November 3, 2013 (All Saints’ Sunday) – Luke 19:1-10
Luke 19:1-10
Zacchaeus: Sinner – and Saint
All Saints Sunday [Lectionary 31C] – November 3, 2013
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Okay: Zacchaeus is not a good man.
Tax collectors were not good people in the ancient world –
whether they are or not today I won’t venture to say.
Really, though, what they did back in the day was more extortion than tax collection:
Zacchaeus was a Jew who collected taxes for the enemy Roman Empire;
he could collect by any means necessary, and he did have the
backing of the formidable Roman Army.
Anything over the amount that he had to collect, he could keep for himself.
And presumably he collected a lot more than he had to: he was rich.
And therefore, Zacchaeus was despised.
Zacchaeus is not a good man.
But then you stop and think for a moment.
And you think, Hm. Most people are not completely not good – or completely not bad.
Most people are kinda complicated.
And so it is with Zacchaeus.
Despite what our translation say this morning, what Luke really says about Zaccheus is this:
I customarily give half my wealth to the poor and I restore fourfold any I have defrauded.
Maybe Zacchaeus was once a bad man.
Maybe he’s still in a not-so-great profession that makes him not totally good.
But he’s got this going for him: he gives half his wealth to the poor and
restores fourfold any he has defrauded.
As I’ve said before, he’s more Robin Hood than Sheriff of Nottingham.
Not unequivocally good, not unequivocally bad, but rather all mixed up:
good and bad all mixed up together.
And that makes him just like – well, just like every single one of us here this morning.
Luther had a wonderful term for this: Luther said we are all simultaneously saint and sinner,
at exactly the same time.
In ourselves, we are not so great.
But then Jesus gets a hold of us in baptism,
and gives us his Spirit of healing and grace and love and light,
and despite our not-so-greatness, can then be at work in us and through us.
See: I think Zacchaeus has met Jesus before.
I think they know each other.
I mean Jesus sees Zacchaeus up in the tree and says, “Hey, Zacchaeus, my man, how are ya?
Come on down: I’m comin’ for dinner to your place. We’ll catch up.”
The crowd is scandalized of course, because Zacchaeus is a bad man.
But Jesus loves imperfect people, and Jesus really loves working through imperfect people.
I think they met at the Jordan River – which is not far from Jericho – way back when
Jesus’s crazy cousin John was baptizing people in the Jordan River,
calling them to repentance, calling them to a new way of life.
We know tax collectors went out there.
We know Jesus was out there.
We know John baptized the people out there.
And we know what John told the people out there:
share half of what you have with those who need it,
don’t take more, tax collectors, than you’re supposed to,
and don’t defraud anyone.
Which is exactly what Zacchaeus has been doing.
I think Jesus met Zacchaeus on the shores of the Jordan River some time before,
the shores of new life, and invited him to live differently.
To be at work in him, despite his imperfection.
And that is what Zacchaeus has done.
Zacchaeus is not just a sinner: Zacchaeus is also a saint,
one in whom the Spirit of Jesus is at work.
Zacchaeus’s name literally means “the innocent one, the righteous one, the saint.” Cool, right?
The thing is, God doesn’t wait for us to be perfect before God calls us into the
divine mission to love bless heal and set free this whole world and every person in it.
God doesn’t even ask Zacchaeus to change jobs.
In your job right now, he says to Zacchaeus – which is far from perfect, let’s face it –
you can bring blessing.
You are imperfect – and you can bring blessing.
You are a mixed up mess some of the time – and you can bring blessing.
You are often dark – but you can bear my light.
I will give it to you: you might be a sinner, but you are also my saint at the same time.
That’s mighty good news.
I’ve led the funerals for a lot of the people we remember this morning.
And guess what: not a single one of them was totally 100% perfect.
And yet, I also know – I know! – that in every single case, the good gifts of a
good and loving God managed to come through them.
These were all sinners – and saints, all mixed up.
And if there’s one thing that Zacchaeus and the rest of these saints can do for us this morning,
they can remind us that even though we are far from perfect,
even though each of us is often full of conflicting priorities and passions:
that is not a barrier to the love of Christ working in us and through us.
Paul said it best: I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor anything in all creation can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing, nothing, nothing is stronger bigger larger than the love God has for us in Jesus. Nothing: nothing ultimately can bar it from being at work in our lives and in our congregation.
That is very very good news.
Grief is not stronger than the love of God, and many of us are grieving this morning.
But death is not stronger than the love of God: death is even now suffering a long defeat.
This imperfection, this death, this grief: this is not the end. Love is the end. Life is the end.
So, we must all join the saints this morning in the struggle, in the long defeat.
Turns out that being a sinner, being imperfect is no excuse for not joining God’s mission to
love and bless and heal this world.
That is what these saints – along with our brother Zacchaeus – can teach us this morning.
Even though they are dead, we have lit candles against the dark for them.
As a reminder that the light of Christ was at work in them.
As a reminder that the goodness at work in them has been part of the long defeat of death.
As a reminder that that light cannot be extinguished, but is in fact our end:
endless, endless light and peace and grace and communion: that is our end.
They are held in Christ’s safe-keeping – and the truth is, so are we.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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