You’ve surely come across the phrase, “Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.” You see that on information from financial investment firms. And you see it on the advertisements of personal injury lawyers. They want to make it clear that they are not to be held responsible if the future doesn’t turn out well.
The
thing is, in reality past performance is probably the best indicator of future
results. If you are a manager in a
company there are probably people who are working for you that if you give them
a project, even if it is difficult, or maybe even impossible, they will figure
out some way of getting the job done, doing it well, and doing it on time. And there are other people that you cringe to
give a project to. Somehow, someway
everything they touch ends up being behind schedule and over budget. They can be given an established project that
is going well and they will run it into the ground. They just don’t know how to manage. No matter how much training they receive, and
no matter how many chances you give them, they just underperform; if not
outright fail.
People rarely change, at least not
significantly.
So we are startled to read the story
of Zacchaeus in today’s gospel reading.
If you grew up going to Sunday school you may remember the cute little
song about Zacchaeus being a wee little man, a wee little man was he. I’d sing it, but you don’t want me to. It is easy to imagine Zacchaeus as cute. It is easy to see him as a tragic little man
who, for some reasons beyond his control, he was driven to become a tax
collector, which was not a reputable occupation. But let’s look more carefully. Zacchaeus is described as a chief tax
collector. Or more literally a ruling
tax collector. That word “ruling” tips
us off to a ruler we read about just before.
If you were here last week you’ll
remember we had the story of the rich ruler who asked Jesus what he had to do
to inherit eternal life. I said that scene
was part 1 of a two-part episode.
Zacchaeus is part 2. The stories
are told as parallels. Both are rich. Both are rulers. But one accepts God’s grace and changes
dramatically. And the other proves the
point that a camel can’t go through the eye of a needle.
It is easy to imagine Zacchaeus as a
cute harmless little man, and the rich ruler as a tall, stern, judgmental
fellow. But I think that’s a mistake.
The Bible doesn’t give us much in
the way of details about these two men, but I think the rich ruler would be the
kind of person we would like to invite over to dinner. He was smart, educated, disciplined,
well-mannered, good, and maybe even kind.
He’s the sort of person you’d want you kids to grow up to be like.
Then there’s Zacchaeus. Now remember, he is not just a tax
collector. He’s a ruling tax
collector. That’s all the proof we need
to know he’s a truly bad guy. He’s
worked his way up the ranks of tax collectors.
He’s made a living by selling out his own people to the enemy. He may have been a spy. He may have given breaks to those who scratch
his back, and turned the screws to those he didn’t like. If you’re a man he may have reduced or
dropped your taxes in exchange for certain, shall we say, “favors” from your
wife or daughter. I suspect he was
squirrely and untrustworthy. I doubt the
Romans liked him any more than the Jews.
You would not invite Zacchaeus to your house for dinner. You would not use him as a model for your
children. Do not underestimate how
appalled the crowds were that Jesus singled Zacchaeus out and invited himself
to dinner.
As the stories go we do have a huge
contrast between the rich ruler and Zacchaeus.
The rich ruler approached Jesus.
He called him “Good teacher.” He
asked him a righteous question.
Zacchaeus
didn’t dare approach Jesus. He may have
been ridiculed or injured by the crowd.
Instead he runs ahead and climbs a tree.
Neither running nor climbing a tree are dignified activities for a grown
man of importance. I imagine the crowd
giggling with glee at his silly behavior.
And the crowd also feeling a bit of smug satisfaction that he is being
pushed out.
Have
you ever felt that way? Sometimes when
you enter a construction zone on a highway the lanes reduce from two to
one. Most people will dutifully merge
well before they have to. But often
there’s some jerk who drives ahead and tries to horn in. The selfishness is infuriating. And there’s nothing more gleeful than seeing
people not let the jerk jip ahead, but instead have to wait; perhaps even being
forced to wait longer as punishment for their selfishness. I have no idea, but it is entirely possible
that that is what the crowd felt as they saw little Zacchaeus being excluded
from getting up close and personal with Jesus.
