Salvation Has Come -- All Saints' Day

Luke 19:1-10

November 3, 2019

            “Short people got no reason. Short people got no reason. Short people got no reason to live.     They got little hands. And little eyes. And they walk around. Tellin' great big lies. They got little noses. And tiny little teeth. They wear platform shoes. On their nasty little feet. I don’t want no short people. Don’t want no short people. Don’t want no short people round here.”

            If you can remember pop music from the late 70’s and early 80’s you probably remember that song. Randy Newman wrote it, performed it, and sent it to the top of the music charts as a novelty song. The funny thing is that his goal was not to write a novelty song; he was actually writing a song about the ridiculousness of prejudice. How ridiculous it is to be biased against someone because of their height or any reason for that matter. But the song was misinterpreted over and over again, so we remember it as a weird and funny little ditty about short people.

            For those of you who may be vertically challenged, please do not take offense that I used this song. I too am vertically challenged, and so are my darling husband and my best friend, Ellen, who is here with us today. We are some of those short people, and so is one of the main characters in this story from Luke’s gospel.

            Whenever I read the story of Zacchaeus, I can’t help but think of Randy Newman’s song. Zacchaeus was described quite clearly as being “short of stature.” This is not typical in any of the gospels. Usually when we read a description of someone, they are described by their position in life or their status. Their physical characteristics are not depicted. A widow is described as a widow, which tells us her married status and her social status. A leper is a leper, so we know that means this person has a skin disease and is marginalized because of it. Lazarus the beggar was covered in sores, but we are not privy to the color of his eyes. The prodigal son was reckless and foolhardy while his older brother was hyper responsible, but not once do we hear anything about what they looked like. We have limited information about Zacchaeus as well, but we know one thing: he was short.

            He was so short that when he wanted to see Jesus, when he wanted to see what all the fuss was about this man passing through Jericho, he couldn’t get a good view of him because he was short and the crowd apparently was not. So he climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus. He was up in that tree, looking down, when Jesus walked underneath the tree and noticed him.

            Think about the power of that: Jesus noticed him. I suspect that very few people in that crowd would have noticed Zacchaeus, even though he was watching all of the activity from up in a tree. But Jesus noticed him. Jesus noticed the people who were on the margins. Jesus noticed the people who both stood outside the boundaries of the crowd and those who were lost in it. Jesus noticed Zacchaeus. And when he did notice him, he didn’t just glance at him and continue on his way. He called up to him.

            "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today."

            Jesus noticed Zacchaeus. He noticed him and he called him out for special attention. Jesus did not only call up to Zacchaeus, acknowledging his presence in the tree, he told him he would be staying at his house that very day. Zacchaeus responded by doing just what Jesus told him to do. He hurried down out that tree, thrilled that he would have the honor of hosting Jesus that day.

            As so often was the case, Jesus’ choice of dinner companions made other people grumble. The Pharisees and scribes grumbled that Jesus ate with sinners, people who lived on the edges of what was right and wrong. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, so he had his own special category of sin. Tax collectors were Jews who worked with Rome in their financial oppression of the people. Sometimes people categorized as sinners were there because they had no options. But tax collectors did. So while we like to sing Vacation Bible school songs about wee little Zacchaeus, he was a sinner with a choice. And that choice had made him wealthy.

When the people in this crowd around Jesus saw and heard Jesus tell Zacchaeus to come down from the tree and make ready his house for Jesus to stay there, they had the same reaction as the Pharisees and scribes. They grumbled and murmured that this man, this Zacchaeus was a sinner. He was a tax collector, but Jesus was going to eat in his house?! Didn’t Jesus realize who this guy was? Didn’t Jesus understand what this guy did?

            Maybe it was the fact that Jesus noticed him, even though he was sitting above them in a tree. Maybe it was the fact that Jesus called up to him and announced for all to hear that he would be staying in Zacchaeus’ house. Maybe it was because Zacchaeus was short but not deaf and he heard the grumbling about him, but something triggered Zacchaeus to declare that he would give back and he would pay back.

“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.’”

Jesus responded, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost." 

Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.

Zacchaeus was a sinner, but he was also a son of Abraham. He was a child of God’s covenant with Abraham. He was a child of the promise. And he was lost. Jesus came not just for the sinners that the people could feel sorry for; those people who sinned because they were out of options. Jesus also came for the sinners who chose freely and openly to sin, and commenced to sin with boldness.

That was Zacchaeus wasn’t it? His sin had made him a wealthy man, and that wealth came on the backs of his own people. But Jesus noticed him. Jesus called to him. Jesus was willing to come to his house and eat at his table and share in his hospitality. Salvation came to Zacchaeus that day because he was also lost and he was also a son of Abraham.

What might Jesus have meant when he said that Zacchaeus was a son of Abraham? As I said already that meant that Zacchaeus was a descendent of the covenant that God made with Abraham; what was that covenant? God promised Abraham that he would be a blessing, that his descendents would number as many as the sand under his feet and the stars in the sky above his head. And not only would Abraham’s descendents be blessed because of Abraham, every family in every nation on earth would be blessed through him. Zacchaeus would have been more directly and genealogically a child of Abraham than you or I, but if God’s covenant means what I think it means, we too are children of Abraham. That means that people in every nation around the world are children of Abraham. I wonder how many sinners there are in those numbers. I wonder how many lost folks there are in those nations. I wonder how many of them have sinned because they had no choice and sinned because they did.

Jesus came for all of them. Jesus came for us. Jesus came for me. But while I rejoice and give thanks that Jesus came for me, and that Jesus came for those sinners who were pushed into transgressions corner, I have a much harder time rejoicing that Jesus came for the people like Zacchaeus. I have difficulty being happy for their salvation when they have sinned like Zacchaeus sinned. But he too was a son of Abraham. He too was lost and Jesus found him. Jesus noticed him, when no one else did. Jesus noticed and welcomed him and broke bread with him. Even Zacchaeus could be a saint.

Today we celebrate All Saints Day, the day when we lift up that great cloud of witnesses. We remember the “big” saints of the church: Mother Teresa and Dr. King and Bishop Oscar Romero and all of those people who have been martyred and persecuted for their faith. But we also remember the other saints. We remember the people in our own lives who loved us and taught us and grew our faith in ways we may not have realized. I remember my grandfather who challenged me in faith and I remember my grandmother who shared her faith with me in song and prayers. We all have those people, those saints, on whose shoulders we stand.

If the story of Zacchaeus teaches us anything, it teaches us that to be a saint does not mean to be perfect. While holiness or virtuousness may be attached to the word by definition, I think a saint is someone who understood that God was present in their life, worked in their life and they tried to respond. My gramma was not perfect, but according to my definition, she was a saint. And she helped me in my faith. Zacchaeus was a sinner. He was not perfect. He harmed people by choice. But maybe just maybe he is also a saint. Certainly his story teaches us about faith. It challenges our own. And Jesus declared that salvation came to him too: Zacchaeus, a tax collector, a sinner, a wealthy short man so eager to see Jesus that he climbed a tree. Zacchaeus, far from perfect, but maybe just maybe a saint. Thanks be to God for the saints all around us, for those imperfect people who sin and repent and seek God. Thanks be to God for the saints all around us, those sinners who receive salvation, those lost who are found. Thanks be to God for the saints all around us. Thanks be to God.

Let all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.” Amen.