Latest / Pulpit to Pavement / Breaking Bread: At the Table with Jesus Week 4 - Dinner Changes Everything
Transcript
- Kayla: Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed into a sycamore fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up to him and said, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house. House today. So he gladly came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter. he gone to be the guest of a sinner. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. The word of God for the people of God. Peace be to God. Thank you, Crystal. How many of you have ever experienced the panic of being underwhelmingly prepared for an unexpected guest? You know, it's say it's Friday night, it's been a long week, you have one goal. Do absolutely nothing. Your sweatpants are on, you know, you got a pile of laundry sitting on the other end of the couch, dishes in the sink, cereal for dinner. But then you get a phone call. And a relative is in town for the weekend and they want to come and visit, they just landed at the airport and they're gonna be at your house in one hour. Suddenly you're flying through the house like the Tasmanian devil, right? Shoving things in closets, shoes under the bed, you're praying that nobody will ask to use the bathroom. When we have company, we want to be prepared. We want the house to look clean and the food ready and everything looking like our lives are neat and tidy. And I wonder if this is not how Zacchaeus felt when Jesus looked up at him in the tree and said, Hey, Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house today. But Zacchaeus discovers something that I think maybe we all need to hear: that Jesus doesn't wait for us to clean up our lives before he enters them. Let's consider for a minute who Zacchaeus was. So, one notable quality about Zacchaeus we can glean from the text and from the song was his size. Zacchaeus was short in stature. A wee little man. How little was he? We don't really know. There are sources that say that the average male height in the first century Judea was approximately five five. And the text infers that Zacchaeus was significantly shorter than that. So that gives us some frame of reference. Maybe he had dwarfism. We don't know. We have to use our imagination. A few weeks ago, we highlighted the story of Matthew, the tax collector, and how Jesus called him to the table. Well, Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, which meant he was probably quite wealthy. Now, if you weren't here a few weeks ago when we talked about Matthew, let me just explain really quick why the tax collectors were were so disposed. Despised. These were Jews who collected money for the Roman government, which was heavily oppressive to the Jews. Now, you're probably sitting there thinking, it's not so hard to imagine why tax collectors were despised. I don't even like paying taxes. But relatively, Our taxes are chump change compared to what these guys had to pay. And then on top of that, the Roman government told the tax collectors: you have to raise this much money in this area to give to us. Whatever you collect beyond that, you get to pocket. So you can imagine how that system would lend itself to abuse. That's why they were disliked. And Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, which meant he oversaw an entire region. So he was a man of great means. He had wealth, he had influence, though not much respect. He was considered a traitor. Ironically, Zacchaeus comes from the Hebrew word Zachai, meaning pure, innocent. That's not how the people saw him. Many saw him as a disgrace, not just to his people, but to his own name. And the text says he ran ahead, which is an important detail because men and even more so government officials did not run. And they certainly did not climb trees. That would have been undignified. But this we little man. Wealthy, prominent, probably dressed in fine clothing, is running. Well, moving through a crowd that probably hated your guts, I'd probably be running too. And he climbs a tree like a little kid to get a look at Jesus. In that moment, Zacchaeus seemed a little less concerned about looking dignified. He wanted to see Jesus so badly that he was willing to look a little ridiculous. Which makes me wonder if Zacchaeus had realized something about himself. He had everything he needed, except the thing that mattered most. And as Jesus makes his way through the crowd down the street, he stops and looks up into the tree and sees Zacchaeus. All the people he could have zeroed in on. And once again, it is not the synagogue leader, it is not a wealthy philanthropist, it is a tax collector. The guy nobody invites to the neighborhood cookouts. And Jesus doesn't merely acknowledge him. Calls him by name. He doesn't just say, hey, you and that tree. And that's important too. Have you ever run into somebody that maybe you've met a couple of times, but they remember your name and they ask how your kids are doing, even call them by name. We're stunned when they do that, right? Wow. They're good. Now compare that to the awkward experience of seeing someone you've met at least a dozen times and you can't remember their name. And so you spend most of the conversation saying things like, Hey you You're desperately hoping someone else walks up and says their name. Names matter because they remind us we are known. And Jesus knows Zacchaeus, not merely by occupation or reputation, like his neighbors know him. Jesus sees the man behind the label. Now, normally the host invites the guest. But Jesus reverses the arrangement. Jesus invites himself into Zacchaeus's home, yet, in