Like a Thief in the Night

November 30, 2025

Matthew 24:36-44

            It’s been a really long time now, but I still have some pretty vivid memories of the events that preceded the birth of my son, Joe.  I would imagine that all of us who are parents have the same kinds of memories.  Jackie and I did the Lamaze class thing.  One of the members of our class actually delivered before the classes were over, bringing her newborn into one of the classes, reminding all of us of what waited ahead.  We went through the usual flurry of purchasing baby clothes and supplies, putting a crib together, having a baby shower, and getting the baby’s room ready.  Of course, in those days, knowing whether the baby would be a boy or a girl was a mystery until the child was born and so not knowing whether we would have a boy or a girl we decorated the nursery in a gender-neutral style.  But Jackie, never one to do anything half-way, decided on a Muppet theme for the room and she, her brother John, and I painted Sesame Street murals on the walls, a few of which I was able to find pictures of.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find a picture of the one painting that I did by myself.  It was a painting of Oscar the Grouch in his trash can, but I can assure you that it was a respectable representation of Oscar. 

            We didn’t know the day or time of Joe’s arrival, but we had a general idea and so, preparation for the event was a high priority right up until the day that Jackie went into labor.  And on that day, just as Jackie’s contractions were beginning, I found myself accompanying her to the grocery store to make sure that our refrigerator and cupboards were sufficiently full.  It boggles my mind to this day that that was Jackie’s first thought as she went into labor.

            Today is the first Sunday in Advent, the beginning of the church year.  And while some may find it curious that our New Testament lesson today has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas or journeys to Bethlehem or babies in a manger, today we are reminded that God’s plan includes not one, but two comings of Jesus.  And today the first lesson for Advent focuses not on His first coming but on His second.

            There are a couple of different ways of looking at today’s scripture.  I suppose the fun way to look at it is to speculate on what is to come.  Theories about the timing of the second coming are ubiquitous and more than one prominent preacher’s career has been compromised by guessing incorrectly about when Jesus will return.  Just this past year a South African pastor predicted that the world would end on September 23^rd.  Oops, wrong again!  And theories also abound about HOW Christ’s return will work.  Rapture theology developed in the early 1800’s… and was popularized by none other than the prominent preacher and theologian, D. L. Moody. 

There are a few verses in the New Testament that may possibly support the idea of Rapture theology, but I really don’t want to talk about that today, other than to say that I believe that this entire exercise of trying to interpret the timing or the methodology of Christ’s second coming, or, as theologians refer to it, the Parousia, really misses the point of today’s text.   Because I believe that what Jesus is actually teaching here is not so much a lesson about what is to come; but is much more likely to be a lesson about the narrow road.  You know, that passage from Matthew 7:13 that says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Jesus begins His teaching today by talking about Noah.  In Genesis 5:32 the Bible tells us that, “After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.”  Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came and he entered the ark with his sons and their wives.  Assuming that his sons married in the typical time frame in their twenties or thirties, theologians presume that it took Noah between 50 and 75 years to build the ark.  Let’s think about that for just a moment.  50 to 75 years!  50 to 75 years of ridicule from your neighbors.  50 to 75 years of chopping down trees and constructing a boat the size of an aircraft carrier in the middle of your back yard.  50 to 75 years of waiting for a flood that, as time passed, may very well have seemed less and less likely to actually happen. 

Noah’s neighbors continued to live their lives without the slightest concern for the impending disaster, but Noah kept building, kept preparing, and most important, kept believing. 

When we ask ourselves “What does Jesus mean when He says that we need to be prepared”.  Part of the answer to that question is apparent in Noah’s story.  It is to continue to function, to continue to live our lives in a way that reflects our belief that God is going to do what He says that He is going to do.  For Noah, that meant to spend 50 to 75 years of his life taking a giant step in faith and building that ark.  But we aren’t being called to build an ark, so what does being prepared mean for us? 

Well, how do we define what it is that Noah did?  Through what was certainly decades building the ark, Noah remained true to the task; and not just the task of building.  Noah convinced his family to stick with him, and I would imagine that that might have been a challenge.  And yet, thanks to Noah’s efforts, his entire family followed him onto the ark and was saved.  Noah followed God’s instructions to the letter, both in the building of the ark and in the gathering of the animals.  In short… Noah was faithful.  He did exactly what he was called to do.

