A firm favourite in Sunday Schools around the world, Zacchaeus taught us that tenacity in the face of adversity and then taking responsibility for and receiving forgiveness from your sin, will win you a place at the table with Jesus. Immortalised in the Wonder Kids song, I could sing it to you today (don't worry, I won't!).
Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he
He climbed up in a Sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see
The Lord came by and said, "Zacchaeus! You come down from there!"
"For I'm coming to your house for tea! Yes, I'm coming to your house for tea!"
However this wonderful story of redemption has even more to offer and I'd like to look at it again to consider hospitality, the theme of our week here at Life Church Seaford this week. Read Luke 19:1-10 for the full story.
To read this as a story of hospitality, we need first to reverse our very westernised view of what hospitality is. If we're being hospitable then we're welcoming people into our homes and in doing so, we honour our guests. However in the near and far mid-east, it is far more common that to receive guests into a home honours the host. It is here that our encounter with Zacchaeus becomes even more interesting.
In Luke we learn that Zacchaeus was a man 'short in stature'. We rarely see the way a person looks commented on in the scripture unless it is conveying a greater meaning. For example we know that Jesus was likely to be fairly average to look at (Isaiah 53:2), and this was important because the Roman and Greek culture of the time had a habit of deifying those with good looks. There is little in the research of the time to say that the comment on his height has anything to do with his social standing, however the comment on his height does come hot on the heels of the comments about his occupation and wealth. It comes as part of a mounting litany against the man; his community vilified him. As a 'chief' tax collector, he oversaw the local tax collectors, a profession known for squeezing as much as they could out of the people, amassing his wealth immorally. Even worse, he was seen as a 'turn-coat', a Jew working for the Romans to take their money. He may well have been short, but even if he had been tall there was probably no way the crowd would willingly part to allow him through to see Jesus. In the communities eyes, this man was an outsider to his own people, with no honour whatsoever.
However the story starts to turn when Zacchaeus climbed that Sycamore-fig tree. It most likely wasn't common practice for grown men to climb trees. I wonder how he drew attention to himself because why otherwise would Jesus have looked up into that bushy tree (a quick google suggests it would have been a full, leafy tree)? Did he call out to Jesus, or was the crowd already heckling him sat in that tree, a shameful traitor? I doubt he called out, he was already shamed and probably wouldn't want more attention and the text says he just wanted to 'see who Jesus was'. So when Jesus looked up into that tree, he would see a man he may not have known personally, but a well-dressed man, wealthy man, evidently despised by his own community. So Jesus did what he always did, he behaved in a way which was always counter culture, both confronting the narrative of the time and calling out to us across the centuries to do the same. In calling out to Zacchaeus to dine at his house, he was restoring his honour in a way which would have stunned the crowd.
Zacchaeus was a man on the margins of his community. Jesus publicly restored honour to this man's household, allowing him to play the host. He has an opportunity to repent and start to make right his wrongs. Before Jesus even reached Zacchaeus' home town of Jericho, he had started to lay the foundations for the redemption of those seen as irredeemable in the communities eyes. In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus had already told the crowd that 'even' a tax collector who humbles themselves can receive mercy, more so than the arrogant Pharisee who was confident in his own righteousness.
This expression of hospitality by Jesus, in reaching out to the marginalised is a powerful message. In our western expression of hospitality, as already noted, we are more likely to extend honour by inviting people into our homes and lives but the point remains the same. Hospitality is at it's most powerful when we push outside of our comfort zone. In Zacchaeus case, hospitality was a gateway to salvation. We might not always get to see the immediate result of an invitation seen in Zacchaeus' story, but the seeds of honour we plant in extending hospitality are nevertheless sown. To play a part in restoration, through hospitality, is a beautiful thing.
What would it mean for you to move out of your comfort zone and extend hospitality?
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