I absolutely love our gospel story this morning. There is something about this story that just makes me smile deep inside. I can see the story in my head… A short man, well dressed because he has lots of money, who decides that he wants to see Jesus…. So, he climbs a tree, which given how he was dressed could not have been easy… lots of people pushing and shoving so they could get a look; Jesus strolls by and notices Zacchaeus out on a limb of a tree, and it must have brought him joy; in my mind Jesus laughs as he sees this rich man, literally out on a limb, looking probably pretty silly… and yet as silly as it is, Jesus recognizes it as a tender act of desire and of faith. I imagine Jesus chuckling a bit as he calls out, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today!” I imagine Zacchaeus being initially shocked that Jesus even noticed him, let alone, addressed him and decided to stay at his house… and at this point, everyone has noticed him and is probably staring at this funny scene that has unfolded… and of course, there are those who are unhappy about it. They grumble and complain that Jesus is going off to the house of a sinner… it’s a fair enough accusation; as we know, Zacchaeus is a chief tax collector. He is part of the political problem of the day; he works for the Roman empire and has robbed his own people in order to keep his job. I am sure that in order to become a “chief” tax collector one has to really side with the oppressors and not the people, and likely has stolen a great deal from the people. So, you can see why it’s upsetting to some that Jesus picks THIS guy to spend time with… and Zacchaeus is so moved by his encounter with Jesus that he does even more than what might be expected of him… he decides to give away half of what he owns to the poor… and to pay back four times what he has stolen…chances are by the time he gets all this giving done, he will no longer be rich…
This story makes me happy… like any good story, it lends itself to being easily visualized… and, it has lots of different messages…
What sticks out for me this time, is the idea of going out on a limb for Jesus. And, in going out on that limb, being asked to go further, to be more than we think we are…
It’s a funny metaphor for me to fixate on because I have never been a tree climber, and I am not a fan of heights. I am way too clumsy to climb a tree… BUT…
If I thought God really wanted me to climb a tree… I would find a way… sometimes, we are called on to do things that we think we can’t… sometimes, we’re asked to go beyond what we think we can do… sometimes we get caught thinking we can’t do something because we don’t have the skill or the resources… or that we somehow aren’t capable… yet the baptized life is one that keeps us growing and changing and moving beyond where we are today… we cannot stay stuck in one place; if Zacchaeus hadn’t decided to make a fool of himself, he might have never gotten to interact with Jesus… and in his encounter with Jesus Zacchaeus continues to grow and to change… it might have been enough for him to repay the money that he cheated people out of; that is a good and noble thing to do, and no one would’ve been able to find fault with him for that… but he went further; paying not just what he stole, but four times that … he found himself called to a greater task, one that would benefit more of his people and would do a greater good… He continues to go out on a limb, giving away his wealth and trusting that it was what Jesus would want, and really not worrying about the outcome…
Going out on a limb can apply to so many areas of our life… and what’s important for us to remember is that it implies there is some risk. At first, Zaccheaus risks looking kind of silly; he doesn’t care if he is made fun of because his goal is to see Jesus… so he takes a chance; he climbs a tree and not only does he get to see Jesus, he gets to have him come to his home. He hoped just to see and in taking the risk to see, he got more than he asked for; but here’s the thing; in encountering Jesus, it wasn’t over; it wasn’t the end… Zacchaeus is so moved by his relationship with Jesus that he goes on to risk more than just his reputation, but he risks everything … he restores what he has stolen, making the situation right again, and he gives away what’s left to help those in need… Zacchaeus goes from a supporter of the empire to a disciple of the kingdom in the course of a day… all because he literally went out on a limb to get a better look. He is changed because he took a chance….
Jesus is always calling us to be more than we are… he is always calling us out on a limb… calling us to do things we didn’t think we could do… calling us to take chances and to risk … Our life in Jesus should never stop calling us to change.. We should always be wondering what’s next, how do we grow, how to we change, how do we become more of a disciple? Where are we being called to risk?
For some of us, it might be that we ought to take on a spiritual discipline we’ve been meaning to get to, or read that book we bought a while ago; for some of us it might be to figure out how to better use our resources to encourage someone that is in our life; for some of us it might be giving more money, giving differently…. But each of us is being called into a deeper relationship with Jesus and with the people that our in our lives… we are being called deeper into a life of discipleship, a deeper life of relationship with Jesus…
So, what limb might we be called to go out on? What would we do to get there?