Ronald J. Allen tells us that, “Matthew 24:37-44 reinforces the idea that the community must “be ready.” In this context, to “be ready” is to continue to do what Jesus taught in the Gospel of Matthew. The community is to prepare for the final advent less by doing special things and more by living and witnessing as Jesus instructed. The liturgical season of Advent is an annual reminder of the importance of faithfully doing what Jesus said.” [1] 

And so, when Jesus is telling His followers to be prepared, what He is asking us to do IS to be faithful; to live in the way that we are called to live, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless, to welcome the foreigner, and to stand for justice for all of God’s beloved children.  To live, as close as we are able, to the way that Jesus has called us to live… to BE the people that He has called us to be.

Next, Jesus talks about the two men working in the field and the two women grinding at a hand mill and saying about each that one will be taken and the other left.  Jesus is trying to impart a sense of urgency.  The fact that it has taken 2,000 years and still counting for Jesus to return may lead people into a false sense of security; may lead people to think that it’s not going to happen at all.  And I suspect that some folks in Noah’s day may have felt the same way about that flood that took 75 years to happen.  But when Jesus does return it will be like a thief in the night, sudden and irrevocable.  Jo Ann Taylor says, “Whatever you are doing when the time comes, you won’t have a chance to change your mind about Jesus then. It will be sudden, and it will be final. Since we have no idea when it will occur, we need to start living our lives right now for the possibility of that moment. We need to make sure that the daily tasks we are performing when Christ comes again are the sort of tasks that will prepare us for that time. As we work our fields and grind our grain, we need to be doing it as faithful followers of Jesus who are eager for him to come again. As we go about our daily routines, those routines should reflect our hunger for God, and our desire for his Kingdom to come in its fullness.” [2]

But there’s more.  As believers we are called to have a heart for the lost.  If we are working in the fields or we are grinding grain (Metaphorically speaking), we don’t want our work partners to be the ones who are going to be excluded from the kingdom, do we?  No!  We want them to find what we have found.  We want them to become children of the kingdom also.  And when we live our lives in the way that Jesus has called us to live them, when we live lives of grace and compassion and empathy and when we love others as Jesus has called us to love them, we may just find ourselves becoming the bearers of the Good News; the ones whose witness will save them.  By loving others in unexpected ways, we become a living, breathing, version of the Gospel; teaching others about the love of Jesus through our lives and through our example.  So, living in a state of constant readiness for the inauguration of the kingdom isn’t just something that we do for ourselves.  It is something that we do to show God’s love to the world in the hope that showing that love will lead others to a saving faith in Jesus.

Before my son Joe was born Jackie and I were caught up in this whirlwind of preparation where practically everything that we did was done in anticipation of the impending birth.  We were anxious and we were apprehensive but we were overjoyed at the prospect of becoming parents.  No, we didn’t know the day or the time, but we knew for sure that that day was coming.

This Advent we face a lot of the same kinds of emotions.  We can be apprehensive, we can be anxious, but we should be filled with wonder and awe and joy at the promise that awaits us.  And so, let us live our lives fully in anticipation of the coming of God’s kingdom.  And let us live our lives as witnesses to the love of God in Christ, in order that others may join with us in our joyful anticipation of Jesus’ return.

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[1] Ronald J. Allen, WorkingPreacher.com, Commentary on Matthew 24:36-44

[2] Jo Ann Taylor, A Pastor Sings, Keep Awake!

Stand Firm, and You Will Win Life

November 16, 2025

Luke 21:5-19

            It would be tempting to interpret today’s reading as prophecy, where Jesus is giving us all a hint about the future and what’s going to be happening.  And, while Jesus was indeed prophesying, the intent of His message was not about helping us to predict the future.  The intent of His message is to help His followers (and that would include us!) to keep the faith.  To stand strong in the face of adversity or difficulties or even persecution.  Over the last several weeks as we’ve talked about Luke’s narrative of Jesus setting His face toward Jerusalem, we’ve seen all kinds of opposition.  We’ve seen Pharisees and Sadducees and teachers of the law and even the Roman authorities opposing Jesus, trying to entrap Him with contrived questions, and trying to inhibit His work of spreading the Gospel.  If Jesus Himself couldn’t avoid the confrontations and the roadblocks that tried to impede His work, why in the world would we think that things would be any easier for us?

