All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner."  

(Luke 19:7)

Nobody liked Zacchaeus, the small man from Jericho

Everyone thought he was rotten, Zacchaeus he hated it so

Now Zac he heard about Jesus and climbed up a tree for a view

Said Jesus “I’m coming to your house today. Zacchaeus I’m talking to you”

Many years ago, when I was in charge of the Sunday School, I came across that song and I rather liked it. Trouble is its use is kind of limited. You can only really use it when you’re talking about the story of Zacchaeus so - Yay - today I get to sing it.

Today’s Gospel reading was abut Zacchaeus, right? Well yes. Obviously. Mostly. But I think there’s a bit more to it than that. What do we know about Zacchaeus? In the words of the song, everyone thought he was rotten. Or, as the crowd point out in the words of our text, they think he’s sinner. We also know that he’s a tax chief collector and that he’s very rich. Those things tended to go together. In those days tax was collected by a system called tax farming. The government - either the Romans or Herod - would appoint people in local areas a fee to collect the tax and they could make a good living off it. And sometimes tax collectors would collect somewhat more than was entirely due to be paid so there was always a suspicion that they weren’t just tax farming but milking the people for cash as well.

Worse they were collecting tax for the occupying army of Rome. Or for Herod who seemed to be very keen on spending shed-loads of cash building a fancy palace and temple complex and aqueducts in Jerusalem. In Jericho? Maybe not so much. So, all in all, a sinner, right? Maybe. Probably. So we can see this as a heart-warming story of redemption through Christ. Which it is.But there are a couple of subtleties here.

First off, he’s the third rich man we’ve come across in as many chapters of Luke’s gospel and the second tax-collector. In the previous two cases there were two people involved. We had the rich man and Lazarus. We had the tax-collector in the temple and the Pharisee. Is there another ‘person’ involved here as well? Actually yes there is. It’s the crowd who are outraged that Jesus is going to eat with this sinner. There’s another interesting thing here if you’re a language nerd like me. When Zacchaeus speaks of giving half his wealth to the poor the verb in the present tense - “I am giving”. It’s not a vague promise to do something in the future but something he’s doing right now. Also there’s that ‘if’. “If I have defrauded anyone.” Not “all those I have defrauded”. It’s as if he doesn’t think he actually has.

And yet he’s a sinner, right? We know he’s a sinner because the crowd tell us he’s a sinner. Why are they outraged by what Jesus says and does? He’s a famous rabbi. He’s a teacher of the Law. He’s supposed to condemn sinners, not invite himself to dinner with them. They aren’t about to rejoice in Zacchaeus’s homecoming to the house of Abraham. They’re not interested in his effusive generosity toward the poor or his willingness to cough up four-fold if he’s overcharged anyone. He’s a sinner. And sinners are to be condemned.

So who is Jesus speaking to when he says that the son of man has come to seek out the lost? Not Zacchaeus. He’s speaking to the crowd. He’s speaking to us. He’s speaking to the Church; to the people down the ages called to follow him and to be his body in the world; to be his voice to speak words of salvation and grace to the world and to be his hand offered to the fallen and the lost to raise them to their feet and to bring them home rather than to condemn.

The Church has been at its best when we’ve done that. And at our worst when we haven’t. We have been at our best when we have shown the love of God in Jesus Christ to anyone who needs to know it, regardless of who they are, how they live, who they love, where they come from or what they’ve done. We have been at our worst when we have wagged the finger in condemnation. There’s a church in America known as the Westboro’ Baptist Church that used to picket the funerals of prominent gay people with placards proclaiming to the mourners that their loved one was roasting in Hell. 

“For the son of man came to seek out and save the lost,” Jesus says. Who’s he talking to? To the crowd. Not that they can feel smug about Jesus describing Zacchaeus that way but to encourage them to recognise that each of them gets lost sometimes; to encourage them to do what he’s doing and welcome others as fellow children of God, as sons and daughters of Abraham. “For the son of man came to seek out and save the lost,” Jesus says. Who’s he talking to? He’s talking to us. His Church.

we are called to recognise that we are none of us perfect. We are all sinners to one extent or another. We all fall short of the glory to which we are called as children of God, made in the image of God. We are all saved not by our virtues or by keeping the rules, but through the Cross of Jesus Christ. It is not our business to judge or condemn others - that’s for God and for God alone. It is our business, our joy and our privilege, to offer our hands to all who come to these doors - and beyond - and welcome them with the love and grace that has been shown to us in Jesus Christ

Lord may your Church be a place of welcome for all who come. For all are saints and all are sinners. All need forgiveness and all may show grace.

Preached at Baxter Hall Eastrigga and Annan Old Parish Church

Complete Service