Zacchaeus – just like me

I have spent some time traveling recently and staying in various places – not always my best thing. Waiting for flights and sitting on airplanes, hours on a bus, new beds and chairs – not ideal – not comfortable. Travel and new accommodation – with all the sitting, adjusting and lack of proper exercise gives me pains – in my knees, my feet, my back – it likely causes me to be a bit of a pain too!

I know the real reason I get these aches and pains though – it’s because the world is not designed for me. I’m short. I know – it came as a surprise to me too but it’s true – I am short. What that means is that no matter what I do, an airplane seat – a bus seat – the chairs in most people’s homes – just aren’t comfortable – even putting a bag under my feet doesn’t solve the headrest problem – it is in a most awkward spot if you are less than 5’ 5”. Table heights and chair styles are all designed to accommodate the average – something I most certainly am not! I am short and sometimes that is a pain.

The song, Short People by Randy Newman, says short people got no reason to live. But it’s not exactly about people who are short – like me and Zacchaeus – it’s a metaphor – a cynical comment on how people say one thing in one moment and think ridiculous thoughts about others in the next. It is about how people are hypocrites – a song about small-minded people.

That's who has no one to love – no reason to live – those who go around with a small view of the world, hurting others with their lies. It is a song about people who don’t accept themselves the way God made them – those who need to put on platform shoes to feel worthy – those who run others down in a misguided effort to feel special.

And short people in the song could really be queer people, black or white or Indigenous people, old people, female people – just about any group there is. Newman is holding up a mirror to show us just how arrogant and short-minded we can be.

I have been thinking of this song in relationship to the story of Zacchaeus and how easy it is to caricature him – to misrepresent who he is. Because of the gospel description of him I believe we often see ourselves as better than Zacchaeus. The message of Newman’s song and at least part of the message in this gospel text is that we are wiser not to judge others too harshly or impulsively. We have more in common with Zacchaeus than we think and given the grace he receives, rather than being amused by this quirky character perhaps we can be thankful that God’s grace may come to us as well.

Back to being short… Inconveniences abound when you are less than standard height, but I’ve learned to adapt for the most part and usually my short stature doesn’t cause me much pain or difficulty. However, like Zacchaeus, there are times – yes, there are most definitely times…

Have you ever carefully selected your seat at the theatre only to have a tall person with big hair sit right in your sightline? I have. Have you ever gone to a concert and had a group of enthusiastic attendees stand and dance – completely blocking your view? Yeah, that has happened to me. Have you ever been to a parade where you couldn’t see past the person in front of you? I have. I try to find a tall person and position myself in front of them or I sit on the curb with the kids.

Zacchaeus is just like me. He couldn’t see past all the people in the crowds. He had heard all the talk about Jesus and wanted to see him but sometimes things are designed to thwart the effort of those of us who are more height-challenged. Zacchaeus climbed a tree to participate in the event – to see the parade of which Jesus was a part.

The gospel story in Luke gives some interesting details for us to think about when telling Zacchaeus’ tale. He climbed a sycamore tree – a type of fig tree that has been cultivated since early times. It grows naturally in Lebanon, the southern Arabian Peninsula, in Cyprus and in parts of Madagascar, and has been naturalised in Israel and Egypt.

The sycamore is, in the Near Orient, a tree of great importance and very extensive use. It has wide-spreading branches and affords delightful shade. The ancient Egyptians cultivated this species "almost exclusively". It was the ancient Egyptian Tree of Life.

The sycamore grows to 20 m tall and 6 m wide with a dense round crown of spreading branches – so it is a pretty big tree with leaves nearly the size of my hand. A good place to hide I would think – a good place to see Jesus without being seen.

Another detail relates to the story’s location – why are we in Jericho? Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem – he has just crossed the border from Galilee to Samaria. If you walk directly from Samaria to Jerusalem Google Maps shows it as about 75km – 16+ hours of straight walking. If you travel from Samaria to Jerusalem via Jericho, you are going a great distance out of your way – 125km is the total distance – 50km out of the way – 28 hours of walking assuming you could do that with no rest!

Why go that route at all? Why travel through Jericho – to Jericho? I think Jesus goes this way on purpose – to seek out and to save the lost.

Some commentators suggest that the story happened near a tollbooth on the road through Jericho. It was one of two major travel routes – not the most direct but the safer of the two. On the more direct path there were people hostile to the Jews, criminals and the like so it was just wiser to go the long way around – through Jericho.

The same thing happened to me on occasion while traveling in India or Pakistan or Afghanistan – some routes will save you time but there is a risk and that risk is often not worth the danger. There may be other costs too. Often the safer road is the one with a toll or customs station. This was my experience, and this was also the case for Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem through Jericho. People traveling that way were required to pay a tax on every cow, calf, and camel that came through. Excellent news for Zacchaeus, chief tax collector – not so wonderful for the average traveler and member of the crowd.

