I want to thank anyone reading here at church who invited someone to church this week.  We were able to almost fill the church and with about 85 people in total and many giving very positive feedback I’m thrilled and thinking about doing it again next year!! (It’s usually only been done every other year)
Zaccheus
It’s not a popular job: tax collector. And it was even less popular in Roman-occupied Palestine. It was the Roman’s taxes they collected. A tax collector was a collaborator. A sell-out. A traitor. Especially the chief tax collectors. And Zaccheus was a Chief Tax Collector. Someone who’d compromised their principles. Not popular at all. Quite the opposite. You wouldn’t want to be seen with a tax collector. What would people think? You were ratting someone out? Telling the authorities that someone wasn’t paying enough? It would have been a lonely life. Probably most of his friends were other tax collectors.
No wonder, really, that so many of them took the chance to line their own pockets. Asking for a bit more, inventing some new taxes. Well, it wasn’t like the Romans paid them that much. Certainly not enough for what they had to put up with. It didn’t make up for everyone hating them, but it gave them a bit of security at least. Corrupt. Especially the rich ones. And Zaccheus was rich. Traitors. Sinners.
Not the sort of people you’d find in the synagogue on the Sabbath. A bit too worldly for that. Corruption. Loneliness. Compromise. Sin. Zaccheus did not have a great life. And he was short too. So short he couldn’t see someone through the crowd. He couldn’t see Jesus.
Why did he want to see Jesus? The story doesn’t tell us. Maybe Zaccheus didn’t really know himself. He’d heard of him, obviously. Minor celebrity, holy man, famous for his teaching and his miracles. And he was passing through Jericho. Maybe Zaccheus just got curious. He wanted to see who this Jesus was. He’d heard some stories, but he wanted to see for himself.
Only when he got there he couldn’t see. This was the man who was used to sitting down at his table while people queued up to pay him money. He wasn’t used to this. He had to run ahead, on his short legs, puffing and panting, trying to get ahead of Jesus, trying to get to where the crowd thinned out a bit. But even then he couldn’t see. So he had to climb up a tree to get a better look. The chief tax collector climbing up a tree. It would have been so humiliating if someone had noticed. And then they did.
Jesus looked up at him and spoke to him. Zaccheus had really just gone along to look and see. He was curious. He hadn’t planned on getting involved. He hadn’t imagined that Jesus might actually want to talk to him. No-one wanted to talk to him.
But Jesus did. Not only did he talk to him, he invited himself to his house. And he knew who he was. He called him by his name. He chose to stay at the house of the chief tax collector. As if he thought he wasn’t the sort of person you avoid. As if he though he wasn’t corrupt. A sinner. A traitor. A sell-out. Even though it made the crowd mutter about him. And they did mutter. It was a risky thing for Jesus to do.
Perhaps that was what made Zaccheus do it. Because if there’s one thing the taxman doesn’t like doing, it’s giving people’s money back. It must have been the riskiest thing he’d ever done. Letting go of his money. His security. And it made a big impression on Jesus. “This is what I came here for today.” He said “To see lives turned around. To see the people no-one wants to know brought back into God’s family. To seek out and save the lost.”
I wonder what you’ve come here for today? Maybe, like Zaccheus, you don’t know. Maybe you’ve just come to look and see what all the fuss is about. Maybe, like him, it’s not what you’re used to. Maybe it’s a bit embarrassing – you’re sure you’ll be spotted doing something silly. Or maybe you’re a bit more at home. Maybe it feels familiar, being in church again.
However being in church feels, whether strange or familiar, I hope that like Zaccheus you’ll meet with Jesus today. It’s funny that, just like Zaccheus, we usually don’t expect to. Even if we’ve come to the place we know he’ll be. At the most we expect to hear about him, not actually meet him. But actually he’s the reason we meet together. Jesus, who came to seek out the outsiders, the ones who haven’t been here for a long time, no matter where they’ve been and what they’ve done. Because he wants to welcome all of us into his family.