Zacchaeus, Jesus, and the 12-steps.

October 30, 2022

Reformation Sermon at Lutheran Chruch of the Good Shepherd in Coatesville, PA

Luke 19:1-10: Zacchaeus & Jesus

Livestream: Gospel reading and sermon start at 25:00 minutes.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be pleasing to you, O LORD, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

It is so good to be back here at Good Shepherd. I cannot believe how nearly five months has flown by for us all since started my pastoral internship and since Alyssa and I adopted Minnie and Clio officially. For a while this summer I was telling time by cat milestones. By how willing Minnie and Clio were to explore the house. Then by how well or not they interacted with our other cat, Clem. I can safely say that after a few months and a lot of different tactics, we have reached a peace agreement of cat territories separated by a strategic tall baby gate in the house. All the cats are loved very deeply and doing well. 

My internship, as some of y’all might remember, is working alongside people in 12-step recovery programs and people affected by addiction in Reading, PA. The basis for our worshipping community is an understanding that the practice of the 12-steps as spirituality usually in an Anonymous program could bring a unique connection to God through a deep understanding of honest Hope and overwhelming Grace. 

Part of our weekly worship is a time of sharing. Whenever someone gets the microphone, we introduce ourselves by saying, Hello, my name is Mycah, and everyone greets the person back “Hi Mycah”. It is humbling to sit in a room where we are intentionally learning each others names, hearing one another’s stories, celebrate gratitude’s together, provide support when asked, and creating these sacred relationships in the presence of God by recognizing the way God is working in our lives.

The more I get familiar with the 12-steps, the more I have begun to understand how transformational these steps can be for people in Recovery and their loved ones, and the wisdom those of us not impacted by addiction and recovery can learn from our siblings in Christ who are.

As I read this week’s Gospel story about Zacchaeus and Jesus, I heard some of those themes I hear at my internship echoed here. Seeking a higher power, God. Making a fearless and moral inventory. Admitting wrongs and making amends.

We enter this Gospel lesson on the road. Jesus has set his path toward Jerusalem and toward the events right before his crucifixion. Jesus has spent time with some questionable company like a roman soldier, a ‘good’ Samaritan, tax collectors, and people with difficult questions.

Now along this journey is Zacchaeus – who happens to be a tax collector and rich. These tell us a few things about him. One, a tax collector is someone who was of the community, a neighbor, but working with the Roman Empire who was oppressing the Jewish folks. And because he was rich, we know he was good at his job. Perhaps similar to the unjust judge, Zacchaeus could be viewed as someone who was financially rich but spiritually and morally poor. Zacchaeus recognized his need for a higher power and was seeking Jesus out. Steps 1 through 3 are about recognizing our need for God and being willing to hand ourselves over to God.

Now, Zacchaeus’ neighbors might see him as a traitor to for the job he had. Zacchaeus could have had a huge desire to be in the crowd and learn from Jesus while Jesus was in Jericho, but feared being in the crowd because he was working with the empire. Very reasonably, Zacchaeus wanted to stick to the outside of the crowd – what would happen to him if the people he had collected taxes from who are undoubtedly mad at him, turned against him in the crowd? He is trying his best to be safe but still seeking his higher power, faith and understanding through Jesus.

Here is this huge crowd, and Jesus is undoubtedly somewhere in the center of the crowd, and Zacchaeus is somewhere on the margin of the crowd, of course he can’t see over everyone’s heads to see Jesus. While the text says ‘he was short’ – it is not quite clear in the Greek who was the short man in this situation. Here’s the thing – that’s a fun detail included by the gospel writer but there’s probably not a direct correlation to someone being short and having bad moral character. If Zacchaeus is the short one which historically he was assumed to be, it his height is not an inverse relationship to needing Jesus, and a tall man would need Jesus less.

But because the crowd was so large and no one is tall enough to see over all of it, Zacchaeus does what any normal middle aged chief tax collector would do and climbs a tree to get a good vantage of this famous teacher. 

Jesus spots the man in the tree and calls him by name to come down and Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ home. A bit of a reversal of how hospitality works here. Usually it’s offered by the host, but here Jesus as the guest is reversing the role and inviting Zacchaeus into the role as host in his own home. At this point it is an honor to host Jesus, and the crowd grumbles. This guy gets to host our teacher? The one we believe is the Messiah? But he’s a rich tax collector. He is the least of all of us. In fact, we no longer consider him one of our own. Why would Jesus spend time with him? 

In response, Zacchaeus begins a fearless and searching moral inventory of himself to Jesus, steps 4 through 7, offering the ways he makes amends, Steps eight and nine. This is a very abbreviated version of those steps that take months, if not years to work through for folks. It is part of the tough spiritual work off Recovery. Zachaeus says he “will give back” according to this translation. Other Greek scholars would argue that he said “I give to the poor now, I give back fourfold whenever someone is defrauded”. It’s not a promise that Zacchaeus is making to Jesus upon meeting him, something he is promising to do in the future in response to Jesus’ sudden physical presence in his life.

While meeting Jesus and learning from him can be a conversion story like we get with the woman at the Well in the gospel of John, what we have here is Jesus’ presence revealing the amends Zacchaeus was already trying to make. This person who everyone thought was doing wrong all the time. Who people had prejudged because of his occupation, social and economic statuses, had been cast out of his own community, has actually been making amends to his community from the resources he had as a tax collector. Helping the poor and returning more when Zacchaeus has defrauded someone. Turns out Zacchaeus is a real Robin Hood figure disguised as an antagonist. He has been living out step 10 to continue to take moral inventory and when he messed up, promptly admitted it.

Jesus came to seek out the lost and save them – who is the lost in this story? Who needed saving? Was it Zacchaeus who had been seeking out Jesus in the first place? Or is it the crowd who needed to hear Jesus’ message? 

So often I think we hear about a person’s job, social status, money or life situation and pass judgement. Oh that person? They sure do need a little Jesus in their lives, while missing our own need for Jesus’ saving grace for ourselves. Zacchaeus knew he needed Jesus in his life. Zacchaeus had no illusions about who he was. Sure, he was rich and he had financial power as a chief tax collector but when it came to spiritual matters, he was seeking Jesus as a teacher and redeemer like the rest of us. Continuing to build a relationship with God is part of step 11. 

What is shocking is the crowd – the very crowd who is trying to walk with Jesus and learn from him, demonizing with false assumptions the very person Jesus is dining with. We are tricked into agreeing with the crowd, and sometimes applauding the very sin this story is condemning. Who are we to pass judgement when Jesus is revealing the good in people we least expect? Not just this tax collector, but also a Samaritan who acts out of kindness, the roman soldier seeking mercy, and the humble questions of faith from the people most lost.

How often have we met someone who is in recovery from addiction and passed judgement? Have we seen the judgement from friends and family when someone is bravely taking the steps toward recovery, trying to cast shame on the situation. There’s an awkwardness in not knowing how to act. How to support one another. Sometimes we turn into the judgmental crowd rather than meeting that person on the road to Jericho, offering a chance to be seen and connected like Jesus did for Zacchaeus who was making amends. 

Finally, perhaps Zacchaeus was ready for step twelve: having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, he will try to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all his affairs. 

I read in a book recently that over 23 million Americans are in Recovery from addictions. Can you imagine a world where we all continue to reach out to one another with compassion? Were we have a fearless and honest, and prompt response to making amends when we mess up? A community where we listen to one another’s stories and connect our stories to the stories of faith in the Bible? Jesus came to seek us out and save each of us in our own lostness. May we be willing to climb down the tree of our own faults and host our savior for dinner. 

Amen.