I like climbing trees.
The last one I climbed wasn’t all that long ago, we have an ancient gnarled mulberry tree beside our house. It was my secret hiding place while playing hide and go seek, until I was found out. Now it’s not so secret anymore.
I’m not ready to give up climbing trees yet. There is something exhilarating about it. Up the tree I can see things I normally miss, a different perspective, plus it’s a good way to hide and it’s just plain fun.
Yeah. Up a tree I can see things better.
What is it about that wee little man, Zacchaeus, and that sycamore? It is an amazing story that has been catching our imagination for century after century after century. It is all out of the ordinary. An important yet infamous person who throws all dignity aside to climb up a tree because he has an intense interest and curiosity in this holy man who is passing through town. He climbs up the tree trying to see, he wants to see Jesus, he probably also wanted to hide.
But he was found out. Rather than being indignant he hurries down the tree and he celebrates that Jesus has decided to invite himself to his house. He is all excited. He throws all dignity aside, he is excited.
It is important that we don’t try to make Zacchaeus a cute little man. He was more of a thug than anything else, a very successful, rich thug, which is what makes this story very amazing.
The Roman Empire privatized their tax collection by licensing tax collectors over different areas. The tax collectors paid the Empire the taxes up front before they were collected, then they set about getting their money back and then some, it was a system that was designed to be easily abused and corrupt. Basically the local mafia paid off the government so they could have free reign to run a protection racket. And what made it worse was that these tax collectors worked for the enemy, the occupying forces of the Roman Empire who were hated and despised in Israel. They were traitors and thugs of the worst sort.
Zacchaeus may have been short, but he wasn’t small, he had weight, leverage. And for some reason he had missed out on Jesus’ visit to Jericho and he tried to catch a peak of Jesus as Jesus was leaving town. He was probably so despised and unpopular and loathed that he was simply not welcome to any of the occasions where Jesus was present.
You may have noticed that in Luke’s Gospel rich people are in big trouble with God, and that tax collectors are some of Jesus favorite people. The unusual thing is that Zacchaeus is both rich and a tax collector. What will Jesus say? We are meant to wonder which way he will lean. Fer em or agin em.
Well Jesus finds Zacchaeus hiding up in that tree and he tells him to hurry down and Zacchaeus does just that, he hurries down, and gets all excited about Jesus coming over, and then the crowd grumbles about this rich low life taking up Jesus time and attention, and the damn just breaks and Zacchaeus up and declares he is giving half his wealth to the poor and four fold restitution to everyone he extorted money from.
And all Jesus had said up to this point was hurry down from that tree. I’m coming over to your house.
After Zacchaeus makes his declaration Jesus finally says something about the state of Zacchaeus’ salvation. Jesus says that salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ house, that he is a son of Abraham, and that the Son of Man is here to seek out and save the lost.
Which brings the story back to the beginning, who is looking for whom in this story? Was Zacchaeus trying to see Jesus while hiding? Had Jesus been looking for Zacchaeus all along, seeking him out to save him? Had Zacchaeus been avoiding Jesus?
We don’t know. It’s what makes this story so great, so many unexpected twists and turns and unanswered questions, so much is left unsaid and it leaves us sitting up there in the tree wondering and filling in the details.
The whole point of the story is that Jesus invited himself over to the house of a despised man, and the man’s life was changed, and that the evidence of that response to Jesus is that he gave his wealth to the poor and that he now played fare with the tax payers rather than abusing his legal privilege.
And the story leaves us with unanswered questions about our own lives. Are we sure who the saints and the sinners are? Who do we despise and exclude? Do we abuse power and privilege? Would we jump out of a tree for a chance to have Jesus pay us a visit? Do we really, really want to see Jesus better? Or are we hiding? Trees are great for doing both.
And the real question about Jesus in Luke’s Gospel is if we will share with the poor in response to Jesus being in our lives. If not then we are in trouble. If so then salvation has come to this house.
The Christian Gospel is that God is paying a visit and that Jesus Christ is that visitation of God, Jesus is God inviting God’s own self over to our house and each of us has to come down from our trees and join in the celebration by sharing with the poor.
Hurry down that tree. Company is coming over. It’s going to be expensive.