So, Jesus – the superstar – the circus star – was traveling along the road through Jericho. He had raised Lazarus from the dead, healed Bartimaus of his blindness and turned the water into wine. Everyone wanted to see him. With such a crowd, it is no wonder that Zacchaeus – my fellow short-statured sufferer needed to climb a tree to see Jesus.

The real surprise comes when Jesus looks up and calls to Zacchaeus – inviting the man to get down from the tree and inviting himself for dinner. The text says that Zacchaeus was happy to welcome Jesus, but I wonder if he was a bit stunned to be singled out in this way. Was he amazed that Jesus knew his name – that Jesus could even spot him through the foliage? Was he simply pleased with the honour and overwhelmed by his good fortune at being noticed?

Certainly, the crowds were not pleased – didn’t think that Zacchaeus deserved such attention – such blessing. And they made it clear too. They murmured and grumbled, calling Zacchaeus a sinner. One translation says that those who witnessed the incident were indignant and grumped, “What business does he (Jesus) have getting cozy with this crook?” Interesting – they are annoyed with Jesus – not Zacchaeus. I mean, they had no great love for Zacchaeus – the richest guy in town likely and on their taxes no less – yet what the crowd complains about is not the tax collector but Jesus’ choice of a sinner to eat with.

How would you handle the situation? How would you deal with the public slander at your moment of great joy? Remember Zacchaeus did not approach Jesus – Jesus calls to Zacchaeus.

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” [RSV]

I wonder what the crowd made of that. We can’t know, of course, because this conversation includes only Zacchaeus and Jesus.

Zacchaeus did not approach Jesus to make a bargain as to what he was going to do only to then have Jesus say, “Because you have done this, I will now save you.” Instead, it is Jesus who first calls to Zacchaeus. There is nothing in the text to indicate that Zacchaeus was hoping to meet Jesus – perched up in the sycamore tree in about as undignified a posture as possible, it seems likely that Zacchaeus was hoping not to be noticed! He was not about to call out to Jesus from his bird-like position. What would people think – to see a rich guy literally up a tree??!

Jesus calls out to Zacchaeus. Jesus initiates dinner at Zacchaeus’ house. And Jesus’ holiness overcomes sin, consecrating a sinner – a person like any one of us.

In one of his books, Frederick Buechner presents from A-Z several dozen character-sketches of well-known (and sometimes not-so-well-known) biblical characters. The last entry in the volume under the letter “Z” is, not surprisingly, Zacchaeus. What Buechner shares about this man, and how he lets Zacchaeus be a summary for all the other folks in the Bible, is as delightful as it is instructive! Buechner observes:

Zacchaeus makes for a good [character] to end with because in a way he can stand for all the rest. He’s a sawed-off little social disaster with a big bank account and a crooked job, but Jesus welcomes him aboard anyway, and that’s why he reminds you of all the others, too.

There’s Aaron whooping it up with the Golden Calf the moment his brother’s back is turned, and there’s Jacob conning everybody including his own father. There’s Jael driving a tent-peg through the head of an overnight guest, and Rahab, the first of the red-hot mamas. There’s Nebuchadnezzar with his taste for roasting the opposition, and Paul holding the lynch mob’s coats as they go to work on Stephen. There’s Saul the paranoid, and David the stud, and those mealy-mouthed friends of Job’s who would probably have succeeded in boring Job to death if Yahweh had not stepped in just in the nick of time. And then there are the ones who betrayed the people who loved them best such as Absalom and poor old Peter, such as Judas even.

Like Zacchaeus, they’re all of them peculiar as Hell, to put it quite literally, and yet you can’t help feeling that, like Zacchaeus, they’re all of them somehow treasured, too.

Why?

Who knows?

But maybe you can say at least this about it – that they’re treasured less for who they are and for what the world has made them than for what they have it in them – at their best – to be because ultimately, of course, it’s not the world that made them at all. “All the earth is mine,” says Yahweh, “and all that dwell therein” adds the 24^th Psalm, and in the long run, presumably, that goes for you and me, too.”[1]

Jesus – by grace – nabs Zacchaeus, brings grace to his house, and so saves Zacchaeus. When this much-maligned tax collector is condemned by the crowd and stands up to declare his intention to share his wealth and make reparations for past fraud, he is not currying God’s favor. He is giving evidence that the grace of God – that came to him from out of the blue – is already taking root. He is showing his enthusiasm for living out the new identity Jesus has already brought to him.

Luke 19 is no threat to salvation by grace alone as some have contended. This story illustrates the truth that when grace comes to us – through no action on our part but because Jesus calls us by name and invites himself into our lives – when grace comes to us, a gracious way of living is the result.

Jesus tells Zacchaeus that “Today salvation has come to this house… (because) the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” And that salvation – by grace alone – is for everyone of us too. Thanks be to God.

[1] From “Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who’s Who” by Frederick Buechner. Harper & Row San Francisco, 1979, pp. 180-81.