KID'S STORIES FOR BIG PEOPLE

Sermon Summary (10/30/16), “Kid’s Stories for Big People”  Luke 19:1-10 (Zacchaeus)

I always thought of Zacchaeus as a kid’s story.  Kid’s can equate to a wee little man.  Kid’s like to climb trees.  We had big Cottonwood trees in South Dakota.  I loved to climb trees.  I’m not sure about Sycamore trees.  We didn’t have any of those.  And of course kids love to sing the song, “Zacchaeus was a wee little man…”  Kids love this story.

The problem is, if we adults think of it as a kids story, we miss the part for big people.  When we grow up, we don’t give it a second view.  We miss it.  Jericho was Jesus’ last stop before going up to Jerusalem to give his life for us.  There must be something important going on here. 

To make my point, we are going to start with the last verse first: “For the Son of Man cam to seek and to save the lost.”  That is the summation of Jesus’ entire reason for being, his entire purpose.  This story is important.

Now, Zacchaeus was lost, there was no doubt about that.  He was a despised tax collector, a man who was a tool of the hated imperial oppressor, Rome, but also a man who defrauded or extorted excessive taxes from his fellow Jews.  Despised.  Yet Jesus said, “I must stay at your house today.”  “I must”!  Jesus had a divine appointment with Zacchaeus.  Just like the Woman at the Well in John 4 at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with whom he had a divine appointment, Jesus ends his ministry with a divine appointment with another social outcast.  These people, this man and woman are us.  This story is for big people.

Zacchaeus responds to Jesus, “Lord, half my goods I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone...I restore four-fold.”  Jesus didn’t tell him he needed to do that.  It was a response to grace.

This is a story of grace, the story of grace in our lives.  Without even us knowing it, grace prods us to respond to Jesus, Prodding Grace..  We find ourselves climbing the tree without even knowing why.  When we do, Jesus saves us with his grace, Saving Grace.  Then grace nurtures us, we find ourselves changing and we don’t even know why, Nurturing Grace.  Theologians call these Prevenient, Justifying and Sanctifying Grace.  But they prod us, save us, and nurture us.  Grace.

Another reason we miss this story is that we miss the context.  In the scene before Jericho, Jesus has just told his disciples, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into the kingdom.”  Then he makes a divine appointment with a rich man.  “Nothing is impossible for God.”  That’s grace, Saving Grace.