Message of Abbot Paul - Sunday 30th October 2022
Abbot Paul • October 30, 2022
Today in Luke, (Lk 19: 1-10), we read one of the loveliest stories in the Gospels, that of Zacchaeus, the short tax collector who wanted to see Jesus. He lived and worked in Jericho, a town some fifteen miles from Jerusalem. This is how Luke tells the story. “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 collectors 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. They all complained 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 the Lord, ‘Look, sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody, I will pay him 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 Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.’”
We hear that Jesus is passing through Jericho when Zacchaeus appeared, having heard that Jesus was nearby. He leaves his post as senior customs officer or a few moments to catch a glimpse of Jesus. Like everyone else, he must have heard a lot about the prophet from Nazareth and was curious to see him, but so was everyone else. Such was the crowd that his short stature prevented him from seeing anything of Jesus, so he runs ahead and climbs a tree, which we’re told by Luke was a sycamore. Beware, this is not the noble British sycamore that we know so well. The tree that Zacchaeus climbed was a ficus-sycomorus or fig-mulberry tree, common in large parts of Africa, as in Egypt and the Holy Land, of the fig family, which can grow to 60 feet and has a considerable spread. It produces a fig-like fruit, which is edible. Jesus looks up and spots this short man in a tall try, so calls him down by name and invites himself for a meal and possible lodging. “I’m going to stay at your house today.” He comes down from the tree and welcomes Jesus, and presumably his entourage, to his home. As always happens, people begin complaining about Jesus accepting the hospitality of Zacchaeus, considered by them all to be a sinner because he was a tax collector. But for Zacchaeus this is a moment of conversion and renewal in his life.
To begin with, he pledges to give half his wealth to the poor, and then to pay back to any one he has cheated four times the amount. Either he was an honest man, or very rich. Either way, he wanted to make amends for anything he that he had done in the past that might be judged as unjust or sinful. He might well have been a tax collector, but he didn’t want to be tarred with the brush of corruption and injustice. Jesus assures him, as he would us, that today salvation has come to his house. For he too is a son of Abraham, a son of God, and that Jesus has come to seek and find what was lost. Jesus will not rest until we are all saved.
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