The real surprise

‘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.’

Luke 19:10

There are occasions when there are extraordinary reversals, when the anticipated outcome of a particular encounter is turned on its head. There is the element of surprise!

The Lucan story of Zacchaeus is one such story. The tax collector Zacchaeus joined the townspeople of Jericho to welcome Jesus. Being short, he couldn’t see him, so he ran ahead and climbed a tree. Jesus saw him and called out to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I must stay at your house today.’ Zacchaeus welcomed Jesus and took him to his home while the crowd muttered about Jesus being hosted by a sinner. When Zacchaeus heard this he told Jesus that he would give half his wealth to the poor and for those he had cheated he would repay them four times what he took.

There are, in this story, a number of marvellous and clever reversals. Zacchaeus, the one most keen to see Jesus, is indeed a sinner, certainly for his contemporaries – after all he collected taxes for his Roman overlords. His lack of height meant he had to climb up to see Jesus, and it is he who looked down on him. And it is not Zacchaeus who invited Jesus to his home, Jesus invited himself. Now the one who was so honoured with providing hospitality is condemned by his neighbours. And so like many of the Gospel healing stories, the turn around is that the focus is not really on Zacchaeus but on the complaining townspeople – for it is they who have yet to be converted/healed/transformed. And so we ask ourselves, who is the story for?

In the end, the story is about you and me. Luke lets us know what it takes to be become a disciple: humility, acceptance of who I am, with all my faults and failings, but remaining open to Jesus in whatever way he comes to me and allowing him to make a home with me, to become an integral part of my life – and then ultimately, allow myself to be taken up and transformed so that my life mirrors the person of Jesus. I reconcile myself with my community and make amends.

But you and I are also those complaining townspeople, crying ‘What about me, it isn’t fair!’ We are very interested in what is happening, but we just can’t take the next step – letting go. It is so much easier to stand with the crowd and crow about those who are publically known sinners.

But the real surprise is this: Jesus chooses me and you and all we have to do is climb down from our tree and accept his invitation.