Luke 19,1-10. 3. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Luke 19,1-10   3313

3. Sonntag nach Trinitatis  048    

Julitta, Quirinus, Martyrs 304 

16. Juni 2013

1. O Lord Jesus Christ, it is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that You came into the world to save sinners. You desire that no one, yes, not a single one, be lost. From all eternity You had thoughts of grace toward every human being. By Your life and suffering, by Your bleeding and dying on the cross, You reconciled every person to Your Father, redeemed them from all sins and won for them grace, righteousness, life and salvation. O Lord, awaken Your sleeping Church and fill her again with ardent love for those who are still without Christ and without hope in this world. Yes, arise, O Lord, in these last days of the world to rescue those who still may be rescued, and count also us worthy of taking part in this most blessed work.  Amen. 

2. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Jesus, for He was about to pass that way. And when Jesus arrived at the place, He looked up and said to him: „Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.“ So he hurried and came down and received Jesus joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled: „He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.“ And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord: „Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.“ And Jesus said to him: „Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.“ 

3. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus tells parables about finding something precious that had been lost, namely a wandering sheep and a missing silver coin. Jesus teaches in these parables the heart and desire of God who seeks for the lost. In Luke 19, the evangelist tells us that Jesus heals a blind man who is oppressed, and then extends love to a tax collector who is an oppressor (Bailey 170). Both were lost, and Jesus found them. In reality, no one particularly cares for tax collectors: they were despised in Jesus’ day just as they are loathed in our day. The sentiment in Jesus’ day and culture was: the tax collectors were lost and should stay lost. Why would this sentiment prevail? 

4. The Roman tax code was a bit different than our current IRS system. „The system of taxation then in place was called „tax farming.“ The local person who acquired the right to collect taxes for Rome was expected to turn over a set amount to the authorities at the end of the year. How much was to be paid was at times predetermined, but in practice the tax collectors were often the only ones with precise knowledge of the relevant statutes. The tax collector was despised in rabbinic literature and in the the New Testament, and he and his family were considered unclean. Lying to him was condoned. The system naturally produced graft and economic injustice. The town naturally hated its chief collaborator (Bailey 176-77). Worse still, Zacchaeus is described as a wealthy man which means he was particularly adept in gouging his neighbors with exorbitant taxes and profited from what was left over after he rendered unto Rome what was Rome’s. 

5. We tend to look at the story of Zacchaeus with rose-colored glasses. The people in Jericho were far less inclined to think kindly of their „friendly“ neighborhood taxman. Zacchaeus was a pariah, a thief, a traitor and a collaborator. He and his family were despised, received vile epithets and were unwelcome. You could not get anymore lost than having  tax collecting as your vocation. The townsfolk can appreciate and applaud Jesus for healing the blind man, for he is a poor, downtrodden man in need of healing. But to show mercy to a tax collector, there Jesus has gone too far. How would we feel if Jesus treated former IRS commissioner Steven Miller the way he treated Zacchaeus? 

6. Solomon lamented: »Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them« (Ecclesiastes 4,1). Jesus both opposes oppressors and extends comfort to them (Bailey 170). Jesus really meant it when He came to save the lost, and that included the worst of all sinners: the despised tax collectors. 

7. Jesus is so serious about saving Zacchaeus that He allows Himself to become unclean. According to the scribes and Pharisees: as a tax collector, „Zacchaeus’ house is defiled. If Jesus enters Zacchaeus’ house, sits on his chairs and sleeps in his guest bed, then Jesus will emerge the following morning defiled and in need of ceremonial cleansing“ (Bailey 180-81). Jesus had already told a parable where a priest and a Levite refused to render assistance to a man beaten by thieves for fear that if they approach the man, and he is dead, then they become unclean and must go through the purification ritual. Rather than defile themselves, the priest and Levite ignore the plight of the beaten man. Jesus could react in a similar way to Zacchaeus. He could ignore him and remain ceremonially clean, which was important with Passover so near. 

8. Jesus, as we see in the Holy Gospels, is not one to be bound to the rules and traditions of the elders at the expense of people. If a man is ill, Jesus will work on the Sabbath and heal him. If a leper is sick, Jesus will enter his presence, make Himself unclean and heal the leper thereby making the unclean clean again. The crowds, by and large, applaud Jesus when He thumbs His nose at the Pharisees and their stifling traditions, but when it involves cavorting with a rich tax collector, then the crowds take offense at Jesus. More to the point, Jesus accepts the tax collector’s hospitality while ignoring the hospitality the townspeople of Jericho wanted to lavish upon Him. 

9. Instead Jesus lavishes hospitality, grace and the gospel upon despised Zacchaeus and his family. »Jesus said to him: „Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.“« Zacchaeus is one who is lost, and Jesus sought Him out and saved him. Jesus does the same to us. We are no less a sinner than despised Zacchaeus. O we will qualify ourselves by saying we are not as bad a sinner as a lying, cheating, spying tax collector, but in God’s eyes we are equally lying, cheating sinners who merit death and damnation for our sinful state. Jesus will turn no one away, and that is sweet gospel to our ears and troubled conscience. If Jesus will go to great depths to save despised Zacchaeus, then He will likewise go to the same depths to redeem us. 

10. „The life-changing power that entered Zacchaeus’ house was not Jesus’ decision to stay over night. Rather, it was Jesus’ deliberate act of shifting the town’s hostility away from Zacchaus to Himself“ (Bailey 182). Jesus left Jericho behind and travelled up to Jerusalem. He celebrated the Passover there, and a day later was crucified as a defiled, unclean sinner. O the depths Jesus descended to save you, me and all the world. The Clean became Unclean, the Honored became Defiled, the Saint became a Sinner. Jesus stands in solidarity with His fallen creation all the way through rejection, execution and death. He descended to the very depths of hell and proclaimed His victory over Death and Hades. On the third day He burst from the grave in resurrection glory. The One Dead is now the Living One who holds the keys to Death and Hades. Jesus gives this resurrected life to all who believe on Him. 

11. The Apostle Paul proclaims: »the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek« (Romans 1,16). The gospel changes the lives it touches. „Zacchaeus had received costly love from Jesus, and he now publicly commits himself to begin showing costly love to the community he has harmed“ (Bailey 182). Zacchaeus will repay those from whom he has stolen. The gospel has the same effect in our lives. The gospel enables us through our individual vocations and talents to show costly love to our neighbors. Our lives are dedicated to helping both the oppressed and the oppressors. Such actions will require sacrifices, but in Christ we gladly bear those burdens for the sake of the gospel and out of love for our neighbor. Paul had made a name for himself by rounding up Christians, persecuting them and even killing some of them. Jesus showed him costly love and saved him. Paul spent the remainder of his life preaching the gospel of Jesus, even facing persecution and hardship but he carried on out of love for Jesus and his neighbor. Jesus and His gospel calls us to the same and gives us the power to carry out such actions. May we join the praise of the angels who rejoice when a lost sinner repents and is saved.  Amen. 

12. Let us pray. O Merciful, Gracious Yahweh, You are slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness, instill in us the great joy of our salvation so that we do not dwell on all the times we have become lost, but rather rejoice in all the times You have sought us out, found us and returned us unto Your holy Church.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

Bailey, Kenneth E. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes. Copyright 2008 Kenneth E. Bailey. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith. Copyright © 1902 Frank Carroll Longaker.