Who
knows what was going on in Zacchaeus’ heart.
The text just tells us that he wanted to “see who Jesus was”
(19:3). Maybe he was curious. Maybe he was desperate. Maybe he wanted to see if he could shake
Jesus down for some unpaid taxes! Or
indeed, maybe his heart was desperately yearning for hope, love, and a good
future. Who knows. Whatever the case, Jesus notices him.
Notice
Jesus does not ask Zacchaeus to come down.
And Jesus does not ask Zacchaeus if he can come over for dinner. He commands Zacchaeus to hurry down from the
tree. Why? Because, and notice the language here, “must
stay at your house today.” There’s no doubt. There’s no question. There’s no option. Jesus has invited himself to dinner at the
house of a scoundrel.
Our
minds might be spinning and the way God’s grace works. Indeed God’s grace does not follow
rules. God’s grace does not follow
logic. All we know for certain is that
we don’t deserve it, but God guarantees it to us anyway.
And
so Zacchaeus complies.
The
crowds grumble, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” Notice this is not the religious leaders
grumbling. This is not the Pharisees
grumbling. This is the everyday run of
the mill person in the crowd grumbling.
Jesus is not making himself popular by his choice of dinner host.
And
notice this carefully too. The scene
doesn’t change. Jesus does not come to
Zacchaeus’ house, and after dinner and deep heart-to-heart talk with Jesus does
Zacchaeus announce a change in his heart. No.
Right there. Right on the road in
front of the crowds Zacchaeus is still standing, now down from the tree, and
says to them all, “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.”
Yay
to Zacchaeus! What a change of
heart! What a realization of his
unworthiness and a commitment to live as God would have him live.
It
is an amazing and inspiring message of how God’s grace works. It is a contrast to what we read last
week. There we had a rich ruler who by
his own righteous living felt he deserved good things from God. Here we have a man aware of his
sinfulness. He knows he is needy. He knows he does not deserve from God. And thus he is open to God’s grace.
It
is important for all of us, no matter how righteously we are able to live or
not, that we all need God’s grace. Often
those who are self-sufficient think they earn it, like they have earned
everything else. And those who are
deeply broken think they cannot receive it because they are so fundamentally
flawed. Yet God’s unmerited favor comes
to one and all, and is needed by one and all.
It’s all good news! At least theoretically.
Let’s go back to where we
began. Past results do usually indicate
future performance. Did Zacchaeus really
suddenly change to be a better person.
The Bible doesn’t say. Zacchaeus
disappears from the story. Perhaps he
did change suddenly and dramatically.
But as best I can guess, I doubt he did.
Oh, I’m not saying that Zacchaeus
didn’t change. Indeed he did. But I think the change was a long road. Like a person trying to claw their way out of
an addiction, he had good days and bad days.
He had set backs.
I doubt people suddenly started
liking Zacchaeus. Would you really be
ready to suddenly embrace someone who had taken your land, or ruined your
family, or cheated you out of opportunities?
It would be tough to say the least.
That is where the grace of this
story really speaks to us. People seldom
change dramatically for the better. But
they are still people. Maybe we are the
one struggling to change. Maybe we are
the one who is struggling because someone close to us is struggling to
change. It is easy to become judgmental,
or to feel judged. But while there
always needs to be accountability, when we can fully live knowing we are in need
of God’s grace we can be forgiving of ourselves and of others.
That is life in God’s kingdom here
on earth. It is not that suddenly
everything becomes good and everyone becomes constructive and nice. But it is that everyone shares the common
need for grace. It is the common
struggle lived together. Let me conclude
with these words from my colleague Johanna Rehbaum:
“Divine grace is a strange,
startling, and even frustrating thing sometimes. It doesn’t behave the way we think it
should. It is offered to the desperate,
the confused, and the liars and cheaters.
It is offered to the unrighteous, the righteous, the honest and
dishonest, the saints and the sinners, even to me, and even to you. Thanks be to God for such undiscerning
grace!”
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