November 4, 2001Wisdom 11:22-12:2 + 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2 + Luke 19:1-10 |
| We are at the end of the Journey Liturgically for us it was a 19 week trip that walked us through Luke’s School of Discipleship. Scripturally for us it was an exploration of Lukan thought from chapter nine to nineteen. It began with these words in verse 51 “Now it happened that as the time drew near for him to be taken up, he resolutely turned his face towards Jerusalem….” But notice how it ends. This visit to the house of Zacchaeus was not a delay or a detour on his journey to Jerusalem. This was and is, the very purpose of the journey “The Son of man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke will get Jesus to Jerusalem in another few verses; but that city is not where Jesus is going. He is headed for our homes to stay with us, be with us, live with us, and die with us. |
| The final virtue of the disciple – that characteristic perhaps toward which all the others have pointed is the virtue that brings Jesus, that attracts him, draws him, invites him: the virtue of Repentance. |
| Zacchaeus stands before us in sharp contrast to that crowd who can’t quite see Jesus because they are too busy looking at and criticing Zacchaeus. They have shut him out, and in their righteous critique of his life, they have shut out Jesus. Zacchaeus, unlike the crowd can see Jesus, wants to see Jesus, and is willing go to some inconvenience and take some risk to do so. Never mind his dignity, stature, or what he might look like in the eyes of others, he will see Jesus, and he will do what ever it takes; and Jesus sees him. You can almost see the two of them walking over to the house – walking away from the crowd, their backs turned away from the whispering, accusing, blaming crowd who do not hear themselves called “Children of Abraham”, and will find no salvation in their homes. It is the crowd that is indicted by this story They were so put off by their suppositions concerning Zacchaeus that they failed to “see” that in terms of the righteousness of God they were as “lost” as anyone, and were diverted from “seeing” Jesus and gladly welcoming him to their salvation. |
| In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus announces three times that salvation has come. First at the synagogue when his tum came and he rolled up the scroll, sat down, and said. “Today this message of salvation is being fulfilled.” (4:20). It happened in Nazareth and it caused a riot. Then, a second time he says it in today’s passage in Jericho. He will say it one more time to a condemned dying thief hanging at his side (23:42). What it takes to experience this “salvation” is seen in these two who are outside the symbolic synagogue: repentance. |
| In Zacchaeus we see it best and understand what it means. The virtue as Luke explores it is not something Zacchaeus did, but something he became that brought other consequences. Luke’s Gospel of Grace is joined to Repentance, and this Repentance is not solely a transaction of the heart. It isn’t just feelings.Repentance bears fruit: this was made clear as early as m the preaching of John the Baptist as soldiers, and tax collectors came to him in repentance asking: “What shall we do?” |
| This life of repentance bears fruit, not only for the household of Zacchaeus, but also the poor who will be beneficiaries of his conversion as well as those people whom he may have defrauded. Repentance has more than personal effects. There is a domestic, social, and economic dimension as well. In Luke, salvation is not simply a matter of the soul. It touched the whole human family and the whole fabric of human before. |
| In the great, soon-to-unfold story of Jesus and the cross, the presence of the Risen Christ makes noble and holy the home and the table of the faithful disciple. It happened in Jericho, it happened in Emmaus, and it can happen here ifwe will be his disciples. |