A sermon based upon Luke 19: 1-10
Dr. Charles J. Tomlin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
October 31th, 2010; Proper 26
Cable News network CNBC, recently aired a few specials about American Greed and the most notorious financial scams and scandals of our times. One of those documentaries focused upon the notorious Bernie Madoff, who not only “made off” with millions of investor dollars in an illegal Ponzi scheme, but who now resides in a North Carolina prison. When I scanned through the story two major moments caught my attention: One was the moment when Madoff was said to have finally apologized to his victims for the hurt he had caused them. Up to that point he had seemed boastful, cold, and unscathed by his crime, but that image had changed.
What next caught my attention was one of the victims response to Madoff’s apology, telling the cameras, “I don’t want an apology, I just want him to “show me the money.” You could hear the desperation in her voice. She was saying the same kind of thing Cuba Gooding’s character Bob Tidwell tells Jerry McGuire played by Tom Cruise, when the football Tidwell wants to know whether or not there is real “value” in staying with and working with Jerry as his agent. Show me the money! Tidwell repeats over and over. Like Tidwell, this woman says the only thing that would be real for Madoff’s would be if he would “show the money!”
In some ways you can compare the scandal surrounding Bernie Madoff to the scandals that surrounded “tax collectors” during Jesus’ day. What makes Zacchaeus especially stand out is that Scripture calls him “a chief tax collector” and also affirms “he was rich” (19:1). In Jesus’ day, most people were poor and hardly anyone got rich without some sort of deliberately shady, questionable, or oppressive activity. What made “tax collectors” especially suspect was the fact that they were not collecting taxes for their own government, but for a foreign, invading or conquering one. The other problem was that they were getting rich doing this, while most everyone else remained very poor.
Surprisingly, the New Testament has a mixed view of “tax collectors”. Some passages show Jesus treating them with as much suspicious and contempt as any Jew would treat a Gentile (Matt. 18:17). However, from the very beginning of his ministry, we also see how Jesus spent more time eating and associating with “sinners” and “tax collectors” than he does the religious elite (Luke 5.29). In fact, Jesus shockingly told some religious leaders the “prostitutes and tax collectors will enter the kingdom ahead of you” (Mat. 21.31).
VISIBLE DESIRE
What is so remarkable about Zacchaeus is that although he is someone with a reputation as bad as Bernie Madoff, in this case, Zacchaeus actually does literally “show us the money!” After coming face to face with the person of Jesus and the claims of the gospel, in Zacchaeus we see what happens on the inside of a person by observing what happened on the outside.
In the moment right after the Pharisees complained that Jesus was eating with this sinner, Zacchaeus shows his “new” true colors when he says to the Lord: “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" (Luke 19:8). There are two very important points to note about Zacchaeus’ new attitude. When Zacchaeus claims that “if” he has defrauded anyone,” we should really translate this as “when” instead of “if” because the language means that Zacchaeus had indeed defrauded lots of people. This is word is a confession, an admission of guilt and what we observe is someone honestly coming to grips with the person they had been before meeting Jesus, but who does not want to be that person any more. That is the kind of electric and transforming effect Jesus had upon him.
Second, also notice that is only after this display of outward radical, transforming, and faith-in-action that Jesus says to Zacchaeus:"Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost." (Luk 19:8-10 NRS). It is only through Zacchaeus desire to see Jesus and his willinginess to “show Jesus the money” that salvation begins to flow through him, into his home, into the community and out into the world around him. In terms very familiar to us, we can say that only when Zacchaeus’ made Jesus his Lord (with his new action) does Jesus actually become his Savior.
Here we get a first-hand look at how God’s salvation works: It is not that people believe in Jesus and get to choose whether or not they make him Lord, but it is only when we show Jesus the money (the worth and value of our faith)--- only to those who bow before his Lordship---does God give the “reward” of salvation. Amazingly, when “sinners” come clean and “show Jesus the money”they tend to look better than if they hadn’t sinned in the first place.
Through this sincere desire to surrender to Christ’s lordship, the “saving grace” that is now displayed in the life of Zacchaeus is what Jesus has been “up to” along. This proves exactly why Jesus has intentionally chosen to associate with, befriend, and “eat with sinners” (Luke 7.34). In Luke 5, Jesus told us: “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5.31-32). Now, through this conversion and salvation of a “chief tax collector”, Jesus shows unveils God’s full currency of grace, reminding us that “saving” sinners is God’s great redeeming purpose for the whole world.
