Jesus & Zacchaeus; The Issue Is Surrender

Luke 19:1-10

Rev. Dr. Ken Whitt                                 May 20, 2007

T’was battered, scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth the while to waste his tine on the old violin, but he held it up with a smile.
“What am I bid, good people,” he cried, “Who’ll start the bidding for me? One dollar? One dollar…now do I hear two? Two dollars…now who makes it three?
Three dollars once…three dollars twice, going for three…” But no! From the room far back a gray bearded man came forward and picked up the bow.
He, wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening up the strings, played a melody, pure and sweet, as sweet s the angels sing.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low, said, “What now am I bid for the old violin?” as he held it aloft with its bow.
“One thousand?” questioned he. “Two thousand? Three thousand once, three thousand twice…and going and gone,” said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried, “We don’t understand…What changed its worth?” Swift came the reply, “The touch of the master’s hand.” And many a youth with life out of tune, all battered and torn with sin, is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin. A mess of pottage, a glass of wine, a game and he travels on. He’s going once, he’s going twice, he is going and almost gone.
But the Master comes and the foolish crowd never can quite understand; the worth of a soul, the change that was wrought, by the touch of the Master’s hand.

Over and over again it has been so. Throughout the history of the people of God the winds of the Spirit have blown into the lives of wounded and broken people and one who felt as a useless earthen vessel was filled with gold and precious stones. One who felt as a broken cistern was made whole and filled with streams of living water. One who, like the old violin, was regarded as cheap trash, was given worth beyond measure.

We share today, as our Gospel Text, a story of a man who, because of the love of Jesus and his own courage to set right whatever was wrong, found his worth beyond measure.

Text: Luke 19:1-10 Jesus and Zacchaeus

19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. ² A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. ⁵ 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.” ⁶ So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. ⁷ All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” ⁸ 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.” ⁹ Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Jesus came to seek out and to save the lost.

What was lost?

Zacchaeus
And. all the other children of Abraham
And all the other children of God
And all the rest of God’s creation

Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost.

And, the Son of Man still comes to seek and to save what is lost.

What is lost?

Until we allow ourselves to be found, we are lost.
Plus, the whole creation is lost.
The city is lost.
The nations are lost.

And so the Son of Man comes, to seek and to save what was and what is lost. Listen to how Jesus accomplishes this salvation work, in the life of one man named Zacchaeus. Imagine the story unfolding from the point of view of what Jesus is feeling and what Jesus sees with his own eyes.

Remember, Jesus was just passing through. Maybe he was so much into his own thoughts that Jesus barely noticed that he was even in Jericho. There were no plans to stay. The destination, the only destination that counted anymore, was Jerusalem. He must get to Jerusalem, where destiny awaited him. It is easy to imagine that this destiny possessed his thoughts, blinding him to everything else. He did not feel the scorching heat of the sun. The sounds of the crowd did not penetrate to his conscious mind. One desperate man was crying, “Heal me!” A father was telling his child, “There he is, there’s Jesus!” A Pharisee was protesting to another, “He’s just a fake.” Jesus heard none of this. He did not even notice the stone that had worked its way under his sandal. A blister was forming. The soreness was causing a limp in his step, but Jesus paid it no mind. His attention was elsewhere, completely occupied by an internal pain far worse than a blister.

For Jesus knew what be would encounter in Jerusalem. No matter bow hard he tried he had not been able to stop the words of the prophet Isaiah from reverberating in his brain like thunder:

“He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Jesus could not silence this inner voice. He protested against it. In the internal silence of his soul he called out to God for release. But there was no release. There was only an ever increasing certainty that he would meet his destiny in Jerusalem and that it had to be this way.

(Have you ever been that sure of your destiny? That certain of a path you must follow?)

Can’t you just hear Jesus suddenly shouting, “Why?” The sound of his own voice shook Jesus into awareness. He stopped in his tracks, not because he wanted to stop but because he was being told to stop walking forward, forced to stop by a will greater than his own. He was brought up short by the will of God, the power of God guiding not only his thoughts but his feet as well.

It took Jesus a moment to gather his thoughts. He looked all around to see where he was. He listened to the confusion of the disciples who did not understand why they bad come to a stop nor why Jesus had screamed “Why?” Jesus began to pay attention to the cries of the crowd, “There’s Jesus!”, “Heal me!” “He’s a fake.” And then--he looked up. In the midst of the confusion, the inner and outer chaos of his life, despite the anguish of his soul, there arose from his innermost self--can you imagine it?--a laugh; a laugh that began as a. grin, grew to a chuckle and then became a belly laugh that had Jesus holding his sides so he would not burst. For he saw above him, perched on the branch of a sycamore tree, barely able to hold on to save his life, the shortest rolly polly man Jesus had ever seen. His perch was so fragile that a gust of wind would have sent him tumbling like an acorn knocked loose by a hungry squirrel. Jesus could not take his eyes off this eccentric character who had gone to such self-humiliating lengths to see him.

(Have you ever been surprised like that, caught completely off guard by the sudden appearance of the last thing you expected to see? Have you ever seen God in the midst of the surprise?)

What a gift Zacchaeus had given to Jesus. The gift of laughter worked a healing miracle in the soul of our Lord.

Around about him Jesus now heard the laughter of the crowd. The people too had spotted Zacchaeus in his tree. But their laughter ‘was cruel, interlaced with diatribes of condemnation: “That’s Zacchaeus, the tax collector, the crook!” Someone threw a stone to knock him off his perch.

Allowing his own laughter to cease, Jesus quickly took control of the situation by shouting, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house. So Zacchaeus came down immediately, glad to get himself out of the spotlight, and especially glad to welcome anyone who would willingly enter his house. For Zacchaeus truly had been a man without a friend. “You have a friend now,” Jesus told him with his love.

