stay. The informality of this passage is striking. Picture the scene. Zacchaeus is perched above the crowd in his tree, observing Jesus from a distance. When Jesus approaches the spot where Zacchaeus is perched, he calls him by name, as though they are already good friends: Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today. Hurry and come down, Jesus tells him. Read a certain way, it can sound as though Jesus is ordering Zacchaeus to come down. Is this, in fact, a stern command that Jesus utters, the prophet with spiritual authority ordering the tax collector with mere political authority? In other words, is Jesus giving an order to Zacchaeus? In the first year at Princeton Seminary, every student is required to take a year-long Speech class. The first thing we learn in that class is that every reading of scripture is an interpretation. The way that I read the passage before beginning this sermon was an interpretation. I chose to accent some words and not others. My inflection the way I raised or lowered the pitch of my voice was also interpretive. Pace, volume, tone are other means by which a reader interprets. The Lutherans have a tradition of flat reading, i.e., reading the text in a monotone. This is so that the reader doesn t impose an interpretation on the listener. I understand the reasoning, but Jesus told stories. Stories read in a monotone are not interesting. Imagine listening to the following [read in a monotone]: Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today. Not very interesting. And even a flat reading is an interpretation it s just a boring one. Given the way that Zacchaeus greets Jesus, hurrying down from the tree and welcoming him with gladness, tells me that Jesus probably called to him with compassion, perhaps even humor. It s as though he s spotted Zacchaeus in the middle of doing something ridiculous, like trying to hide in a sycamore tree. [Read with humor]: Zacchaeus, what are you doing up there? Hurry up and come down! I need to stay 5
at your house today. Zacchaeus, perhaps disarmed at the directness and cheerfulness with which he has been greeted, hurries down from his hiding spot and welcomes Jesus with gladness. It s easy to understand why. Where the Jews see a traitor to his people, and the Romans see only a useful Jew, Jesus sees an individual worthy of compassion and friendliness. Thus, his first word is to call his name...zacchaeus. SLIDE "What's in a name?" Juliet asks in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. "That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." The fragrance of a rose would not change even if a rose were called something else. Despite Juliet's objection, there is something particular about our names. Studies of human behavior have confirmed that the sound of our own name is one of the most stimulating sounds to our ears. Even with our hearing distracted by competing noises, we still notice when our name is called. However, in calling Zacchaeus by name, Jesus isn t simply getting his attention. By calling Zacchaeus s name, Jesus is calling him into community the most important community there is community with Christ. Zacchaeus, despised by Jews and tolerated by Romans, is loved by Jesus Christ. The outcast has been brought into community with Christ. His response to Christ s generosity is immediate; he is overcome with a spontaneous generosity of his own. He vows to give half his possessions to the poor and to repay four times over those he has wronged. Generosity breeds generosity. SLIDE Christ s generosity to the outcast was not limited to tax collectors. In the last verse of this passage Jesus says that he has come to seek and to save the lost. The Gospel of Luke contains one example after another of the lost being found in Christ. Chapter 15 alone contains three parables regarding the lost the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost (prodigal) son. Luke introduces these three parables in verse 1 by observing of Jesus that all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to him. SLIDE 6
Tax collectors, the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, the foreigner, the blind, the lame, sinners the community Christ gathers to himself is a most unlikely assembly of people. To the privileged, i.e., the religious elite, the fact that Jesus associates with those regarded as undeserving of love is scandalous. When they hear that Jesus intends to stay at the home of Zacchaeus, they can t help but whisper among themselves in disapproval. As Luke writes, All who saw it began to grumble and said, He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner. But Christ cares nothing for the prejudice of the privileged; he simply gathers together his unlikely community of outcasts. We too are an unlikely community. And by we I mean this English Ministry. We come from different nations, different religious backgrounds, and different generations. I don t know whether you are aware just how unusual this English Ministry is. Back in the United States, I attended the English Ministry of a Korean church for eight years. It was typical of most English Ministries in that it attracted primarily young adults and college students. If you were over thirty, as I was, you were considered old. I m not saying that they had a wheelchair waiting for me when I came to service, but many who came were former high school Bible study students of mine. Even the friends I made were five to ten years younger than I was. One of the things that I most appreciate about this English Ministry is just how diverse we are: young and old (or let s say younger and more experienced ), Korean and nonkorean, those who grew up speaking English and those who have learned it as a second or even a third language. True, this diversity can make getting to know one another more challenging. Most of us are drawn to those who are similar to us in some way. But let me challenge you now to imitate Christ. Where did Christ build community? The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost, Jesus says. Christ built community among those who had none. 7
As small a congregation as we are and in some sense I am grateful that we are small it s become clear to me that we lack a sense of community. We don t know each other as well as we should. Finding community in a city as large as Seoul can be difficult. People come and go. They're here for a few years--to work or to study--and then they move on. This makes doing ministry challenging as well. One of the reasons that I was excited to serve this church were the opportunities for ministries outside the church, such as outreach to the homeless in the subway stations and visiting the school for North Korean refugees that was begun by Pastor Sam, my predecessor. But before we minister to others we first need to minister to ourselves. Before we can be the face of Christ outside these walls we first need to be the face of Christ within them to each other. I have begun some measures to try to build a greater sense of community here. We had the barbecue last week. Today you have been asked to wear a name tag so that others might address you by name. It may seem like a small gesture, but as Jesus did with Zacchaeus, the simple act of calling another s name is an invitation into community. Community has been on my mind of late, in part because of the needs of this ministry, but also in a greater sense. I spent Thursday and Friday of this week in Busan attending the World Council of Churches meeting. The WCC, as it is known, meets just once every seven years, and this year they chose to meet in Busan. The WCC is an ecumenical gathering of Christians, meaning it draws Christians from around the world of all different denominations: not only Protestants and Catholics from Western Europe and America, but also Eastern Orthodox Christians from Armenia and Ethiopia, Presbyterian youth from Taiwan, Coptic Christians from Egypt, who are among the oldest Christian communities, and Christians from island nations in the South Pacific. 8
The first event I attended was a panel discussion on how the Church can advance issues of justice and peace around the world. The panel included a priest from the Armenian Orthodox tradition, two elders from the Coptic Christian Church in Egypt, and an Anglican bishop from Sri Lanka, all of whom were interviewed by an impressive young woman in her early twenties whose father was from the German Evangelical Church and whose mother was a Buddhist from Thailand. While the panel discussion was interesting, more moving for me was the prayer service we had in which we prayed, sang, and heard scripture read in a number of different languages: English, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Latin, and one or two African languages that I can t even name. Praying, singing, and hearing scripture read in all these different languages reminded us that Christianity is truly a world religion and that Christ s community is a world community. Christ says that he is present wherever two or more gather in his name. That holds true for a gathering of thousands, such as the World Council of Churches. And it holds true for a smaller gathering of thirty or so people at the English Ministry of a Korean church in the city of Seoul. We gather together in the name of Jesus Christ, the one who has called each one of us by name. 9