Day 328 - Get Down Out of That Tree

A Sermon delivered Nov 3, 2013 at First Presbyterian Church, Soddy Daisy, TN
Epistle Reading: 2Thessalonians 1:11-12 *
New Testament Reading: Luke19:1-10

If you have followed the last several sermons, you know we are following Luke’s account of the journey of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem where the cross awaits. Along the way up the Jordan Valley he has attracted crowds of people, the sick and blind, Pharisees and religious leaders, believers and the curious. Each experience becomes areal-life teaching experiences for his disciples and us.

Ten chapters after Jesus set his eyes on Jerusalem, his journey to Jerusalem is almost over. Next week we will be in Jerusalem, but today, we are here in the oasis of Jericho, the busy gateway city lying at the base of the hills ahead of the steep climb to Jerusalem. It is a good place to encounter the chief toll collector.

Along the way from Galilee Jesus has encountered all kinds of people who are attracted to him and demonstrate faith in various unexpected ways. We saw the outcast Samaritan leper who was the only one of ten to realize he had been in God’s presence and returned to praise Jesus. Jesus said his faith healed him.

We heard about the importance of humility in the story of the Pharisees arguing about the best seat at the table. We heard about the challenge of the narrow gate - to hold onto faith when the world tests many who fall away.

We encountered the persistent widow who sought justice from an unjust judge until she got justice. It is Jesus' lesson encouraging persistent prayer for the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God.

We learned the obligation of faith is to do the right thing,  not for a special reward but because it is the right thing to do. We learned about the love of God who will seek out one lost sheep of 100.

Last week we listened to the really sneaky story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus said we cannot get to the humble repentance and blessing of grace of the sorrowful, despised tax collector until we acknowledge we are the prideful Pharisee who needs to recognize God’s grace and repent of our pride.

Today it is the chief toll collector and toll roads. Toll roads have been in existence at least 2700 years. In the Roman era, if you traveled in a Roman province you were liable to be stopped on the road at any time by a toll collector who wants to search your belongings for goods you may carry and charge you a tax or toll. People also paid a tax or toll just to travel on the roads, or to cross certain bridges, and the like.

What is the chief toll collector? In these Roman times, a toll collector is another way to say tax collector.  The chief toll collector bids for right to collect taxes for the emperor on an area or province. He is the business person who does the negotiating and managing. The tax collector did all the work. They were considered loathsome occupations and the populace despised them both.

The chief tax collector was the worst because everyone presumed he abused his job since he had a lot of flexibility to determine exactly how and what his collectors charged. What he collected and what he owed Rome might be quite different. But the populace knew or assumed these collectors were wealthy because of their job.  In practice, the job had a lot of financial uncertainty since the population was poor and he has to pay his tax collectors and Rome. Nevertheless, Luke tells us with the impression this is a wealthy, successful chief tax collector.

The chief tax collector stands out from the crowd. He would be well dressed, and probably carry himself is a manner reflecting his high station as one of the elite. 

But something is wrong with this story. Remember Jesus has a soft spot for tax collectors because they are among the despised and ritually unclean people that he seeks. He speaks and associates with them, eats at their homes and praises them, not for their wealth but for their faith.

Here in Jericho with its main road to Jerusalem and we meet the chief toll collector, Zacchaeus.  He is short and his name is a Hebrew word signifying he is a  Jew. His name is also a play on words. It means pure, clean or righteous.

Luke does not tell us why Zacckaeus is so excited and motivated to see Jesus. Is it curiosity or has he heard about Jesus already and is counted among the believers?  All we know is short, ritually unclean Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus and whether by intent or happenstance the crowd blocks his view. He cannot find a spot to see Jesus so he runs ahead and scales a tree to get a glimpse.

The scene as Jesus enters Jericho is rowdy. Crowds have followed him and probably many more are attracted as word travels that the man who is the Messiah is coming to Jerusalem. I expect the hullabaloo is a precursor to what will happen on Palm Sunday when he enters Jerusalem.

Use your imagination. We have this well-dressed and wealthy senior official who runs and climbs a sycamore tree to get sight of Jesus. Today he would be the mayor wearing a tuxedo and sitting in a tree down on Market Street. It is not a very dignified behavior and might even be considered humiliating to act so far below his station. 

Remember this is Rome where power and pride are the highest virtues.Why didn’t the chief tax collector have a centurion order the people to let him through, or order them himself because he can make the life of the people hard if he so chooses?

Jesus sees Zacchaeus up in the tree and calls him down saying he wants to stay at his house today. Zacchaeus, the well dressed chief toll collector immediately obeys the bidding of Jesus.

The crowd grumbles with a condescending, complaining critical attitude towards this worst of the worst. (Grumble is the word used previously to describe the way the offended Pharisees described Jesus, the one who associates with beggars, unclean people, drunks and outcasts). Luke tells us all grumbled, meaning everyone including the disciples and the Pharisees were offended that Jesus going into the chief tax collector’s house to eat and rest overnight.

What happens next has drawn a big argument among preachers because of the way various people translate verse 8. This is one of the cases where it pays to remember how personal interpretation and bias influence translation of Scripture. It is clear everyone is grumbling in disrespect for the chief toll collector. But the Greek text literally says that Zacchaeus is defending himself to Jesus against the crowd, saying “I give half my wealth to the poor and when I discover I have cheated or defrauded someone, I repay four times.”