(Have you ever needed such a friend? Have you ever been given the gift of unexpected friendship?)

Arm in arm with his new friend, Jesus headed down the road to Zacchaeus’ home. The disciples followed, bewildered by this turn of events. But the crowd was more than mystified, they were hostile. Their attacks against Zacchaeus continued. “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner!”one man complained..

Suddenly, Jesus felt himself being stopped again in his tracks, not by God this time but by more muscle power than Jesus thought his short friend possessed. Zacchaeus stood as tall as his five foot frame would allow. For the first time be could remember, Zacchaeus stood his ground against the taunts of the crowd. “Look, Lord”, Zacchaeus shouted to Jesus. And in the air he drew a large square. Then he slashed his hand through the middle of the square, ripped off one half and proclaimed; “Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

And from deep within him there arose from Jesus, not laughter this time, but tears, tears of joy for what Zacchaeus had learned, tears for one who had been lost but now was found. But there was another reason for the tears. In the encounter with Zacchaeus Jesus heard from God an answer to his own desperate cry of “Why?” “Why must I surrender my life to death?” The answer from God? “Because surrender is the way the Son of Man seeks and saves what was lost.”

Men like Zacchaeus
And people like the crowd lost in their condemnation
And people like you and me
In story form, through events in his life, God taught Jesus.

By the way, it is my intention to teach you through this sermon to look for God and to learn from God in all of the events of your life. I believe that your future in Christ and the future of this church as Christ’s body in the world are both dependent on our ability to see God—this is called discernment—to see God in the stories of our lives. God is everywhere to be found and the stories of our lives are one of the most important places God speaks to us. Is something important happening in your life? How do you see God moving in this story? All you have to do to begin learning the spiritual art of discernment is to ask and seek answers to this question. Where is God in your story? What is God saying in the events you are passing through? Where is God, in the bad news and in the good news?

The encounter with Zacchaeus reminded Jesus of the central mission, the purpose, of his life. And, the encounter also reminded Jesus of the method by which Jesus would accomplish that salvation work. That method was surrender.

Surrender
Letting go
Letting God
Trusting in Power greater than his own
Allowing his footsteps to be guided
Saying “yes” to God’s will and “no” to his own
Surrender.

Jesus was, you remember, just passing through Jericho. How many of you have ever been stopped in your tracks when you thought you were just passing through? You took a job just to hold you over, and found yourself being given a new vocation that brought added meaning to your life. You were asked to teach Sunday School for just a couple of weeks while the permanent teacher was on vacation. You became the new permanent teacher, and fell in love with the job and the students. While going about your business, on your way to somewhere else, you saw a need. You didn’t have time or patience for it.

But you stopped anyway. The stopping changed your or another person’s life.

Jesus was .just passing through Jericho. He had no intention of staying. He had no intention of stopping there to help or heal or save anyone. But notice what happens in the story. Jesus is just passing through. All of a sudden he is shouting at Zacchaeus, “I must stay.” Jesus had no choice in this matter. It was something he must do. He was being told what to do. His footsteps and his words were being guided by a will stronger than his own. His salvation work was being accomplished by the plan of God rather than his own plan, Jesus didn’t plan to do anything for Zacchaeus. God the Father was completely in charge. If Jesus couldn’t even see, by his own power, the need of one man how could he expect, through the force of his own will to seek and to save all that was lost. Surrender was the only way.

It is absolutely no different with us. And if we think Jesus had trouble surrendering his will to God’s will, let us take a deep look inside ourselves. If we think Jesus had a hard time letting God guide his footsteps, let us take a close look at the paths we are treading with our lives. I confess! No aspect of sinfulness is more difficult for me. If I stop paying attention for just a moment, I find myself heading down my own path again. If God did not have such powerful ways of letting me know when I am getting off the path, I would forever be wandering farther and farther away. But like God stopped the feet of Jesus under that Sycamore tree, like God guided the eyes of Jesus to meet the eyes of Zacchaeus, like God spoke through the mouth of Jesus, God can stop me in my tracks, cause me to see what I need to see, and cause me to speak what God wants me to speak--if--if—I am willing to surrender.

This is a very difficult and a very important spiritual lesson. But it is critical to our wholeness, our salvation, and to finding our way to God’s future. Take it as a given. We don’t know how to get there on our own—discernment of God’s leading is the only wayl.

Jesus had to surrender. Preachers have to surrender. Lay people have to surrender. And churches have to surrender. I think you can measure Christians and Churches spiritually by the length of 2 x 4 God must swing to get our attention. Don’t make God cut down one of those towering sequoia’s in California to get a board long enough to stop you in your tracks. God can swing it but we will not like the side effects of such a spiritual blow.

God can stop us in our tracks, like God stopped Jesus under that sycamore tree. God can show us what we need to be and to do. And what we are shown often is a shock. Most of the times that I accomplish anything like a powerful work for God, it comes as a surprise.

The best sermons come are a surprise.
The most caring actions towards people often were not planned.
Insights from a Bible study and creative leadership ideas show up expectedly, unsought.
I’m doing one thing and something else happens.

Surprises take me out of myself and make me aware of God. When we have been brought up short by God, we must see what God leads us to see and speak what God tells us to speak. Surrender--that’s how God’s salvation work was accomplished through Jesus. That’s how God’s salvation work is accomplished through our lives, and in our lives.

We need not be afraid of the path upon which God is guiding our lives. No matter how difficult the road ahead appears to be, no matter how out of control we feel, God may be about to surprise us and show us God’s new way for our lives. ‘ ‘

Surprise! Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “You have a friend.” It was the best gift Zacchaeus ever received. And the response of Zacchaeus was one of the best gifts Jesus ever received.

So be it.

Amen!