Jesus Looked

Do you ever feel lost? That your life is lacking in something important, maybe lacking meaning or purpose? You feel separated from God? Then today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke is for you – and for me, and for every one of us. Jesus invites himself to the home of a man called Zacchaeus. He makes no demand on him. No judgment, no call to repentance. This is important what I’m saying: no call to repentance, no judgment or criticism of his wealth. He simply invites himself to dinner at his home. And that’s all it took for Zacchaeus to become a new man.

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We put obstacles in people’s paths to God. We say there is only one path, our path! This is true of Evangelicals and fundamentalist Protestants; it’s true of Catholics; and it is true of Orthodox. Practically all Christians believe that their way is the only way to God. Jesus says No, your way is not the only way. He himself did not follow one way and one way alone. He wrote in the sand when they brought an adulterous woman to him. Last week he healed ten lepers, but singled out the one who came back to say ‘thank you’. Just a thank you brought salvation. Today he sees a man on a tree and decides this man needs to eat with him. Jesus looked at Zacchaeus and that’s all it took. 

Just a look. Later, when Jesus is arrested, Luke tells us something immensely moving, a little detail that the other Gospels leave out. In chapter 22, Luke tells us:

Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house, and Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly. (Luke 22:54-62)

“And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.” One simple sentence, easy to read past it. And yet there is a universe of meaning and power in that one sentence. The look of Jesus must have been incredible – extravagant with compassion, penetrating insight, carving deep into each person’s soul, seeking out the truth of each human being. Peter responded to the look of Christ with weeping. Zacchaeus responded with a transformed life.

Zacchaeus repented without a sermon from Jesus. Zacchaeus repented in the true meaning of the word: a change of mind. He understood what fellowship with Christ meant. To eat with Jesus meant acceptance. And that changed his life.

When the good religious folk grumbled that Jesus was in the home of a sinner, Zacchaeus stood up and I imagine him to have stretched up as tall as he could, and declared that he will give half his possessions to the poor. What is more, he will repay any fraud fourfold. This went far beyond what Jewish law demanded. Furthermore, Zacchaeus made this commitment not with a frown on his face, but with a light heart and a smile.

The story of Zacchaeus tells us that the gospel is about serious commitment to God, but it is also about joy. We good Orthodox do not do joy very well. Zacchaeus’s declaration and big smile inspire us to do better. Communion is serious business, but it is also a celebration. The word “Eucharist” means thanksgiving. Here at the Eucharist it is Jesus who invites us to sit with him at table. And here we accept the invitation with joy because we are included in God’s family.

I want to finish today with a story a good friend shared with me last week. It doesn’t quite fit today’s message, but I can’t wait to use it. I feel a little like Zacchaeus, impatient, eager to use this story, it’s that good. Let’s see what we can make of this.

An old monk had a young disciple who was always complaining about something or other. So one morning he sent him for some salt. When the disciple returned, the monk instructed him to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. “How does it taste?” “Bitter,” spit the young disciple. The monk chuckled and told the young man to take another handful of salt and follow him. The two walked in silence to a nearby lake and the monk told the young man to swirl the salt in the lake and drink from the lake. “How does it taste?” “Fresh,” remarked the young disciple. “Do you taste the salt?” asked the monk. “No,” said the young man. The two sat down beside the lake and the old monk shared some wisdom. “The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things…. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.” 

Become a lake. Become an ocean! That’s what Zacchaeus saw in Jesus, an ocean of compassion and goodness and joyful companionship, a huge sense of how things are. That ocean was enough to take away the pain of sin and the pain of being an outcast from his society. He too belonged. We also belong, not because we are special, but because God’s love is an ocean, a universe big enough for all of us. Amen.

Tags: acceptance dinner fellowship Zaccheus