            The world, and when I speak of “the world” I speak of that portion of humanity that rejects Jesus and His teachings; and that prioritizes money and power ahead of the needs of God’s beloved children, this world about which I speak despises Jesus and everything that He stands for.  The world rejects the idea of helping others because helping others costs money and inhibits the world’s ability to amass even greater wealth.  The world rejects the idea of loving others because loving others requires one to direct one’s attention outward and so to be less selfish and therefore less capable of gathering more for oneself.  The world cares not for justice because justice interferes with one’s ability to amass money or power or self-gratification.  The world bids us not only to ignore the needs of others, but actually encourages the exploitation of others for personal gain. 

“Get while the getting is good”, “Look out for number one”, “They who die with the most toys win”, these are the mantras of this world; a world that finds ultimate convenience in taking from others whatever one can so that one can have even more.  It is a really ugly thought, isn’t it?  None of us would prefer to look at the world that way.  It would be so much more comfortable to focus on the good moments, the moments of people helping people, the moments of people making sacrifices to make sure that other people are OK, those feel-good moments that buttress our faith in humanity.  But deep down, we all know that those are the exceptions rather than the rule.

  It isn’t easy to look at our world with the kind of cold detachment that allows us to recognize the evil that is so prevalent; evil that we, sadly, have just grown to expect.  We look away from the person asking for spare change and create a narrative in our head that they will just use the money for drugs.  We shield ourselves from the fact that 11.1% of Americans live in poverty, ten million of them being children.  Almost 18 million households in the United States are food insecure, three quarters of a million are homeless, and 8.2% of the population… more than 27 million Americans are living without health insurance.  And none of that is due to a lack of resources, it’s all due to a lack of distribution.  It’s due to a world that refuses to recognize the fact that when one hoards resources, those resources are being denied to others who may very well be in desperate need.  The world calls this the cost of doing business.  God calls it sin.

There is a reason that we tend to hold the thought all of these things at a distance.  It’s self-preservation.  The problem of evil is so overwhelming… and when we contemplate all of the evil that exists in this world, the problem just seems so hopeless that we really can’t cope with it.  It’s just too much.

Today, this is what Jesus has chosen to talk about. 

Herod’s Temple almost defies description. It was built of gleaming white stones with accents of real gold and it was built on a large hill.  The temple could be seen from miles away and the sun would reflect off of the white stones and the gold creating a striking picture of beauty and grandeur.  The temple itself was the size of a modern football field, and the temple complex including the enclosed courts was the size of 28 football fields, over a million square feet and had enough room to accommodate about 400,000 people.

And there is one other thing that we need to know about the temple.  The temple was built by King Herod and King Herod had no Jewish blood.  He was born into an Edomite family who had been forcibly converted to Judaism and he was raised as a Jew, but the Jewish people did not accept him as a Jew.  Herod was known to have a massive ego, and he built the temple more as a monument to himself than as a place to honor God.  He wanted to outdo the rulers of the surrounding lands by building a temple that would far surpass the massive pagan temples built by the other rulers. And so, among the Jews, there were mixed feelings about the temple.  Yes, it was the center of Jewish worship and a place of Jewish pride.  But the knowledge of Herod’s egotistical involvement with the building of the temple, the fact that a man who claimed to be a Jew but whose actions belied his faith at every turn was something that tainted the temple for the people, even though they revered it.

In today’s story, the disciples look at the temple and comment on its beauty.  Jesus responds to their comment, saying, “The time will come when all that you see here will be destroyed. Every stone of these buildings will be thrown down to the ground. Not one stone will be left on another.”  I don’t know if we can understand how shocking this must have been to those who heard it.  For the Jewish people, the loss of not just the center of their worship, but the center of Jewish community would be catastrophic.

