(1 Samuel 16:1-12; Luke 19:1-10)
1 Samuel 16:1-12 NRS The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons." 2 Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me." And the LORD said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you." 4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?" 5 He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed is now before the LORD." 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." 10 Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen any of these." 11 Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." 12 He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one."
RSV Luke 19:1-10 He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it they all murmured, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." 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 any one of anything, I restore it fourfold." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost."
I know that you have all heard the saying: "You can't judge a book by its cover." I don't know the saying's origin, but I suspect it began back when books came with a simple brown or black leather cover; when simply looking at it's plain, unrevealing binding gave no hint as to what lay inside. You actually had to read the book to know. But the same is still true for the most part today. It is still hard to look at a book's cover and know much more than teasers they put on the outside. Some have a brief description of the book, but it is usually just enough to get you interested.
Just as the cover of a book reveals very little about its contents, the outward appearance of the person often reveals little about the heart - that thing that makes us who we really are. Now, we can often get clues into a person's character by his or her actions, but the true heart of a person is known only to God. It is never easy to figure out a person's true character from outward appearances and if we try, we are often wrong. While first impressions are important, they certainly don't tell the full story.
A case in point: A few years ago, I went down to Florida to see three of my seminary classmates. For several years after graduation,we got together once a year to see how each other's ministry was shaping up, to compare notes, swap stories, that kind of thing.
Well, this particular year we gathered down in Naples, Florida for a few days. And one night we went to a restaurant on the beach and as we sat there I thought I would try a little experiment. I wanted to know if we were the obvious minister types - you know, if people could spot us a mile away. I wanted to know if the cover of the book betrayed its contents? So, when the waiter, whose name was Josh, came back to the table I said, "Hey, Josh, I have a question for you. I want you to guess what profession the four of us are in." I gave him a hint and told him that we all did the same thing. He looked us over, squinted his eyes - obviously not coming up with anything. So we sent him away to think about it. A couple of minutes later when he brought our salads he said, "I think you must all be accountants."
Well…after trying to recover our sense of dignity we sent Josh away again with a new hint. "Josh, we all have the same employer, but we work at different companies and… we work on Sundays." After a few minutes, he came back, refilled our glasses and said, "You must be reporters."
"No, no, no. Not a bad guess, though," we told him. "We do write and we do report to a large number of people, but we are not reporters. Okay, Josh, last clue…it's a non-profit service industry with millions of members world-wide." Obviously, we were taxing poor 'ole Josh's brain. He went away with a puzzled but determined look on his face. We thought surely he would be able to figure it out from all of those clues. After a few minutes Josh came back, dinner in hand with a look of "aha" on his face. As he put our plates down he said, "I think I have it. You must all be Postal employees."
"Well, Josh." we told him, "it could be worse. You could have said we look like a bunch of ministers." Of course, about dessert time we finally let poor 'ole Josh in on the fact that we are ministers. You should have seen him. His eyes glazed over and he scratched his head. "You mean you really are ministers? Naw, come on. What do you do, really?" He never quite got it, I'm afraid.
So, in the end we left the restaurant rather puzzled by our little experiment. Was it a good thing or a bad thing that we completely stumped Josh? We wondered if there should have been something about us that gave it away. I mean, none of us wants to wear a clerical collar, or put bumper stickers on our cars that say, "Clergy." But we wondered if there should be something about us that gives people a clue as to what we do and who we are. There is not really an easy answer to that question.
But you know, I think we could all ask the same question about ourselves: "is there something about us that says who we are?" Can people look at us and immediately determine who we are and whose we are? Should it be that easy? Can people look at us and determine that we are God's people?
Well, appearances can be deceiving, can't they? And our preconceptions can cloud the issue as well. That certainly was the case for Zacchaeus.
Poor 'ole Zacchaeus. People had him "pigeon-holed" didn't they?! Well, maybe I shouldn't say "poor ole Zacchaeus." He was hardly poor. In fact, Zacchaeus was one of the wealthiest people in town -- wealthy because, as a tax collector, he had the Roman blessing to extort people for more money than they actually owed. That is how he made his income. You see, the Romans did not pay him a salary. But they were there with the army to make sure the people paid their taxes and to be sure Zacchaeus got a little extra for himself. It was kind of like state-sponsored extortion; and I guess you could call Zacchaeus a first century "Good-fella," a "made man."
No, Zacchaeus was pretty well-off, financially speaking. But that is about all he had going for him. No matter how wealthy he was, money could never buy him friendship or prestige. He didn't make enough to buy his way back into his Jewish social circles. In fact, the more money he made the more he drove a wedge between himself and his Jewish brothers and sisters. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out why Zacchaeus was so hated. Most people saw him as a leech on society, a traitor to his own Jewish people; someone willing to work for the oppressive Roman army just to make a few bucks. The fact is, Zacchaeus was probably one of the most hated people in town.