Now that we can clearly see where all this began and where it is going, I want to especially remind us “where” this great story of grace began with Zacchaeus. While salvation began in the heart of God, Zacchaeus’ own “desire” to see Jesus unlocked God’s grace for him. In the smallest, simplest, and most sincere way, Zacchaeus had a great “desire” or curiosity to see Jesus for himself. “He was trying (or seeking KJV) to see Jesus.” (vs. 3). Here is where it all began. We don’t get to who Zacchaeus became, until we uncover the “desire” in his heart.
Today, I want us to realize that this is “where” Christian living and Christian leadership begins. Within the heart of every true follower and any would-be leader for Jesus, there is this sincere “desire” to see, to experience and to know Jesus’ Christ for oneself. A follower of Jesus is never content to follow Jesus by heresay, or to live off the experience of the past, nor to allow the “crowd” to determine the level of their devotion to Jesus. Those who follow Jesus, and those who lead with Jesus, all start with this same unquenchable “desire” to know Jesus more than anything or anyone else in this world. Often in my counseling with people, my first question is “what do you want to happen?” This is the most important question for any of us. It isn’t that we always get what we want, but the truth is we never achieve or accomplish anything, nor do we become anyone, unless we have the desire.
Listen to how the apostle Paul, one of the greatest and most literate Christian leader’s expressed his own desire only to “know” Christ as his greatest “heart’s desire":
7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.
8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,
11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
(Phi 3:7-14 NRS)
IMMOVABLE DETERMINATION
While we “show the money” with by uncovering our “heart’s desire”, we also “show the money” by our determination to have our “desire” realized in our lives and in our leadership.
The most wonderful and most attractive part of Zacchaeus’ story is how the “wee little man” had this “great and large desire” which became an immovable determination he would not give up. Zacchaeus was so determined to “see Jesus” that he did not let the pressing crowd determine his fate, but he, but as the text says, he “ran ahead” and climbed the sycamore tree because he was “determined” so he would not “take anything for granted” but would “take every opportunity” to make this happen.
You can see real, promising, and great potential for Christian living and Christian “leadership” in this one single phrase that describes how Zacchaeus “ran ahead” to “climb” the tree because Jesus would pass that way. Here, we see another great quality of a Christian leader. A Christian leader is not someone who does the impossible, nor who do the uncommon or most unusual, but Christian leadership is going “ahead” being determined to do the most obvious----doing what needs to be done, but few have the “determination” to do.
Most of us know that “height” means a lot to a basketball player, but it still doesn’t mean everything. Even in the NBA, height isn’t an absolute measure of a person’s potential. Remember Spud Webb? Spud was only 5 feet, 6 inches tall when he once won the NBA’s slam dunk contest against much, much taller opponents.
Spud was a great high school star from Texas, but because of his height no college would take a chance on him, so he went to a small community college and made a name for himself. Then, in the early 1980’s coach Jim Valvano and North Carolina State University took a chance on him and he led them to the Sweet Sixteen. Then Spud graduated and again no one drafted him. Finally the Atlanta Hawks gave him a shot. He played for them for four years, and under his leadership the Hawks made the playoffs each time. He got traded when the team wanted to make room for a new full‑sized college star but that team went years before making the playoffs again.
Spud said, “I used to pray that the Lord would make me taller when I was in junior high and high school, but every time I went to measure myself, or stand in front of a mirror, I’d always be the same size. And then one day I got the message, so I said to the Lord, ‘If you won’t make me bigger on the outside, will you make me bigger on the inside?’ And the Lord liked that prayer and that’s what helped me become successful.” (From a sermon by King Duncan, entitled: “A Small Man Given A Big Heart” from Sermons.com).
We can see in Spud Webb’s own determination to be a “class athlete,” a visible “echo” of Paul’s word to the Corinthians: “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1Co 15:58 NRS). This is the kind of “attitude” that takes action and determines results. Great leadership and great living is not based upon how tall, big or talented we are on the outside, but it is marked by how determined we are on the inside, and most of all, how determined we are, “to pray the “right” prayer and how “determined” we are be part of the answer.”