            And indeed, it was.  In 68 CE a group of Jewish Zealots rebelled against Rome.  The Romans besieged Jerusalem for two years.  The Jewish historian Josephus estimated that as many as a million Jews may have perished in that siege.  Even the Roman historian Tacitus set that number at around 600,000 but regardless of how many were lost, it was a terrible, horrifying event.  The Romans finally breached the wall in 70 CE and, true to Jesus’ prophecy, the Roman soldiers were commanded not to leave one stone standing on top of another.  The destruction of Jerusalem was complete.

            But Jesus didn’t stop with just this prophecy.  False prophets, nations and kingdoms set against each other in wars, poverty, famine, earthquakes, sickness, persecutions and rejection by family and friends, all of these things will happen, Jesus said.  But like I said earlier, His focus was not on predicting the future.  His focus was on that sense of hopelessness that we feel when we encounter the evils of this world… that paralyzing feeling that we are helpless to do anything significant to help.

            And so, what IS Jesus’ message today?  The message is to stand firm!  To continue to live our faith as we are called to live it and to do so regardless of our circumstances.

            I’ve mentioned before that Luke likes to arrange the stories in his Gospel in such a way that the stories are explained or enhanced by the surrounding stories.  Just prior to today’s lesson we read about the widow in the temple donating the single, small, coin that was all that she had.  As the disciples were contemplating the grandeur of the temple building, Jesus had just finished commending the sacrificial gift given by a woman who was living in the depths of poverty. 

Perhaps Jesus is commenting here on the nature of what it means to “stand firm”.  Maybe standing firm means not allowing ourselves to become overwhelmed.  Maybe standing firm means recognizing the needs of a single person in our own community and being the one who alleviates suffering for just that one person.  Maybe standing firm means to be a strident voice speaking out for justice, calling out the injustices of this world and advocating for something better.  Maybe standing firm means to be praying fervently for God’s will to be accomplished in this world, for hearts to turn to Jesus, for lives to be changed and for righteousness and justice to flow like a never-ending stream.  And certainly, standing firm means to trust God; to know without reservation that He is our strength and our shield, an ever-present help in times of trouble. 

            Those who stand firm, those who have empathy for others and who are willing to help as their circumstances permit, those who stand for justice and speak out against the injustices of this world, those who pray for the well-being of others both physically and spiritually, those who listen to and obey the call of the Holy Spirit, and those who share the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others, these are the people who will win life.  And not just life, but eternal life in abundance.

            Last week I quoted a part of 1 Corinthians 2:9. I’d like to repeat it today.  “No one has ever seen, no one has ever heard, no one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”  Stand firm!  And we will win life.  A life that is more wonderful than anything that we could possibly imagine.

A Shaggy Dog Story

November 9, 2025

Luke 20:27-38

            The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a “Shaggy Dog Story” as, “Of, relating to, or being a long-drawn-out circumstantial story concerning an inconsequential happening that impresses the teller as humorous or interesting but the hearer as boring and pointless”.  Today’s lesson is a shaggy dog story in the form of a question asked of Jesus by the Sadducees. 

Jesus had just had His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey with crowds shouting “Hosanna” and “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”.  We can well imagine how alarming this event would have been to the temple authorities and leaders, not to mention the Roman authorities.  And so, today’s question from the Sadducees is the third in a series of questions posed to Jesus in the temple courts.  But all three of these questions that were asked were totally disingenuous; asked not out of an attitude of curiosity or a desire to learn, but simply to try to entrap Jesus into saying something… anything that would get Him into trouble. 

            The first question saw the chief priests and the teachers of the law asking by what authority Jesus was teaching.  They were hoping that His answer could be construed to be blasphemous.  Instead, Jesus thwarted their plan by telling them that He would answer their question only if they would answer His question.  He asked them if John the Baptist’s baptism was of heavenly origin or of human origin.  This was a loaded question because either answer would create huge problems for the Jewish authorities, and so they refused to answer.   And so did Jesus.

            The second question was asked in the presence of Roman sympathizers and the authorities were trying to trap Jesus with a question about whether or not it was appropriate for Jews to pay taxes to Caesar.  Jesus again thwarted their plan by showing them a coin with Caesar’s image and telling them to render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and render to God what belongs to God.