I suppose that is why I call him 'poor ole Zacchaeus.' I feel pretty sure that it was a lonely existence for him - when the very sound of his name probably made people angry. Who would want anything to do with him? The people had made their minds up about this guy. He was a blight on the world; a hopeless greedy little man, whom the world could not be rid of fast enough.
But, as I said earlier, appearances are deceiving, aren't they? Who would ever have given this man a snowball's chance of finding favor with God?! Who would ever have believed that God was touching the heart of such a man? And, quite frankly, who would want God to touch the heart of such a man?! He was the enemy, the traitor. Certainly, one day the God of justice would give this little guy a big piece of divine retribution, his just reward - if you know what I mean. People took comfort in the fact that Zacchaeus and people like him would one day get exactly what they deserved.
Knowing who Zacchaeus was and people's attitudes toward tax collectors at the time, I doubt anyone in the crowd that thought that little Zacchaeus might be one of God's chosen. Even if his Jewish heritage said he was one of God's chosen, it was obvious he had worked and sinned his way out of that a long time ago! Considering his standing in the town, I imagine the people got some satisfaction as they roughly shoved him into the back of the crowd. Zacchaeus was such a small guy that he couldn't see over the heads of the crowd. There was no way he was going to get a glimpse of Jesus as he rode into Jericho that day. But as he kept getting shoved back he found a solution. The only way he was going to see Jesus was to climb a tree.Poor ole Zacchaeus: all alone and despised; a pariah who no one gave a chance at redemption is now having to climb a tree to escape the bullying of the crowd.
But as we find out, no one is beyond the reach of God, no matter how lost, no matter how sinful, no matter what society thinks of us. No matter the appearance, God has the ability to reform anyone. And the crowd who ran Zacchaeus up a tree is about to see that.
Can't you imagine the crowd's collective gasp as Jesus stopped to talk to Zacchaeus? Rather than pointing an accusing finger at Zacchaeus, Jesus actually opened his hands and offered friendship!! He even wanted to have a meal with him. To a man who knew nothing but rejection and hatred can you imagine how this must have felt to Zacchaeus?! Well, it made all the difference in the world.
Just like Jesus has done for so many of us, Zacchaeus' heart and life was forever changed simply by an invitation. The hand of God reached out to what was once lost. It is a recurring theme in our scripture. In other stories we read about the coin that was recovered; the lost sheep was returned to the fold, the prodigal son who came home. And now we see in this case one of the chief sinners repents. This dinner was to be a time celebration between Zacchaeus and Jesus. His heart has just been touched by the Grace of God - a grace that knows no limits or boundaries and no exclusions.
I think part of the real meaning of this story lies exactly here - in God's ability to save anyone, regardless of what that person may be a the time or what that person may have done in the past. God's love is so overpowering. It is overpowering enough to conquer any sin that we may have in our lives, and overpowering enough to make the kind of dramatic change we see in Zacchaeus' life. Nothing is too great for God. God has overcome the grave and the grip of sin for all of us. And, folks, that is cause for celebration.
But how often do we just write people off as hopeless cases? How often do we become judge, jury and executioner just because someone's life may not meet our expectations? When I ask myself that question, I don't often like the answer. There are too many Zacchaeuses in the world that I had just as soon run up a tree than to offer Christ's hand of fellowship. There are some mean people in this world that we don't want to see change because that might mean that God will forgive them.
But the truth is and the truth of this story is that God knows our hearts. Even when to us all seems lost, God can change a heart - even the hearts of those who seem beyond all hope. And isn't that the good news? Weren't we all in that predicament before the Lord reached up to us and called us to come down?.. to come down and share a meal of fellowship and salvation? Weren't we all up a tree at some point? Didn't we all deserve God's wrath?!
I think the hard truth of this story is learning to see everyone with Christ's eyes; learning that there is no one beyond God's reach; no one whose heart is so hardened that it can't be melted simply by a word from our Lord. And if we believe that - if we really believe that God can touch anyone, then it will be evident in the ways we treat people - especially those who cause us grief.
Now, back to my original question. Should people be able to look at us and tell who and whose we are? Most of us don't wear tee shirts that scream Christian across the front, or have a cross tattooed on our foreheads. So how do we expect people to know who we are? If our outward appearance does not give it away, how do we expect people to know that we are God's children? As the song goes, "They will know we are Christians by our love." And I don't mean loving just those who are easy to love, but we are called to love to those that are, by all accounts, unlovable. We are called to love those who are outcast, and rejected. We are called to love those who do not look like us, or act like us, or even believe like us. The love of God has no conditions, no boundaries and no prerequisites. That is what Christ did and still does for each and every one of us.
Now, it is our turn to love as Christ loves, to see as Christ sees, to love those who appear unlovable. That is the hard part. But that is also the part that makes all the difference. Amen