FORE AND AFT ZACCHAEUS - Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem; we
have made stops in the lectionary readings to hear him tell stories that encourage
unwavering prayer for justice (18:1-8), a story about honesty v. hubris when approaching
God in prayer (18:9-14), and three mini-episodes that have Jesus blessing children,
confronting a potential follower but too tied to his wealth, and the healing of
Bartimaeus. What follows the story of Zacchaeus is the story about the three guys and
nobleman (19:11-27).
FURNITURE DETAILS-Notice Luke’s furniture details: Zacchaeus is the "chief
tax collector" and wealthy. Zacchaeus - "chief tax collector." According
to Craddock, "[such a title] implicates him more deeply in the corrupt tax system of
the Roman government. In a corrupt system the loftier one’s position, the greater
one’s complicity in that system." [1] Luke’s detail foreshadows the
relationship of wealth to discipleship which later in the story becomes a dramatic
response to the word.
GETTING SAVED MORE THAN SOUL-CLEANSING-Notice the impact of this conversion story:
". . . in the case of Zacchaeus, his ‘being saved’ refers to a conversion,
to be sure, but not in any private sense . . . Not only is his household involved but also
the poor who will be beneficiaries of his conversion as well as all those people whom he
may have defrauded. His salvation, therefore, has personal, domestic, social, and economic
dimensions." [2]
Below, I offer some running conversation with the passage that
could allow an access into the sermon from the text . . . hope the thoughts might trigger
some homiletic direction for you . . . [ED].
In relationship to the economics of his day, Zacchaeus’ status as being
"rich" (NRSV), "a wealthy man," (Phillip’s), "very
rich," (NEB) probably places him in the upper class of his society. What profile
could we create that fairly assesses our upper class? What would that profile look like in
relationship to the global economy? It would be useful to create a parallel that is
roughly equivalent to what Luke describes of Zacchaeus; what does that status mean for
those who are fortunate enough to enjoy such status?
Luke says that Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. Clearly, Luke is sensitive to the
gap that separates the poor from the wealthy. This story, for instance, is unique to Luke;
Luke deliberately includes this in his portrait of the gospel; this is especially
significant in light of what his other unique stories of the dishonest manager, the rich
man and Lazarus, not to mention his placement of the rich young ruler in this sequence of
events. So we may want to pay close attention to his description of Zacchaeus.
Money may increase via investments, but it doesn’t do much for this
investor’s growth: Zacchaeus is still the inverse of his wealth-"he was short in
stature."
Try to retell imaginatively the account of Zacchaeus’ inability to see due to his
small stature and his actions. Could this also allude to smallness in other ways? His
accumulations? Smallness of spirit? Etc.
I wonder what Zacchaeus had heard about Jesus that would lead him to actually climb a
tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus? Seems like he just throws deportment to the wind and
forgets chief tax collector etiquette.
What makes this story memorable? The little big man? The antics of Zacchaeus? The
invitation of Jesus? The immediate response to Jesus’ invitation?
Does this story of transformation trigger any other stories of transformation in your
life? In the life of your community of faith? In your out-of-worship world?
Know of any story of someone who becomes a lotto winner that turns the bulk of the
wealth over to a church, synagogue, alma mater, etc? Yet we see in this story the
remarkable response of someone who is wealthy giving much of the wealth up for having been
with Jesus for a few minutes.
