John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness wearing a loincloth, eating locust and wild honey, and preaching, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is close at hand." And the world has not been the same since.

John’s message is fodder for soapbox preachers and exotic street corner prophets, and great fun for cartoonists in The New Yorker. I like the cartoonists best because they are more fun. There was Schwadran’s cartoon of the white robbed, long-bearded, wild-haired shaman holding his sign proclaiming, "the end is near" while ordering his meal and saying to the waitress, "And please make it snappy." Another cartoon shows the usual wild and wooly street corner sage carrying a sign with the message, "Yesterday in this space I predicted that the world would come to an end. It did not, however. I regret any inconvenience this may have caused."

THE SCENE

• The biblical city of Jericho linked the commerce routes of the Jordan Valley to the metropolitan center of Jerusalem and bridged the Jordan River. Its highways bustled with travelers, pilgrims, caravans, robbers, tax collectors, and mystics.

• Jericho was a divinely beautiful oasis of palm trees, balsam groves, and orchards of date trees.

SETTING THE STAGE

• As hundreds of pilgrims, Jesus and his disciples were en route to Jerusalem to observe the Passover. It was customary for the locals, who could not go to Jerusalem, to line the road to bless the snaking bands of pilgrims on their way. As he entered Jericho, Jesus walked and taught with his disciples and a crowed of locals who pressed in close to hear his words.

• In the curbside crowd a blind man asked what all the commotion was about and learned that Jesus was approaching.

•Suddenly, he started shouting, "Jesus, Son of David, take pity on me."

An emotional scream halted the procession.

He cried out, "Lord, may I receive my sight?"

Jesus replied, "See! For your trust has healed you."

• The crowd went wild and followed Jesus into Jericho praising God for the mystery they had just witnessed. Moving through town, the crowd got bigger and bigger, and louder and louder.
 

TWO SHORT FOOTNOTES

• Because of its geographical location near the Jordan River and the caravan routes, Jericho was a haven for tax collectors.

• They exacted levies for the Romans, added their own surcharges, and often claimed unfair fees from which they kept a hearty take for themselves. They were unscrupulous men who earned the utter disdain of the populace; sadly though, the disdain that was more than balanced by the wealth they accumulated.
 

THE MAIN CHARACTER!

• He was exceptionally short, unbelievably wealthy, and uniformly disliked. Zacchaeus was born short but he was wealthy because he was the senior tax collector and, thereby, earned the community’s disdain.
 

THE ENCOUNTER

• Zacchaeus left his post to check out all the commotion – perhaps, he thought, there are taxes to be collected here!

•• Picture Zacchaeus as he reached the roadway:

- jumping up and down as people who hated him pushed up on tip toes or heaved shoulders together to block his view, or

- gave him an elbow in the ribs as he tried to squeeze to the front of the line.

•• The tax collector, "was anxious to see what kind of man Jesus was." Was he really interested or did he just want to size up the icon du jour?

•• He rushed ahead of the crowd, climbed a tall, bushy sycamore tree, and shimmied his way out over the road to the end of a stout branch to get a good look.

•• Jesus reached the tree and must have known the little man’s reputation because he looked up and said to him, "Step on it, Zacchaeus! Get down here because I MUST stay at your house tonight."

•• The overjoyed tax collector instantly complied.

•• The crowd let out an audible murmur, people complained, "He’s going to stay at the house of the outcast, the sinner!" The crowd, now more inclined to hostility than halleluiahs followed to the gates of the tax collector’s house, loudly announcing their dissent and displeasure.

•• Zacchaeus knew what they were muttering and stood his ground. It seems he was as resolved about ending his alienation and securing God’s love as he had been about collecting taxes! He repented!
 

A SLIGHT PROJECTION

Like most tax collectors, he was wealthy but not respected, an outcast – a social and religious pariah – and, most likely, isolated, lonely, and unhappy. This existence must have worn him down and out.

We do not know what happened inside of his heart and mind, but we do know that from the moment Jesus called him, Zacchaeus repented and was a new person altogether.
 

A THEOLOGICAL FOOTNOTE

In response to Jesus’ decision to stay at his house and to show the sincerity of his repentance Zacchaeus announced:

• I am giving half of my wealth to the poor!

• And, if I have cheated anyone I will repay them four times the amount!

• Biblical law decreed penalties ranging from one-fifth to double, but Zacchaeus offered quadruple!

The crowd fell silent and Jesus said, "Today wholeness and peace have come to this man who is also a child of Abraham; for the Son of Humanity has come to seek out and to save what was lost."
 

TWO THINGS AT THE HEART OF IT ALL:

• Why the line, "…for he too is a child of Abraham"?

Why? Because vocation does not preclude salvation! No holier-than-though stuff. Zacchaeus would always be a member of the community of faith! Jesus saw Zacchaeus for real and loved him into wholeness.

• Second, what does it mean to us that Jesus ‘seeks out and saves’? What does it mean ‘the lost’?

Best case scenario: there are always two seekings in progress – ours for God, and God’s for us. God’s search for us is more persistent and consistent than ours for God. When Adam and Eve hid, God sought them out. When Israel was in chaos God spoke to them with laws to secure order and establish community. When the people were enslaved, God sought them out through prophets. Israel sinned again and again, and again and again as Hosea said for God, "Long have I sought your coming home to me." Humanity was missing the point and God searched us out in the life of Jesus. Imagine the spiritual energy that is released every time the longing of God and the yearning of a human heart meet and embrace!