CREDIBLE DIFFERENCE
It was “desire” and “determination” that brought Zacchaeus to Jesus, but it is his discipleship that keeps him “with” Jesus. The real currency of discipleship shows the money. Just as there is no salvation in Jesus without a living under the Lordship of Jesus, there is no leadership with Jesus, without a discipleship that dares to do what the moment requires must be done. Zacchaeus must “show Jesus the money” or there will be no credible “difference” in at all.
I believe that when God speaks to us, we must act upon the voice of the Spirit then and there. If we don’t, then it will get harder the next time because we have begun to process of “hardening our heart” which occurs each time we refused the voice of the Spirit. In this moment, Zacchaeus knew what the Spirit was telling him to do, and he also realized what he had to do for Jesus. If he did not act in this very moment, Jesus would make no difference in him at all.
In one of the greatest Christian books, outside of the Bible, called “Mere Christianity”, the late British scholar C.S. Lewis says that when Jesus comes home with you, he likened it to the renovation of a house. Christ comes to rebuild. At first he goes about fixing the leaks and repairing all those things you already knew he would be fixing. But then, Lewis says, “He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and doesn’t seem to make sense to us. What on earth is Jesus up too? The explanation is that Jesus is building quite a different house from the one you planned. You thought you were going to be made into a decent, nice little cottage, but Christ is building you into his palace. He intends to come and live in it himself. (From C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Collins, 1952, 170-171 as quoted by Brett Younger).
When Christ came home with Zacchaeus everything changed. Everything about who he was and how he ordered his life changed. In short, Zacchaeus feels that he must show Jesus the money! He knows what he must do. He knows he must “give” himself completely. He knows that he can hold nothing back. There is no coercion. There is no admonishing. There is no prompting. There is no groaning or pain. For Zacchaeus, giving everything to Jesus is sheer joy and great and wonderful fear, “Half of all I have I’ll give to the poor. To those I’ve cheated I’ll give back 4 times as much.”
In a play based on Zacchaeus’ story, called The Mirror”, the writer of the play puts these creative words into Jesus’ mouth after Zacchaeus is so willing to share his money. Jesus asks, “Zacchaeus, what did you see that made you desire this peace?”
Zacchaeus gives this answer. “Good Master, I saw mirrored in your eyes, the face of the Zacchaeus I was meant to be.” In one final moment of the play, it isn’t long until someone else comes up to Zacchaeus and sees him near Jericho, still giving his money away to the poor, and the person asks, “Do you ever think how rich you could be if you kept all that money your giving away? What don’t you give less and keep more?”
Zacchaeus smiles, “Why would I want to go back to the Zacchaeus I used to be?” (From Bret Younger’s sermon, “What Would Jesus Do?”, Vol. XXI, Num. 6, Lectionary Homiletics, Oct., Nov., 2010, p. 45).
What kind of difference does Jesus make in our lives? Have we seen in Jesus the reflection of the person we were meant to me? Do we desire, are we determined to be the different person we were meant to be? About a year ago I went to Appalachian State University to hear Greg Mortenson speak. Mortenson has written two books about setting up schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, working to educate with books rather than relying upon “bombs” to change how people think. What was most interesting is how Greg came to build the first school. He had been attempting to climb a mountain in Pakistan but became sick, almost dying until he was brought into a small village called Korphe, where he recuperates and learns the customs of the region. He sees the children trying to study without a school house and then decides to build them one. He returns to the U.S., sells all that he can to raise money. After raising the money, it took him three years to build the school, because once he was kidnapped and constant threats were being made against his life.
Greg tells his story in his book entitled “Three Cups of Tea” and the title of that book is based upon words Haji Ali, the Chief leader of the Korphe village: “Here in Pakistan we drink three cups of tea to do business. With the first cup of tea you are a stranger. With the second we have become friends. With the third you become family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything---even die.” (From the back cover of “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson, Viking, 2006)
Is there any doubt that Zachaeus wanted drink all “three cups” with Jesus? He wanted to be more than a stranger, he wanted his faith to be more doing business with friend. No, Zacchaeus desperately wants to be “family” with Jesus. Are you ready for your “third” cup of tea? Amen.
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