Older traditional interpretation reads “I am giving” and “repaying” not as the present tense verbs that they are, but as future tense verbs, so that the chief tax collector is stating what he will begin doing from this point into the future. For example, “From now on, I will give half my wealth to the poor…” They translate it this way because they intuitively want to think that wealthy Zacchaeus has just converted or gained salvation for his zeal is seeking Jesus today. This interpretation actually carries a subtle bias against wealth and the wealthy (Luke does treat wealth as dangerous and a potential barrier to grace).  These translators assume if Zacckaeus is wealthy, by implication it is dishonest wealth and he is a bad person in need of repentance.

One of my commentaries written by a person that I respect(Fred Craddock, Luke, Interpretation, p 218) insists on the future because as he says, “...this much we know on principle, you can’t be part of a system that robs and crushes other people and be privately righteous.”  I think he overlooks his own self-righteous irony that we all are sinners and few of us look a gift horse in the mouth.

The older and surprising to me, more modern interpretation has Zacchaeus defending himself against the accusation of the crowd, essentially saying, “Jesus, those guys are wrong, I give half my wealth to the poor now and when I discover I have cheated or defrauded someone, I repay fourfold.”  I think it is a reasonable interpretation that Jesus is contrasting Zacchaeus with the the Pharisee in our parable of last week. The Pharisee pridefully went beyond the law but had no respect for people less than him. The chief tax collector is not just going beyond the letter of the law, he is motivated to follow its generous spirit to care for the disadvantaged.

Jesus commends him for it. “You are a Hebrew and you are seeking to follow the full meaning of the law and salvation has come to you. You are the kind of lost person I have come to find and save ("save/heal" is same word we used for the Samaritan leper, his faith has saved him).”

Like the tax collector last week, the chief tax collector understands his foot is on the shoulders of the people, and he is now working for justice in the world with his wealth. (It is always a dilemma whether to remain part of a corrupt system and work for good, or to abandon it, and in the end it is a personal decision guided by faith and the HS.)

The intervening parable of the rich young ruler that we skipped is connected to our story. You may recall the rich young ruler said he had following the letter of the law since he was a youth and wanted to know what else he needed to do for salvation. Jesus told him to go and sell all his assets and give the proceeds to the poor, then follow him.  Jesus may have tailored his demand to give up all his wealth to show the young man how short his faith has fallen, because here he praises Zacchaeus for giving half his wealth. The point is don’t let your wealth blind you to faith.

 The chief tax collector, one of the ritually unclean outcasts Jesus came to rescue, obeyed Jesus, came down out of the tree and took Jesus to his home. He appeals his defense to Jesus that he is giving a large proportion of his wealth to help the poor because he has positive consideration of his neighbors compared to him.

Let’s think about a different context. The Gospels maintain it is best to share all your possessions and wealth with those in need because Jesus did that at the cross. Such an act puts you in absolute fealty to God, rather than tie you down to the world. This is the point with the rich young ruler. Jesus uses the chief tax collector to talk about how our spiritual orientation controls our actions; that is, how it shapes our perception of our vocation in the world.

A vocation means a calling, not a “job” in the literal sense. God calls each one of us to a purpose in this world. We have no option to choose a vocation, only to respond to our calling to service, or not. We may spend decades struggling to understand our vocation, or completely overlook the fact we may be actually doing it. Your vocation may be being the best parent or businessman that you can be. What “best” means, of course, is the heart of it. Jesus would ask,  “Are you glorifying God and loving your neighbor as you love yourself, or as God loves you?”

The point of the Pharisee, the tax collector and the chief tax collector is that we can’t get to repentance and salvation without first acknowledging our sins; admitting we are the Pharisees in the story, not the penitent tax collector. Only when we find enough humility to acknowledge our pride can we find grace. Then we become the tax collector who knows every blessing belongs to God.

The crowd presumed Zacchaeus to be an evil person who abused them; yet unbeknownst to them, he used half his wealth humbly and silently to help the poor. One message is you can’t judge a book by its cover. You may see someone who looks seedy or may be part of an abusive business, but look beyond the cover to the real person. For example, if we failed to look beyond the cover, every denomination that has cases of pastoral sexual abuse should be judged as unworthy and corrupt. Yet we know we are all sinners and we cannot condemn a church or congregation for the failure of its members, unless the congregation or church choses to endorse the bad behavior.

Most importantly, this is a story of being vindicated as righteous for responding to God’s call. 

The Shorter Catechism, a text many people my parent’s age used in confirmation class ,begins with three paired questions and answers:

1.    What is the chief end of man? Answer: To glorify God and enjoy his grace forever.

2.   What is the rule or guide that God has given us that tells us how to glorify God? Answer:…The only guide is the Word of God …told in the Bible that we understand with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

3.   What doe the Scriptures principally teach? Answer: What we believe about God and what our duties to God are.

This confession, like all formal confessions, strives to capture what people of good faith understand the call to action by Jesus Christ means. Jesus says our focus on righteous, our ticket to Heaven is heeding our calling to facilitate the work of the Church in the world.

So, yes it is truly glorious for one who earns a million or billion dollars to give it all to the work of God’s church in the world. However, remember giving it all is not the same as buying a ticket to Heaven. Some times less is more. You may be as blessed to earn a million dollars and use $500,000 to help those lost souls in need like the chief tax collector, because that is what the righteous, obedient disciple of Jesus does. The one with the real trouble is the one who earns far less but shares none of it. (Stay tuned for the parable of the talents.) God’s grace rains on those who work to fulfill their vocation because they heed God’s call for their lives.

Every day there is opportunity to be Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector. So,  get down out of the tree and start using our gifts to glorify God.

* note: all scripture comes from the Oremus bible Browser (www.bible.oremus.org), an NRSV text.