Jesus said, "[I] have come to seek out and to save what was lost." ‘Lost’ is a misused word in the history of Christianity. Huge segments of our tradition equate ‘lost’ with a person who is doomed by their actions and damned for eternity. In fact, the word ‘lost’ is best translated, "to be in the wrong place." So, Jesus seeks us out when we are in the wrong place – emotionally, spiritually, vocationally, personally, wherever.

•• Think of Adam, Eve, and God in the Garden, after the apple incident: God raced through the Garden calling out to them, "Where are you? Where are you?" God’s question was not geographical. No! God was asking, where are your hearts, your minds, and your souls? What happened that you are in the wrong place? That is the question God asks each of us as well.

•• Repent, sinner, repent! When we are in the wrong place, out of sync, missed the mark, or off center, we repent. We usually associate repent with doom, gloom, and impending punishment of eternal consequence. So let us repent of that misunderstanding and reform the concept.

• ‘metanoia’ is the Greek word for repent and it means to undergo a complete remaking of your mind, or to completely change directions. It is also to change our attention back toward the center of our being, back into the presence of God, back into union and wholeness. It is from the changing inner being that the outer transformation takes root and we are set free.

"Repent!" Which is to say, Come to attention, find your center again, come home! "For the Kingdom of God is close at hand!" Which is to say, you will be reunited with the one who longs for you, your spiritual yearning will be satisfied, and you will be whole.

"Repent!" Which is to say, it is safe to let down your guard and stop being defensive so you can make an utterly different choice and turn your soul and your life around.

To know in your heart-of-hearts that something is wrong, out of sync, that you are in the wrong place, that you are off center, that something in you is broken or separated opens you to say, "That’s it! I get it! That’s what’s wrong! Thank God, there are other choices! I can break the chain of causality and repetition, smash the bonds of conformity and be free! Frederick Buechner says it ever so well, "True repentance spends less them looking at the past and saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ than to the future and saying ‘Wow!’"

There is a penetrating line from the remarkable Mary Oliver poem that is quoted on the cover of the bulletin. I want you to sit for a moment with her radiant form of the call to "repent, sinner repent!" Try to hear Jesus’ longing for your reunion and the end to your being in the wrong place, out of sync, off center, or missing the mark. Sense God’s love in the tone of the heartful inquiry, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
 
 

Luke 19:1-10

Jesus entered Jericho and was going through the town when a man whose name was Zacchaeus made his appearance; he was one of the senior tax collector and a wealthy man. He was anxious to see what kind of man Jesus was, but he was too short and could not see him for the crowd; so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way. When Jesus reached the spot he looked up and spoke to him: "Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I must stay at your house today. And he hurried down and welcomed him joyfully. The crowd all murmured when they saw what was happening. "He has gone to stay at a sinner’s house," they said. But Zacchaeus stood his ground and said to Jesus, "Look, Lord, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay them back four times the amount." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Humanity has come to seek out and to save what was lost."

** ‘Repentance’ comes from the Greek word, ‘metanoia,’ which means: a complete remaking of your mind, or a complete change of direction. It means to change the focus of your attention back onto the inner spiritual journey.

** ‘Lost’ refers to being in the wrong place, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, vocationally, etc. It does not refer to being doomed or damned. We are lost when some element of our lives is in the wrong place, when we are out of sync, missed the mark somehow, or are no longer centered.
 

A Practice

Ask Jesus to remind you of a time when you particularly felt yourself alienated from God and alone. It will be a time when you did not feel whole, or that you had missed the mark in a relationship or activity, or that your behavior/actions lacked the integrity of your faith, or you had a destructive pattern going in your life.

Pay attention to how you felt about yourself as the memory returns.
What caused you to feel that things were not right and in need of change?

How did you feel when you confronted the issue and sought to change your way and be reconciled to God?
Remember how it felt to be healed or reconciled.

If you have not come to a time of metanoia, a time of repentance and transformation, if you still feel your resistance, sense your yearning to be released from the burden. As you become ready to let go and reclaim your inner life you may offer this prayer:

God, I am enslaved to what happened [be specific] and I am having trouble letting go. I give you my resistance. Open me to yield this situation and myself your reconciling and transforming Spirit. Work on my inner spirit; restore me to wholeness, O God.

Pay attention to your breathing and feel God pour into you as you breathe in and feel the burdens rush out as you exhale.

Breathe in God and breathe out whatever enslaves you.

Feel yourself letting go and becoming free so you can

Breathe in healing and breathe out the toxins.

Keep feeling the movement of your breath until you are

Breathing in God and breathing out love.

Metanoia, repentance, is about your life coming around right, finding your center, reclaiming the inner spiritual being that is united with God, and becoming a whole new person.

In essence, God in Christ is asking you the question posed so graciously in Mary Oliver’s poem ("The Summer Days"):

"Tell me,

"What is it you plan to do

"With your one wild and precious life?"

Quiet yourself, feel the radiance of God’s presence surrounding you and sustaining you. Hear God asking you that very question. With an open and trusting heart, with the certainty that God wants your to be whole, complete, and serene, begin writing an open and honest dialogue in which you answer that question and respond to the subsequent questions you hear God asking you about your answer.

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