Luke 19: 1-10 (NRSV)
The
dilemma of the 21st Century: I recently attended a conference at a
large hotel.
As
I entered the elevator to return to my top floor room another person followed
me on. She was dressed in a bikini top and tight jeans, was drinking from a
beer bottle, and was carrying the largest cell phone I’ve ever seen. She also
had about 8 tattoos (I didn’t count the actual number I could see!)
She
said hello to me and casually asked me what I was doing at the hotel. I told
her I was there to attend a Christian Conference. She said that was “cool,” and
then told me that she and her husband were Christians too, just not the kind
that went to church or told others they were.
After
she got off the elevator I asked myself how I would feel if I knew my wife was
walking around a hotel like this woman was and wondering how it could be
compatible with my concept of Christianity.
I
am not a prude and I don’t begrudge anybody a beer, and I guess I can even
understand the lure of a tattoo or two, but public behavior speaks volumes
about who you are. But we are told “the times they are a changing.”
In
a recent book, “Already Gone,” Ken Ham and the AIG staff talk about why so many
Christian young people are leaving the church after going to college. These are
the “good” kids who attend Sunday School and church every Sunday, are active in
church youth groups, and show every sign of being solid Christians.
Why
are they leaving? Ham found 2 factors that contributed to their leaving. One
was that they didn’t have the ability to refute the evolutionary teachings of
their college professors and the second was that the stories of the Bible they
had been taught in Sunday School were just empty stories with little practical value.
Essentially
the findings suggested that the church was failing to teach young people
practical faith, or what’s called apologetics, in order to hold their own in an
increasingly secular and hostile world.
You
may be thinking “great, another dump on the church comment from me.”
But
the results are important for us to hear. We need to stop thinking that faith
and Christianity can be picked up like we put fluoride on the teeth or like
taking a good multi-vitamin, or just because you come from a “good home.”
Parking
in a church parking spot does not make your car an instrument of God just as
setting in a church pew doesn’t make you a Christian.
You
can’t just tell somebody a story and expect them to fully learn and integrate
that story into their lives and retrieve the information as needed. Faith and
Church is not like getting a “bundled” insurance policy at Geico.
Faith
is a walking lifestyle that must be embraced and practiced every day.
God
and Jesus must be sought out and interacted with. And you need both head and
heart knowledge. Jesus knew this and gives us plenty of examples (Luke 19:
1-10):
He
entered Jericho and was passing through it.
A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector
and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd
he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because
he was going to pass that way.
When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him,
“Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried down and was happy to
welcome him.
All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the
guest of one who is a sinner.”
Zacchaeus stood there and said 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.”
Then Jesus said to him, “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.”
The story of Zacchaeus has humor, drama, and suspense. It would
make a good television show in our current society about how even the richest
people can do good things (as long as they’re not Republican or the evil Tea
Party.)
It would probably be about somebody named Bloomburg or Buffet or
maybe even Gates. The upshot of the story would be how many millions of dollars
the rich man was giving to charity after having some kind of “aha” moment, and
switching his political party allegiance, in order to never make oppressive mistakes
again.
Zacchaeus’s story tells us about this man who hears of Jesus,
comes and checks him out, but is reluctant, because of what he does for a
living and his physical limitations, to mix with the crowd who is there
listening to Jesus. So Zacchaeus climbs
a tree away from the crowd and sits in what could be considered the first “Sky
Box” in history.
The concept of “VIP seating and sky boxes” is not alien to us. If
you’ve ever been to a stadium you’ve seen those boxes looming over the playing
field. The views from such a spot is amazing and you don’t have to rub elbows
with the riffraff of general admission.
The attention grabber of this passage is that it is unusual to
think that Jesus would reach out to such an obviously privileged man. Jesus has
come to save the poor and lost – not the rich and those already blessed with
adequate resources. That’s the heart of the mainstream church’s social gospel.
Yet Jesus does an amazing thing. Jesus sees him, invites Himself
over for dinner, and Zacchaeus is so moved by Jesus and His message that he
repents of past sins and promises to make restitution and redistribute his wealth
if necessary. That’s the progressive church’s interpretation of this story.
Zacchaeus would never use another skybox again.
Actually, Zacchaeus sees that Jesus’ call to discipleship
requires a change in his actions and values. He needs to use the blessings God
has given him more effectively for God’s kingdom.
Jesus sums it all up by declaring that salvation has come to
Zacchaeus’ house and to the “Sons of Abraham,” the Jews, where it was intended
to be given.
This
story is important to us in promising that Jesus will meet us when we seek Him,
and that behavior change happens because of our gratitude for that grace.
This
grace is given no matter who we are, whatever the contents of our wallets, the
company name on our paychecks, or what behaviors we display.
The
woman who got on the elevator with me may have been a Christian, but either way
that relationship is between her and Jesus. I can only treat her as a Christian
until she proves differently.
She
may have had her own “Zacchaeus” moment, after all. Jesus came for the people
in the skyboxes and VIP seats, too! Amen.
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