As we planned for the March medical mission trip to Guatemala, I realized that again we would be present during the Lenten season. It is an incredible time in many Guatemalan cities and towns because of the parades, Semana Santos, on Sunday evenings sponsored each week by a different Roman Catholic congregation. The parade route is covered with flowers and elaborate carpets of colored sawdust in intricate patterns. The members of the parishes construct massive representations out of wood and flowers of the events of Holy Week. Congregation members are in costume, young and old, dressed all in purple or as Roman soldiers or as Mary carrying the "floats" on their shoulders through the streets preceded and followed by loud musical bands and the heavy smell of incense.

When we heard the tuba, horns and drums while we were finishing up the day of triage at Hermano Pedro Hospital, several of us hurried out to the street following the sound until we came to a small intersection crowded with people of all ages and sizes. As the parade came closer, spectators gently pushed near the front stretching their necks to see the participants as they slowed to turn the corner. Ruth Hamilton from Houston is taller than I and gave me a little shove forward so I could see better. Suddenly, on the shoulders of about twenty young men all dressed in long purple robes and head coverings, came a platform with a figure of Jesus. crown of thorns on his head and carrying the cross. As I looked up and tried to get a photograph above all the heads, I remembered for a quick second being on my father’s shoulders as a child watching the Rose Parade in Pasadena. At age five or six, it was the perfect place for me because there is nothing more frustrating than to see only backs and legs of people as the excitement passes by.

Imagine Zacchaeus, not only short but also, as a chief tax collector, not a popular person. You can be sure the people had dealings with him so they certainly knew who he was but that day they ignored him. No one in the crowd moved aside for him or offered him a place to stand as they all waited to see Jesus on the outskirts of Jericho. According to the gospel writer, Zacchaeus was looking, trying to see who Jesus was. Why do think he would he care? As a chief tax collector he held a position of power and wealth over the members of his community. The Roman government enacted many taxes, for roads, bridges, merchandise, property. The job of overseeing the collection of taxes was given to a powerful person who wasn’t a native of the area. That person divided the area into tax districts with chief collectors who were local people, such as Zacchaeus, who did the collecting. They were often paid a sum of money in advance for the right to collect the taxes and then tried to make a profit on the transaction. The system allowed for extra tax to be collected above the amount sent to the government. It was easy for corruption to happen. The Jewish people hated the occupation by the Romans, felt they were oppressed and some felt that submission to Caesar of any kind was treason to God. Jews who participated in the tax collection were considered despicable and treasonous. They sold their services to the foreign oppressor against their own people. They were involved in robbery for their own benefit. Their actions and their contact with Gentiles made them ceremonially impure. They were labeled as sinners because they broke the Mosaic law and, for that reason, tax collectors and their families were excluded from the synagogue which was the center of life in the Jewish community. Zacchaeus was a rich man but he may have had a very limited circle of friends. So, why was he curious to see who Jesus was? Luke doesn’t give us a reason but maybe he had been hearing some of the stories of Jesus. Did he know of Jesus saying to another rich man, "Sell everything you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me"? That man walked away from Jesus sad and confused. Had Zacchaeus heard of Jesus reading from the prophet Isaiah, "God has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord"? That year of favor meant freedom from debt, maybe even from the tax collector. Something was nudging Zacchaeus to seek out Jesus, to find out what he was about.

From his spot in the sycamore tree, he could see Jesus coming. The street was thick with people as they welcomed Jesus into Jericho. With all these people reaching out to him, shaking his hand, smiling and greeting him, why would Jesus look up in the tree? Why would he look up and speak to a little man hanging from a branch? Jesus knew his name and called to him. "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." The crowd grumbled because "tax collectors and sinners" were almost the same thing, descriptors often used in the same sentence. Eating with a sinner would make Jesus unclean, too. Why would he want to be in this man’s home? They knew the contemporary wisdom included in the first chapter of the Book of Proverbs and in everyday conversation, "If sinners try to seduce you, do not go with them…Do not follow them in their way, keep your steps out of their path…Such are the paths of all who seek dishonest gain; which robs of their lives all who take it for their own." (Proverbs 1:10, 15, 19). We hear it today, "A man is known by the company he keeps." For some reason, Jesus wanted to meet with Zacchaeus and he wanted to talk with him in his own home.

