God Doesn't Think That Small

There is more to the story of Zacchaeus than we were taught

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Transcript

Sermons from 

Mission Hills UCC

San Diego, California

Rev. Dr. David Bahr

david.bahr@missionhillsucc.org

April 6, 2025

“God Doesn’t Think that Small”

Luke 19: 1-10 – Common English Bible

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through town. 2 A man there named Zacchaeus, a ruler among tax collectors, was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but, being a short man, he couldn’t because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to that spot, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down at once. I must stay in your home today.” 6 So Zacchaeus came down at once, happy to welcome Jesus.

7 Everyone who saw this grumbled, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

8 Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I repay them four times as much.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this household because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 The Human One came to seek and save the lost.”

Last week a bunch of religious leaders grumbled that Jesus “welcomes sinners and eats with them,” so he told them a parable about leaving 99 sheep behind to go look for the one.  In today’s reading, his critics are back at it.  We’ve jumped ahead four chapters and yet, once again, “everyone who saw this – who saw Jesus ask to visit Zacchaeus’s house – grumbled, saying, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’”  

These religious leaders are really fixated on how awful it is that “those people” are drawn to the message of Jesus and that there’s a place for them at his table.  Even worse in their mind, in some of his parables, Jesus isn’t just inviting “those people” to sit with the religious leaders at the same table but, oh my God! in place of them and even at the head of the table, no less.  

Jesus provokes them, like in the previous chapter, he told a parable about another tax collector and a Pharisee.  They were both at the altar praying, but the Pharisee, who was quite pleased with himself, loudly proclaimed, “Thank God I’m not like that tax collector.”  To the shock of the Pharisees, Jesus praised the tax collector.  They’re grumbling has taken the form of plotting – in fact, this all takes place a week before his execution.

But this time, the crowd, usually on the side of Jesus, got in on the grumbling too; and for a very good reason.  “Sinner” doesn’t begin to describe how people saw Zacchaeus.  More like, collaborator.  More like, extortionist or crook.  More like, even, a traitor to his people.  All because of his job.  But he was no ordinary IRS agent for whom we are grateful because they collect money to pay for schools and hospitals and roads and parks.  Zacchaeus collected taxes for the Roman Empire who used the people’s money to abuse the people.  How’d he get into that line of work?

Little Zack grew up in a hotspot for global trade – a crossroad through which things from exotic places like Mesopotamia and Arabia passed.  They traded Jericho’s valuable salt and grains for luxurious textiles from Babylonia, jewelry and cosmetics from Egypt, obsidian from Turkey.  It all came through Jericho and his parents were wealthy from all this commerce. 

Thus, Little Zack grew up surrounded by the finest things of life.  And once you’ve had it all, you want more.  Somehow, for some people, more than enough is still never enough – right?  And when you can’t get more off the rich, you squeeze it out of the little guy.  Gosh, it kinda sounds like Elon Musk.  In fact, Elon Musk might be the best way I could illustrate how people felt about Zacchaeus.  How would you feel if you watched Jesus ask Elon to visit his house for dinner?  Yeah, I’d be in the crowd on the side of the grumblers.

So, back to Little Zack.  When the Romans went around looking for people to collect their taxes, they didn’t want some ordinary guy who needed a job.  They chose the already rich, the ones for whom enough is never enough, because they were likely the best ones to squeeze the poor for everything they could get.  And Zacchaeus was so good at it, he was made the chief tax collector – which made him even more of a pariah to his people and even more isolated.  Fellow Jews only saw him as a traitor.  The Romans weren’t his friends, they just used him.  His only community, the only place where he felt like he belonged, was with other “those people” types.

So, why was Zacchaeus up in a sycamore tree that day?  He wanted to see Jesus.  By this time, he had quite a reputation, constantly followed by crowds hungry for his message; also followed by religious leaders and Romans to keep an eye on him.  They were frightened that this rabble-rousing prophet would cause trouble, especially the upcoming week in Jerusalem.  That’s why they were passing through Jericho – on their way up to Jerusalem along with everyone else for the annual spring festival of Passover to celebrate the Israelites’ liberation from slavery in Egypt.  They worried:  what might this guy do?  Surely the idea of “liberation from Rome” had crossed their mind.

But again, why was Zacchaeus in the tree that day?  Was he just curious?  Or perhaps he was just as hungry for some kind of change of heart and life as everyone else.  But here’s where the interpretation of this very familiar parable gets complicated.

Traditional interpretations, as many of us heard it taught growing up, have a personal salvation angle.  Zacchaeus scrambled down from the tree and following his encounter with Jesus, he repented of his sin and offered to pay restitution.  But that’s not really in the text.  Here’s what it says:

The indignant crowd grumbles, “what business does he have getting cozy with this crook?”  Hearing them, Zacchaeus told Jesus, “I give half my possessions to the poor.  And if I have cheated anyone, I repay them four times as much.”  He doesn’t say, and this is what I now will do.  In the Greek, he says, this is what I do – as in, this is what I already do.  That challenges the “he repented of his sin” angle.  But it also challenges my whole assessment of him as a “more than enough is never enough” kind of guy.  Is that an accurate reading of the text?