doing so, he is really offering Zacchaeus a place in God's kingdom. Throughout the series, we've been discovering through these stories that the invitation to the table isn't limited to people who have earned a place. Jesus extends grace to Zacchaeus before he has demonstrated any change. The crowd saw Zacchaeus for everything he had done wrong. But Jesus saw Zacchaeus for everything grace could make possible. And the people are mad about this. It says, all who saw it began to grumble, and said, He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner. Notice the contrast. Zacchaeus, the sinner, is joyful. And the crowd, the seemingly righteous ones, are disgusted. Some of you may remember a rather unusual song that came out back in 1977 by Randy Newman called Short People. How many of you remember the song Short People? It's a very catchy tune. Like it it'll definitely get stuck in your head, right? But I remember the first time I heard that song, I listened to the words and I thought, wow, that is incredibly rude. Short people got no reason to live? Is this not the same guy they asked to write songs for Toy Story? The entire song is essentially a list of reasons why short people were supposedly undesirable. Now, Randy Newman's objective with the song was to point out how absurd prejudice can be. How we can decide that an entire group of people is somehow less worthy simply because of one characteristic and how ridiculous that actually sounds. But when I hear that song, I think of this story. I think of Zacchaeus, the wee little man, who, in the eyes of the crowd, didn't have much going for him. He may have had riches, but he was short. He was a despised tax collector. He was about as popular as an ant at a church picnic. And I imagine as he's running through the crowd to climb the tree, the people are singing, don't one know short people. Now, to be fair, the people had legitimate reasons to dislike tax collectors. The crowd wasn't necessarily wrong about Zacchaeus's behavior. Tax collectors profited at their neighbor's expense. Their anger had real historical context. But they still got it wrong. Because when Jesus stops beneath that tree and calls Zacchaeus by name, they don't say, Isn't this wonderful? Jesus is reaching someone who really needs him. No, they are grumbling. Jesus, of all people in Jericho, that is the guy you want to have dinner with? These self-righteous people are the ones Randy Newman is poking fun at. They didn't want him sitting at their table. They didn't want him receiving the same grace that they had received. And I wonder if deep down some of them didn't really want Zacchaeus to be saved. If some genuinely thought he had no reason to. Because, I mean, if we're honest with ourselves, sometimes we'd rather see people get what we think they deserve rather than receive the grace God can offer, yes? People who have hurt us, people whose values we disagree with. People who have made a royal mess of their lives just seem beyond help. We say we believe that Jesus came to seek and save the lost, but sometimes when Jesus actually starts seeking certain lost people, we find ourselves sounding an awful lot like that crowd. We believe in forgiveness until it's offered to someone we think doesn't deserve it. We celebrate second chances until that second chance is given to someone who hurt us deeply. We rejoice when Jesus welcomes sinners until he welcomes that sinner. The crowd looked up into the tree and saw a man they didn't think deserved salvation. But Jesus looked up in that same tree and saw a man who desperately needed it. And thank God, Jesus still sees people the same way today. John Wesley emphasized the importance of provenient grace, which is God's grace that goes before us, drawing us toward him before we realize what is happening. Before Zacchaeus promised to change, before he demonstrated any repentance, Jesus called him by name and offered him fellowship. That is grace. And grace doesn't mean that Jesus overlooked his sin. It meant he loved Zacchaeus enough not to leave him where he found him. The good guys were miffed that Jesus would show grace to a good for nothing sinner. But that encounter with Jesus changed Zacchaeus' life. He said, Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much. In the law of Moses, if you took from someone but then admitted your guilt, you know, wanted to make amends, you would pay back what you took plus 20%. And you would also make an offering to the tabernacle to atone for your sin. If you took something and you got caught. But you were able to return or restore it, you were to pay back double. And if you took something and you could not restore it, say you stole someone's animal and you either killed it or it died, you had to pay back fourfold. So only in the extreme cases were you expected to pay fourfold. And the fact that Zacchaeus was willing to pay fourfold to those he ripped off was an admission that he ruined lives. And he was willing to pay the stiffest penalty to make it right. That's evidence of a changed heart. If you go back a chapter in Luke, you read the account of the rich young ruler. Who asked Jesus, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus essentially responds with, open your hands, share your wealth, don't cling to the things of this world. And the rich young ruler went away sad because he was unwilling to do that. And Jesus said, How difficult it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom. And his disciples asked him, Well, who can be saved then? And Jesus replied, With God, all things are possible. And so then we flip to the next chapter and we we meet another rich person, Zacchaeus. And Jesus shows us through him that while it is difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom, it is not impossible. Because the difference between the rich young ruler and Zacchaeus is that after encountering Jesus, Zacchaeus saw his wealth in a different light. You know, the man who once accumulated wealth at the expense of others now wants to use his resources to bless them. When Jesus gets a seat at our table, he doesn't just change what we believe, he changes what we value. The passage ends with a verse we should all be familiar with. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost. Randy Newman wrote a song about short people having no reason to live. Again, that was satire, not to be taken literally. But that may have been how the crowd felt about Zacchaeus. Yet Jesus came to remind us that no person is beyond the reach of God's love. And while the crowd could come up with a hundred reasons why Zacchaeus didn't deserve salvation, Jesus only needed one to stop beneath that tree. Zacchaeus was lost. And Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Have you ever gotten lost? Like physically? I mean, now that we have GPS, we really shouldn't get lost anymore. But sometimes GPS gets it wrong. Like when it says you have arrived and you're staring at an empty field. Or the classic line to when someone asks, Are we lost? No, we're just taking the scenic route. We saw the Savannah bananas at Bush Stadium back in August. And we parked in the more affordable parking four blocks away. And we asked Jenna to drop a pin when we left the parking garage so we could find our way back. Well, something went wrong there because when we started making our way to the garage, we somehow took a detour. And after walking around for what felt like 15 minutes, I asked Travis, Are we lost? And he said, No. We totally were. But, you know, he didn't want me to start flipping out as he was trying to get his bearings, which didn't take long, but spiritually we do the same. You know, we can look successful, organized, perfectly fine on the outside, while inwardly feeling disconnected, dissatisfied, directionless. Zacchaeus had wealth, he had status, he had a career. But he still needed saving. And there's something deeply beautiful about Jesus saying, I must stay at your house today. Because that shows us Jesus doesn't stand at a distance and tell us how to meet him halfway. He comes all the way to us. He enters our messy lives and he changes them. And there's something else I don't want us to miss here. Zacchaeus climbed that tree because he wanted to see Jesus. And when Jesus reached the tree, he didn't say to Zacchaeus, enjoy the view. He said, come down from there immediately. Because Zacchaeus couldn't remain a spectator forever. At some point, he had to come down from that tree and welcome Jesus into his heart, into his life. And maybe that's the invitation for some of us today. You know, we've spent years watching Jesus from a distance. We've attended church, we've listened to sermons, we've read scripture, we've watched God work in the lives of other people, but Jesus isn't inviting us to merely observe Him. He is inviting us into a relationship that changes us. And perhaps for others, the invitation is to look around at our tables. Have we ever become so focused on who deserves a seat at the table that we've lost sight why Jesus set the table in the first place? Because here's something else I don't want us to miss. Before grace, before Jesus, we were all short of stature. Maybe not physically like Zacchaeus, but spiritually speaking, every single one of us has come up short. We all fall short of the glory of God. We've all messed up. We've all had moments when our pride, our selfishness, our judgment got the better of us. And if we're gonna start measuring who deserves a seat at Jesus' table, we had better be careful because eventually that measuring stick is gonna come around to us. And the truth is, none of us is tall enough to reach heaven on our own. That's why we need grace. And perhaps the greatest lesson Zacchaeus teaches us isn't about how far we're willing to climb to see Jesus. It's about how far Jesus was willing to come to save us. Because the same Savior who stopped beneath a sycamore tree in Jericho would soon make his way to another tree, a cross on Calvary. And there Jesus would do for Zacchaeus, for you and me, and everyone else in the world what we could never do for ourselves. He would build a bridge between our sinfulness and God's holiness. So the next time we're tempted to look at someone else and wonder whether they deserve a place at God's table, maybe we ought to remember Zacchaeus. And maybe we ought to remember ourselves. Because before grace lifted us up, we were all short of stature. But thanks be to God. Jesus never measured our worth by how tall we stood, how good we've been, how much we deserved his love. He simply looked at us and called us by name and invited us to come. That's why he set the table in the first place. Let us pray. Gracious God, we thank you that you see beyond our mistakes, our reputations, the labels placed upon us by others. We thank you for seeking us even when we don't realize how desperately we need you. Forgive us for the times we've kept you at a distance, for the times we've decided someone else is unworthy of your grace. And God help us welcome you into every part of our lives, not simply as a guest who visits occasionally, but as our Lord who transforms us daily. May the grace we've received become visible in the way we love, forgive, and serve. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.