            And in today’s lesson the Sadducees ask their shaggy dog story question.  You see, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection.  They were literalists who put primary emphasis on the 5 books of the Torah and, unlike the Pharisees, did not accept the oral traditions.  Since the Torah does not speak specifically about the resurrection, the Sadducees rejected any teaching that was related to it.  Now, there was a part of Mosaic Law that is referred to as “Levirite Law” in which, if a man marries a woman and he dies childless, the law requires his brother to marry his widow and produce a child in his name.  The purpose of this is, of course, the carrying on of the dead man’s family name, his legacy as it were, and the continuation of property rights, which would protect the widow.  And so, the Sadducees pose a ridiculous question where a man marries a woman and dies childless.  The man’s brother marries her and also dies childless and subsequently, all seven brothers in the family marry this woman and die childless.  The question the Sadducees ask is, in the resurrection, to whom is this woman married?  Since in this life she was married to all seven brothers.  Does this qualify as a shaggy dog story?  It sounds like some of the jokes I tell.

            Since the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, this question was clearly an attempt to ridicule belief in the resurrection but was also an attempt to entice Jesus into saying something that would make Him look bad or get Him into trouble.  I am not really sure why Luke chose not to report the same beginning to Jesus’ answer that Mark did, but Mark reports Jesus as having said, “How could you be so wrong? It’s because you don’t know what the Scriptures say. And you don’t know anything about God’s power.” 

Instead, Luke tells us that Jesus gave them an answer in two parts.  The first part was for Jesus to explain to the Sadducees that the life to come will be, in many ways, very different from the way things are now.  Erdman tells us that, “Those who share the glory of that age, and who will experience the blessedness of ‘the resurrection from the dead’ will be immortal in soul and body.  Marriage, which is now necessary for the continuation of the race, will no longer exist.  The relationships in that life will be higher than even the most sacred relationship of the present life.”  [1]  And so, to begin with, the Sadducees are applying worldly thinking to something that is quite beyond our imagination.  Paul gives us a pretty good insight into this idea in 1 Corinthians when he said, “No one has ever seen, no one has ever heard, no one has ever imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him”.

Then, Jesus’ answer had a second part.  The Sadducees were thoroughly convinced that the Torah did not teach about the resurrection, but Jesus used the Torah itself to address their argument.  Jesus told them that, in the story of the burning bush where God first revealed His name to Moses, God identified Himself as “‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”  These men were all long dead by Moses’ time, and those who are dead cannot have a God, because when you are dead you don’t have anything.  And so, if God is calling Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then they must still be alive, at least to God.  Because, as Jesus said, God is God of the living, not the dead.  Caird says, “Death may put an end to physical existence, but not a relationship that is by nature eternal”.  [2]  The Sadducees were so wrapped up in this life and how things work according to their own experience, that they failed to consider the wonder, the miracle, of the resurrection, and the riches that God has prepared for His beloved children. 

But there is something deeper in today’s lesson.  The Sadducees tended to be the wealthy elite of first century Judaism. They collaborated with the Romans, not because they agreed with Roman rule or methods, but because the Sadducees were a very pragmatic people and collaborating with the Romans allowed them to keep their positions of authority and their status as the wealthy elite.  But we all know that Roman rule in first century Palestine was profoundly unjust.  And when we think of the attributes of God, Justice is very high on that list.  We know, of course, that love is first and foremost on that list, but it has been said that justice is just love in action. 

It is impossible for Christians to look at the world in its fallen state and to find any semblance of consistent justice.  The sad fact is that our fallen world is persistently unjust.  And so, if we, as Christians, believe in justice… if we believe that God will, at some point make everything right, then we must believe in the resurrection because ultimate justice cannot happen without it.  God’s entire story as it relates to humanity is the story of the fall, the calling, the redemption, and the renewing, first the renewing of the heart, then the renewing of the resurrection including the introduction of the new heaven and the new earth.  “Behold, I make everything new!”

