Today’s Gospel is about how a real sinner found salvation through his encounter with Christ. Jesus’ healing and teaching ministry attracted a crowd as he traveled. One person that it attracted was Zaccheaus. He was attracted by more than simple curiosity. He was not out for entertainment or a spiritual fix. Nor was he trying to impress anyone. He was a sinner looking for salvation, and he found it and a better life in the God-man Jesus Christ.
I want to make sure you understand his condition. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. A “publican”. He collected taxes for the imperial pagan army that had enslaved his people (the Jews). We are all familiar with “taxation without representation”. We abhor it and everyone who facilitates it. Zacchaeus was the Jewish equivalent of the American “duty-men” who were universally reviled here in America during Colonial times. I have never read of the Jews tar-and-feathering anyone in Jericho like our ancestors here did, but the antipathy towards injustice was the same. In fact, it may have been worse than the colonials felt: Zacchaeus got rich by taking even more in taxes than the Romans demanded and keeping the extra for himself. You can bet that the other Jews reviled him and his wicked manner of life. He was a pariah: greedy, traitorous, and sinful.
So perhaps now you can see why people were upset that Our Lord stopped and offered to bless Zacchaeus and his home; and when Jesus actually went into his house as guest. As the Gospel says; “And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, that he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.” Do you share their enmity?
Pious Jews did not eat with sinners lest they also be defiled by their sin. The home of someone like Zacceaus, whose sin was so awful and so public, would have also been seen as an unclean place. It would have been like dining with lepers. They did not understand that Jesus could not be defiled by anyone’s sin, or contaminated by being within a cursed place. The prayer the priest shares during the blessing of homes (a prayer which many of you have recently heard) describes what happens when Christ enters a sinner’s home:
O God our Savior, the True Light, Who was baptized in the Jordan by the Prophet John, and Who did deign to enter under the roof-tree of Zacchaeus, bringing salvation unto him and unto his house: do You, the same Lord, keep safe also from harm those who dwell herein; grant to them Your blessing, purification and bodily health, and all their petitions that are unto salvation and Life everlasting; for blessed are You, as also Your Father Who is from everlasting, and Your All; Holy, Good and Life; creating Spirit, both now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
Far from being cursed, Jesus changes things by his very presence. His blessing cuts through the deepest stains. But the onlooking Jews did not trust in the blessing of the God-man. Their only reaction was visceral: they hated Zaccheaus and his sin and could not stand the idea that Jesus would spend time with him. No doubt, it undermined their faith in Christ. They would need to look elsewhere for a messiah: in their eyes, Jesus had been compromised.
Jesus’ message of forgiveness was radical; designed to restore community to Himself as God, and through this; restore community among all God-fearing people. It must have been hard for the Jewish community to even think of admitting Zacchaeus back into their lives. Not only had he done enormous damage on his own, they themselves had done nothing wrong. In fact, they must have wondered why Jesus did not dine with them! Why should Jesus go to so much trouble as to eat with a sinner when he could have joined with others who were like Him in their holiness?
Christ had responded to such criticism earlier while eating with sinners at the home of another tax collector, the apostle Matthew, so we have His response to this question “on the record”:
As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Like Zaccheaus, I am a sinner. Last week I described the temptations that I wrestle with. God does not bless my sinfulness: he calls me to repentance. He did not bless Zaccheaus’ sinfulness: he called Him to repent and change. Christ is so perfect, so holy, that you cannot be in His presence and remain unaffected. There may be some who need only bask in His glow [we will hear of them next week when we speak of the “Publican and the Pharisee”]; but for the rest of us, remaining in His Light requires constant repentance and growth. For the rest of us, self-satisfaction would require turning our backs on Him, turning our backs on happiness, turning our backs on community, and embracing an eternity of the sin that comes so easy to us. It is obvious that sinners do not deserve to have the Lord come into our homes (e.g. “beneath the roof of the temple of our souls” (Communion prayer)); that we do not deserve to come and eat the Mystical Food and Drink He so lovingly offers and shares with us; and that we certainly do not deserve the mansion He has prepared for us in glory.
We deserve none of this, but I hope that no one is offended by that offers it to us. More so, I hope that no one is offended if we actually accept his mercy. While we can never earn the love He has freely given, we do “repent sincerely” and “promise that, with the help of God, we will better our lives” (from the prayer after confession). Like Zaccheaus, we promise that we will make amends. He gave half of all he had to the poor; and to give those he cheated four-times what he stole. We offer nothing less than our lives.
All of us are sinners. All of us fall short of the glory of God. But God is merciful and desires our salvation; it is for this reason that He offered up His Son, Jesus Christ; it is for this reason that He gave us His Church. Acknowledge your sins and repent. Accept forgiveness for your sins, and allow the Lord to bless and better your life. Then, having done this, rejoice and bring others to the same. This may cause you to sit down with sinners, but you will feast with saints.
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