I don’t know about you but if someone as important to the community as Jesus suddenly told me he was coming to my home and would stay overnight in my house, I would panic. Luke says that Zacchaeus was happy to welcome Jesus but I wonder what went through his mind when he realized he didn’t have any time to warn his wife or clean up the living room or put out fresh flowers or to hide the possessions that might not be impressive to Jesus. When a person comes into our home, they see a side of us that they haven’t seen before. They get a sense of how we live, especially when they arrive unannounced. They get an insight into our priorities by seeing our possessions, by becoming aware of our habits. What do you think Jesus would see in the home of Zacchaeus for him to say to Jesus, "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." When Jesus came into his home, he could not hide how he had been living his life as the local chief tax collector. His home was likely impressive in its size, in the way it was decorated and in the material possessions he had accumulated. Zacchaeus would have led Jesus first into a spacious courtyard and then into the main living area. As Jesus looked around, we can imagine the look on his face for Zacchaeus to say, "Half of my possessions I will give to the poor."

How would we feel if we met Jesus on the street in Tiburon and he suddenly said to us, "Barbara, come along with me. I’ll be staying at your house today." First I’d worry that the house needed dusting and vacuuming. Then, given what I know of him, I’d think of the fact that my son and I live in a four-bedroom house, bigger than we really need, with closets of clothes that I hardly ever wear, two televisions with VCRs and three cars in the driveway. The clothes in my closet were made in at least fifteen other countries: Thailand, El Salvador, Turkey, Mexico, Cambodia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Guatemala. As I suddenly saw my possessions through the eyes of Jesus, would I feel guilt or compassion enough to say, "Half of my possessions I will give to the poor." One third of the world lives on the equivalent of about $2.00/day with many people who sew my clothing making $.35-$.50/hour. Would Jesus check my closet if he came to my house? There are many corporate middlemen, LizSport, Talbots, Villager, Ralph Lauren, so I don’t come in direct contact with those who sew my clothes. However, at the price we pay, someone is making a profit and it is not the young women spending eight to ten hours a day at a sewing machine in a large factory in another part of the world. It is hard to conceptualize them a real human beings, much like me in so many ways, with children and aging parents, worried about groceries and housing and education, loving and crying and caring. But they are like me and I am the one who buys the end product: the skirt or sweater, the t-shirt or pants. Am I like Zacchaeus taking advantage of a system that benefits me at the expense of others of God’s children? Do I deserve to be pushed aside by them as they wait and watch for Jesus? Jesus came to show God’s love by caring for the oppressed. I am certainly not oppressed.

Yet, Jesus came into Jericho in the midst of the crowd and singled out Zacchaeus, "I must come to your house today!" Why would Jesus want to come to my house, to our homes? A wonderful thing about God’s love is that it does not discriminate! We are all invited to the parade, to the party, to God’s kingdom of love and compassion though the expectations on each of us might be different based on our abilities. We see it in the story we call "The Prodigal Son" when the loving father assures the older son of all his love and encourages him to come to his lost brother’s homecoming party. We all are welcome at the feast. We all are welcome at the table. His feast is for all of us.

God needs each of us. God’s kingdom cannot come when the gap between rich and poor grows greater every day, when a tax collector asks for more than he needs and pockets the difference, when a corporation cuts costs by outsourcing manufacturing to a third world country and pockets the difference in the price of a shirt. This current economic crisis did not begin on September 11, but the worry certainly increased on that day and the weeks following. We are incredibly connected to families all over the world. The economic situation in the United States affects communities in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia, Sabastian and his family living in a home built by our high school youth near Tijuana, and ten-year-old Pablo, living in a village miles from Antigua, Guatemala, whose deformed foot was repaired by our surgical team there.

What would the world be like if we and others were to say as Zacchaeus did, "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." Jesus responded by saying, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Humanity came to seek out and to save the lost." Jesus is here in our house today. He invites us, with all of humanity, to feast equally at his table of love and grace, wholeness and peace. May we bring all that we are to the party. May we join in his parade.