Let me ask a question… If we should happen to be driving on the Parkway, do we always carefully follow the speed limit, or might we occasionally drive just a little bit faster?  Answer carefully, because I’ve seen some of you drive.  Now… if we are driving and we see a state trooper up ahead, how much more likely are we to carefully follow the speed limit?  The fact is… the presence of authority will almost always alter our behavior.  Whatever it is that we are doing, no matter what that may be, if there is authority present, the chances of us meticulously following the rules greatly increases.  And so, what would happen if God was personally and noticeably watching every single thing that we did?  Do you think it’s possible that we might be inclined to live differently?  Probably so, right?  It would be just like us slowing down for that state trooper. 

But here is the thing: In the presence of authority, what changes within us is our behavior, not our inclinations.  And God has no interest in having His children pretending to be good.  God wants the goodness of His children to flow from hearts that are loving and Christ-like.  God is perfectly willing to forgive the lapses of those who love Him; the slips and falls of those who have committed themselves to that pursuit of Christ-likeness; of those who AGREE with God that His ways are right and just.  But the only possible way for anyone to come to the conclusion that they DO agree with God is for them to have complete freedom to choose for themselves whether they wish to follow God and embark upon that quest for Christ-likeness, or to reject God and seek only their own satisfaction.  Every individual MUST be given that choice.  This is why free will is such an integral part of God’s plan for humanity.  God, with all of His infinite power, is not able to create love.  Love can only be real when it is given of one’s free will.

It is the human seeking of our own satisfaction BOTH by unbelievers and by believers, that create all of the injustice that exists in this fallen world.  And those injustices will never be remedied until the day that God separates those who have chosen to follow Him, from those who have chosen to reject Him and to seek only their own satisfaction.  And that will not happen until after the resurrection.  So, if we do believe that God will ultimately make all things right, then it turns out that by default, we have to believe in the resurrection.  Yes, we may still have questions in our minds.  The idea of resurrection life is a pretty hard thing for us to wrap our heads around, but if we truly believe that God will bring justice to His creation then we are already placing our trust in the fact that God will indeed make everything new.

Pablo Kim Sun tells us that, “God raised Jesus from the dead and highly exalted him and gave the name that is above every name. Jesus’ bodily resurrection and his exaltation also means the restoration of God’s justice. As Jesus’ resurrection is a sign of assurance that all believers will be resurrected, it is even a sign of promise that God will bring all injustices to justice. Therefore, as I believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, I trust that God’s justice will triumph over all injustices as well.”  [3]

            So, what do we have to learn from today’s shaggy dog story?  The Sadducees were so convinced of the rightness of their theology that they left no room for the miraculous.  Their over-emphasis on the Torah, basically ignoring the wisdom and the prophets whose words interpreted and illuminated the Torah left them with an incomplete understanding of God’s world and indeed of God’s call to them.  And their theologies were so entrenched and their approach to their faith so inflexible that they failed to recognize the Son of God when He was standing right in front of them.  Let us always be open to the possibility of the miraculous and let us never become so inflexible that we fail to see the work of an infinite God who loves us beyond measure.

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[1] Charles R. Erdman, The Gospel of Luke, Pg. 209

[2] Caird, cited by Leon Morris, Tyndale NT Commentaries: Luke, Pg. 319

[3] Pable Kim Sun, crcna.org,, Do Justice

Salvation Has Come to This House

November 2, 2025

Luke 19:1-10

            Over the last few months, we’ve talked about quite a few people whose stories from the Bible have made them famous.  Just last week we talked about the Pharisee and the tax collector, characters in a very well-known story.  We’ve talked about the persistent widow and the unjust judge and we’ve talked about the rich man and Lazarus, also all characters from well-known stories.  We’ve talked about Nicodemus, the other Lazarus, and Jairus.  All of these folks are people for whom their stories being in the Bible have made them famous over the millennia.  But you know what?  These people may be famous, but they aren’t “somebody wrote a song about me famous”!  But today we have the real deal.  This guy today is so famous that somebody actually DID write a song about him. 

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he,

he climbed up in a sycamore tree, the Savior for to see. 

And as the Savior passed that way he looked up in the tree, and he said,

“Zacchaeus, you come down, for I’m going to your house today.” 

And not only is Zacchaeus “somebody wrote a song about me” famous, but when they sing his song, his song has hand motions.  There’s this whole actual pantomime thing that goes along with his song.  Now that, THAT is famous!

