Scripture/Sermon of the Day

He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8 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.” 9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

I. I’m reading a book now titled Jesse James, Last Rebel of the Civil War, by T.J. Stiles. Jesse’s father, Robert, was born in Lickskillet, Kentucky. He is a descendant of Dr. John Woodson, one of the earliest settlers in this country, from Jamestown, Virginia. His grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War. Robert was ordained as a Baptist Minister in 1833 when he was 15.

He attended Georgetown College, in Georgetown, Kentucky, where he received both Bachelor of Arts and Masters degrees. His home library had 51 books in subjects from literature to science to theology and the Bible. He married Zerelda Cole and they had four children, though one died in child birth. He had a reputation for being a gifted student and a skilled orator.

At that time, in the Baptist tradition, the ministers had to support themselves, and Robert James was a hemp farmer. Hemp, at that time, in the 1840’s, was a more valuable crop than tobacco. James owned six slaves and he interpreted the Bible in a way that proved there was no conflict in being a follower of Jesus and owning other people so that they were your personal property. Missouri, where James and Zerelda and their three children settled, was considered a border state. Both abolitionists and slave-holders lived there. The issue of slavery caused caused a split in Robert’s church membership. Southern Baptist preachers were more interested in personal salvation than social justice issues, like slavery.

II. Robert James was a highly respected leader among the Baptist Churches in Missouri, and the father of two of the most famous outlaws in American history. He left his family, his wife and three young children — one of them an infant — to become rich in the California Gold Rush. He said he wanted to save souls, but many who knew him believed it was the prospect of wealth that drove him to the gold fields, where he had barely arrived — at the mining field called Rough and Ready, and caught cholera and died within two weeks, at 32 years old. Some, like his brother, say he went to California to get away from Zerelda, who many called “sharp-tongued,” and often complained of Robert’s frequent absences. Robert was like Zacchaeus in reverse.

III. Zacchaeus was like an outlaw in Jewish society in the time of Jesus. Luke’s gospel says he was “rich.” Tax collectors of that time were Jewish men hired by the Romans to collect money from their fellow-Jews to give to their enemies. As incentive for doing an unpopular job, the Romans allowed tax collectors to collect more than the required amount and keep it. Eventually, tax collectors ran their operations like organized crime. They became rich by stealing and extortion, often collecting their money through force and violence. So Zacchaeus was not just a a thief operating a protection-racket that made him wealthy in the midst of his mostly poor fellow-Jews — he was a CHIEF tax collector. He was Al Capone. He was Vito Corleone, the Godfather.

IV. Tax collectors were considered traitors. They were so despised by their fellow Jews that even the Jewish Talmud — a commentary on Rabbinic Law — taught that it was “righteous to lie and deceive a tax collector, because that was what a professional extortioner deserved.”

V. A violent group of Jews known as the Zealots were an underground organization whose goal was to drive out the Roman Occupation. Tax collectors were among those the Zealots targeted for assassination, because they helped to fund the Romans. Something to consider: why would Jesus want, among his disciples, a tax collector — Matthew — and a tax collector’s most hated enemy, a Zealot — Simon.

VI. There is a lot going on in todays Gospel story in Luke. In a large crowd of people, only one is interested in Jesus, and he is a thief, an extortioner and a leader of an organized crime organization. Zacchaeus has a conversion. He tells Jesus he will return what he’s stolen from people — will give back even more — “four times as much.”

VII. And of all these people in Jericho, why Zacchaeus? Why was he the only one who wanted to “see” Jesus? Why was he the only one saved? Who can answer that? There are 61.6 thousand people in Hamden, Connecticut. And how many of us have climbed the sycamore tree to “see” Jesus?

BECAUSE WE ARE ALL, IN A WAY, LIKE ZACCHAEUS. We have in some way, like Zacchaeus, worked for the enemy — we’ve probably held grudges or sought revenge or retribution, or gossiped, or lied or hurt someone by our angry words.