Something life-changing happened to Zacchaeus, no doubt, but it’s not because he quit his job or changed what he’s been doing.  Jesus says nothing about repentance, yet he proclaimed, “Today, salvation has come to this household.”  But what does that mean?  That the man Zacchaeus was saved from his sin?  There’s more to it.  As I said last week, healing for Jesus often wasn’t just about taking away a disease or an impediment from an individual.  The larger impact was that the individual, having been long separated because of their disease, could now be reunited with their community.  This is a similar healing-as-reunion story as Jesus reminds the crowd, he too is a son of Abraham.  

The last thing Jesus said in this passage is, “the Human One came to seek and save the lost.”  But as I asked last week, what does “lost” mean here?  Lost, like you must repent because you’re not saved?  Or lost, because you were alienated from your community and now, just like the one sheep back with the 99, your entire household is restored to the community.  That is salvation with a much greater impact than we often preach.  

Richard Rohr has a new book subtitled “prophetic wisdom in an age of outrage.”[1]  He wrote, “For centuries, the church has been trying to save individuals while completely ignoring the corrupt system in which individuals live.”  Like focusing exclusively on the story of Zacchaeus as a matter personal salvation.

Rohr said, nothing will ever change if we merely try to convert the ‘bad guys.’  If all we do is look for bad apples in the system instead of injustice, no one’s pain will ever be completely healed.  “Jesus simultaneously healed individuals while critiquing the systems that made them need healing.”  That’s why Jesus kept provoking the religious leaders for their unholy alliance with the empire.  “If we read stories of Jesus performing miraculous cures, we might think “wow!” for five seconds.  But when you ask why the healing was needed, it requires a whole new way of seeing what needs to change.”  Including institutionalized evils the powerful call good.  

Jesus demonstrated not the corrupt system’s violent overthrow, and certainly not white Christian nationalists taking control of the system and trying to impose power for themselves.  But Jesus did teach his followers to change the violent system in which they lived.  But his improbable method, both then and now, is to change it with love.  Not the feeling, but the power.  Not mere sentimentality, but the church cannot ignore, for example as Dr. King said, “When evil men plot, good people must plan.  When evil men burn and bomb, good people must build and bind.  When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good people must commit themselves to the [power] of love.”  

Over the years, millions of people have gone to Billy Graham style revival meetings, walking forward to the music of Just as I Am with tearful promises to change their lives.  I went to the altar at my home church at age 7, the blasphemous sinner that I was.  It was a personally transformative experience that I remember to this day, but I was never told to turn my repentance into anything more than to stop maybe cussing and drinking – again, I was 7.  

If everyone who went to a Billy Graham crusade went home that night convicted of their racial prejudice and changed their ways – wow!  Instead, it was spiritualized.  When Dr. King spoke of little black boys and girls in Alabama joining hands with little white boys and girls in his I Have a Dream speech, Graham dismissed, or rather diminished, the message by proclaiming, “Only when Christ comes again will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children.”[2]  But God doesn’t think that small.  

This is not to suggest that it’s not important to judge our personal actions by the demands and invitation of the gospel, to be honest and change our hearts and lives, or in other words, repent.  But again, healing for Jesus wasn’t just for the individual.  

Personal salvation that doesn’t turn from an inward transformation of myself to an outward manifestation for others  is too small to be a God-thing.  For example, we quickly criticize someone as a welfare-cheat before questioning record corporate profits.  God doesn’t think that small.  We cut money that feeds millions of seniors receiving Meals on Wheels that by comparison to a billionaire, he could use to feed a few goldfish.  What possible purpose does that serve that isn’t completely morally corrupt?  Morally corrupt individuals manipulate repentance into personal failings instead of repentance for the country’s failures to provide for its most vulnerable citizens.  God doesn’t think that small.  

Jesus sought a greater impact.  In this story, that Zacchaeus, long separated, could be reunited with his community.  It is a healing-as-reunion story.  

The greater impact we need right now for our country is healing as reunion, which is why in our prayer of intercession to follow, we not only pray for all who are fearful and troubled by such things as the personal impacts of economies crashing around the world, especially the impact on the poor.  We also pray for those causing fear to reign.  We pray not only for our hurting and divided nation, we pray for those inflicting harm, conflict, and division.  But let us not forget to follow our Savior Jesus Christ and his example to provoke and keep provoking religious leaders who are in an unholy alliance with the empire.  Otherwise we diminish Jesus himself.

For what do you seeking healing this morning?  Trust that Jesus heals.  Then let that inward transformation become an outward manifestation and embrace your call to be a healer, repairers of the breach, the terrible chasm between each other and heal our whole world.  That’s big enough to be worthy of God.

[1] Richard Rohr, The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage, Convergent, 2025
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/22/us/billy-graham-mlk-civil-rights/index.html