            I would imagine that at least a few of us have heard the story of Zacchaeus somewhere along the line. (Other than the song, I mean).  Jesus is traveling through Jericho and Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, wants to see him, actually the text tells us that Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was.  But apparently, Zacchaeus was, umm, vertically challenged, and so, he climbed a Sycamore Tree to get a better view.  And just incidentally, in modern day Jericho, on the main road that goes past Jericho, there is a 2,000-year-old sycamore tree right by the side of the road that tradition tells us is Zacchaeus’ actual tree.  I guess it goes without saying that it is a big tourist attraction.  Anyway, Jesus sees Zacchaeus in the tree and tells him; commands him actually, to come down from the tree because Jesus MUST have dinner at his house tonight.  Zacchaeus, delighted at Jesus’ call, excitedly comes to Jesus and proclaims that he is giving half of his possessions to the poor and that, if he has defrauded anyone, he is repaying them fourfold.  Jesus proclaims that “Salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ household today”. 

            As we dig into this story, we need to remember that Zacchaeus wasn’t JUST a tax collector, he was the CHIEF tax collector.  He was the guy who the Romans had put in charge of all of the tax collecting for the district in which he lived.  Now, there is something that we need to understand about the Roman tax collector system.  The Romans actually didn’t pay tax collectors particularly well.  An honest tax collector would not be significantly better off financially than any of the other average inhabitants of Palestine.  But you see, tax collectors had the weight of a ruthless and brutal Roman army behind them.  And as a result of this very intimidating support, an opportunistic tax collector could inflate the amount of the taxes due and pocket the difference.  And the taxpayers had little if any recourse to combat this, let’s call it what it is: theft.  The bottom line is, if a tax collector was wealthy, he had to have been cheating people in order to acquire that wealth.  And ALL of the tax collectors were wealthy.  So, it wasn’t bad enough that the tax collectors were collaborating with the enemy, they were defrauding their own people as well.  Is it any wonder that they were despised?  And so, it’s not hard to imagine why our story today tells us that when Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ house the people were grumbling about Jesus keeping company with such a man as Zacchaeus.

            When one studies Luke’s Gospel, one finds it to be quite well organized.  Luke has chosen to situate his stories in such a way that a preceding story will often set the foundation for the following story, or a following story will help to interpret or illuminate the previous story, and that is the case today.  Today’s story about Zacchaeus follows the parable of the rich young ruler.  In that parable a young, devout, and wealthy ruler of the Jewish people came to Jesus and said to Him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus responds by telling the man to follow the Law and the man replies that he always has.  “One thing you lack” Jesus tells him, “Sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven, then come and follow me”.  The man walked away sad because he was unwilling to part with his wealth.

            And so, today, Luke tells us another story about another wealthy official.  One who very badly wanted to see who Jesus was.  So much so that he ran forward of the crowd and climbed a tree to get a better view.  In the culture of the ancient East, it was considered undignified for an adult to run, and we can imagine how even MORE undignified it would have been for an adult to climb a tree, especially when that adult is wealthy and is a high ranking official.  What a picture that must have been, a short man, almost certainly wearing fine, expensive clothes, scrambling up a tree.  But Zacchaeus wasn’t concerned with appearances.  He wanted to see who Jesus was.

            We don’t really know why he wanted so badly to see who Jesus was, but we can probably speculate.  Tax collectors were despised, and Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector and so his life was almost certainly filled with endless episodes of abuse and malicious treatment from the Jewish community.  And maybe he was tired of that.  Maybe he was tired of being branded a “sinner”, which was the common epithet directed at tax collectors.  Or maybe he wanted to see Jesus because he had heard some of Jesus’ teachings and Jesus’ words had moved him to decide that he no longer wanted to be participating in something that he knew was so hurtful to so many people.  The truth is, we really don’t know.

            But regardless of why Zacchaeus wanted so badly to see Jesus, this we do know… Without boring everyone with a long Greek lesson.  In English we modify words to indicate tense and voice by changing the words themselves (I’m going, I go, I went) but in the Greek, these things are indicated by using a system of different endings attached to the root words.  And in our story today, according to this Greek system of identifying tenses and voices, this passage was written in the present tense and uses an active voice.  Please allow me to re-read Luke 19 verse 8 from the English Standard Version: “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.”  Did you happen to hear the subtle difference?  The NIV says, “I WILL give”.  The EST says, “I AM giving”.

