Sermons

“Seek & Save, or Afflict & Burn”

Luke 19:1-10; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – October 30, 2016

Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words, that our hearts might be opened to the compassionate grace of your Son, Jesus. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

I love the story of Zacchaeus, don’t you? Okay, well, maybe you don’t. We’ll get into that later. But first, let’s look at why one might. The story of Zacchaeus is about how Jesus helps people get free from traps. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. And back then, that meant that he went around collecting money for the Roman empire. And there was an unspoken assumption that while he was doing so, he was pretty much free to demand as much additional money for himself as he could get. So he did. There was a reason people didn’t like tax collectors.

Given all of that, you might imagine that when Jesus arrived in Jericho and looked up in that tree, he would have said, “Hey buddy! Stop exploiting people! Sell all your possessions and give the proceeds to the poor.” (There is precedent for that, after all.) But he didn’t, did he? What did he say instead? “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” What? Does he know who this guy is? Well, clearly he does, because he called him by name. But did you hear what else he said? So many things: You are a beloved child of God. I need your help. I’m going to take a chance on you. I see the real you. I believe you have something to offer. You don’t have to stay stuck in the trap you’re in.

Jesus didn’t tell Zacchaeus what to do. He didn’t make demands or ultimatums or bargains. He asked for hospitality. In front of everyone else. And there was so much in that request, Zacchaeus didn’t need more prodding. He hadn’t been such a jerk for so long because he didn’t know right from wrong. He’d just gotten stuck in a trap built by an empire that ruled by setting its subjects at odds with one another. He’d gotten used to a certain way of being in the world that was comfortable enough if he didn’t think about it too much.

But when he saw Jesus, something within him broke open. When he heard Jesus say it was his house he wanted to stay at that night, Zacchaeus suddenly knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he didn’t want to live the old way anymore. His chains were gone; he’d been set free. Jesus was holding open a great big hole in that nasty barbed wire fence, and all he had to do was walk through it. And just in case those standing around watching didn’t believe he could do it, he told them what life was going to look like on the other side. “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.” There’s nothing like public accountability for making change permanent.

What about you? Are you caught in a trap? A situation that you know isn’t right, but that you can’t see the way out of? An ethically sketchy set-up at work? An addiction? Circumstances that make life easier for you but that are essentially taking advantage of someone else’s weakness or good will? What do you need to hear to believe that Jesus is offering you a way out? I think we talk about love here a lot. We talk about God loving you, and yes, we really mean it. We talk about Jesus loving you, and we even ritualize that at the Table here, where everyone is welcome. We talk about the Spirit of Love that binds us together. But maybe you need to hear even more than that. Maybe you need to know that Jesus is calling you by name, and that Jesus needs your help. Jesus believes you have something to offer. Jesus is choosing you to help him carry out his ministry here on earth.

Maybe you don’t even realize you’re caught in a trap. Maybe you thought you were just an innocent bystander. And maybe you are. But if you aren’t, if you actually are stuck in something you’d like to be free of, please here the good news of the story of Zacchaeus this morning and claim it as your own. Because that’s why Jesus is here today. To seek and to save. To set you free. Alleluia and Amen.

Sadly, that isn’t where we get to quit today. Because there is more to this story. I want to look at the passage we heard from 2^nd Thessalonians now. In case you didn’t notice earlier, the lectionary suggestion left out a big chunk in the middle. We read verses 1-4, but then we skipped ahead to verses 11 & 12. Now, why would they do that? Well, if you read it, you can guess. So let’s take a look at it. In verses 3 & 4, the writer – which was probably not, in fact, Paul, but someone writing a good while later than Paul – has been all loving and thankful and proud of the church in Thessalonica. But if we keep going, it gets a little more pointed:

“This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering. For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to the afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at on that day among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”

Repaying with affliction? Inflicting vengeance? The punishment of eternal destruction? Are we talking about the same Lord Jesus we just heard inviting himself over to tax collector Zacchaeus’ house for the night? What is going on here? Now I know some of you spent time in Sunday school this morning thinking about why certain scriptures made it into the Bible at all, and whether or not we can truly call them holy. It turns out that is a question we don’t only have to ask about the Old Testament. Because by the time 2^nd Thessalonians got written down, it’s almost as if those grumblers we heard about in Luke 19 had taken control of the narrative and were re-writing Jesus to better reflect their preferences. Don’t you think they would have preferred that Jesus enter Jericho on a big, white horse, and cut Zacchaeus down from that tree with a big, shiny sword, and then condemn him to eternal fire? He had, after all, been extorting them all for money for years. That certainly qualifies as affliction, I should think. A Lord Jesus who came in and offered ‘fair repayment’ would have caused a lot less grumbling, I’m guessing. And somehow, in the span of years between Luke and 2^nd Thessalonians, the Jesus who invited himself over to Zacchaeus’ house got turned into this other, meting-out-vengeance Jesus. They’re both in there. And, in case it’s not obvious, they’re both represented throughout the Christian tradition.

So there you have it: Seek and save, or afflict and burn? And while you don’t actually get to determine the nature of Christ, you do get to choose which version you believe in. Do you want to believe in a Jesus who sets people, including bad people like Zacchaeus, free from their traps, or would you prefer to believe in a Jesus who makes sure people get what’s coming to them? It’s important to remember that whichever one you pick, it’s going to apply to you as much as it does to everyone else. So choose wisely.

And then remember this: This goes beyond what we usually think of the word ‘belief’ implying. Remember that the word ‘belief’ comes from ‘beliebe’ in German, meaning something like ‘give your heart to.’ Again, none of us gets to determine what Jesus is really like. That part isn’t up to us. But what we can do is influence how the world understands Jesus, by how we behave as followers of Jesus. If we believe in a Jesus who came to seek and save and set free, we must behave in a similar manner. And conversely, if we go around afflicting those we feel are oppressing us or even just generally ignoring the gospel, and condemning them to eternal fire, that is the Jesus the world will assume we believe in. Earlier, we talked about the story of Zacchaeus, focused on whether there is a trap you need Jesus’ help to escape. But what if the way this story applies in your life is that there’s someone out there that you can hold that barbed wire aside for? Who can you help Jesus set free?

I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to show the world Jesus, I’d much rather tell them the story of Zacchaeus than the story of vengeance from 2^nd Thessalonians. That’s the Jesus I choose to follow. That’s the Jesus I choose to share. Not because I’m that great at it, but because I know that there are things I need to be set free of too. I hope you’ll join me. Jesus is about to host a wonderful meal, right here at Zacchaeus’ house. Alleluia and Amen.