            This parable today is a wonderful picture of how Jesus changes lives when those lives are open to being changed.  How much money do we think Zacchaeus would have had left over after he gave half of everything to the poor, and then gave fourfold restitution to those who he had defrauded?  Probably not much, right?  In fact, he may very well have given away everything.  But you see, Zacchaeus had just found the pearl of great price.  In Matthew 13 Jesus tells this parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”  Everything he had!  For Zacchaeus, to give away all in exchange for being made right with God wasn’t a sacrifice to him at all.  And the text tells us that Zacchaeus was joyful.

            And here is where Luke contrasts Zacchaeus’ joyful response to Jesus’ call, with the rich, young ruler’s sad rejection of Jesus.  In these two stories we can see clearly how the way that we handle earthly things reveals the condition of our hearts.  When we cling to earthly things then those things become our master.  Our earthly possessions will dictate to us what we do and how we live.  And ultimately, our earthly possessions will define who we are.  Coble gave us a great explanation of this when he said, “In the New Testament, ‘the world’ represents that order of human life which consistently rejects or defies God and His claims upon [humans].  It is essentially a self-centered life.  Its primary traits are the giving of great effort to gratify appetites physical, mental, and emotional, and intense hatred of any who may resist or fail to cooperate in efforts to attain that satisfaction”.

            Those who are wrapped up in that pursuit of worldly satisfaction will neither have the ability nor the inclination to love others.  Our rich, young ruler friend walked away from Jesus, he walked away because he was unwilling to give up that pursuit of worldly satisfaction.  But when Zacchaeus climbed down from that tree, the only satisfaction that mattered to him was the satisfaction of a renewed and right relationship with God.  And this is the lesson that Luke gives us as he contrasts these two stories.

            N. T. Wright comments that, “The hardened old tax collector fits in to three of Luke’s regular themes:  the problem of riches and what to do about it, the identification of Jesus with ‘sinners’ and the faith which recognizes Jesus as Lord and discovers new life as a result”.  [1]  Indeed, Luke here gives us three quarters of a summary of the Gospel itself:  Jesus calls, we answer, and our lives are changed as a result.

            But there is more to this lesson than just that summery.  Zacchaeus wanted to know WHO Jesus was.  This was a curiosity that was born of the work of the Holy Spirit.  Before Zacchaeus ever climbed that tree, the Sprit was already calling him and preparing him for his encounter with Jesus.  Zacchaeus pursued his call with a sense of urgency, not walking but running so that he wouldn’t miss his chance to see Jesus.  Zacchaeus abandoned all concern about how his actions would be viewed by others, climbing that tree in full view of the community.  Undignified or not, Zacchaeus was not going to miss out on this opportunity.  And when Jesus called Zacchaeus by name, Zacchaeus responded with JOY at Jesus’ call and already had begun to exhibit the fruits of a transformed heart.  Jesus welcomed Zacchaeus without regard for the fact that the crowds seriously and loudly disapproved, a wonderful illustration of how Jesus accepts us exactly as we are, even though He never LEAVES us the way we are.  And where that crowd had excluded Zacchaeus from the fellowship of the temple and the community, Jesus embraced him and declared him to be a true son of Abraham, restoring him to his rightful place among God’s beloved people.

            Our story closes with the fourth and final quarter of that Gospel summary when Jesus said that “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”  Our social status doesn’t matter to Jesus. Whether we are wealthy or poor, popular or outcast, white collar or blue collar, none of this matters to Jesus.  The only thing that matters is… when Jesus calls, how do we respond?  Do we jealously guard our worldly lives like the rich, young, ruler?  Or do we recognize the fact that we have finally found that pearl of great price?  That we have found the one thing that is worth more to us than everything else?  And if we have made that discovery, are we allowing God to touch us with the power of His love and allowing Him to change our lives?  In a world that is full of rich young rulers, let us be Zacchaeus.

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[1] N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, Pg. 165