“Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” (Luke 19.9-10).
In nomine, etc..
There’s a lot going on in today’s story about Jesus and Zacchaeus the tax collector. The first thing we hear is: “he was a chief tax collector and was rich.” Actually, it’s the second thing we hear; the first thing we hear is his name, Zacchaeus, which means “pure” or “innocent”...it makes an interesting contrast with his occupation, as though his name is something he hides behind, or perhaps aspires to.
By the time of our story, very early in the first millennium according to our calendar, tax collectors were contractors supplying the Roman state with an agreed-to amount of taxation for a particular district. In the period before the emperor Augustus, contractors would bid on tax collections, contracts would go to the highest bidders, and the contractors had to ensure the collection of the agreed-to taxes. If they bid too high, they would be in trouble, so it is easy to understand that the system would be full of opportunities for corruption and abuse. We can understand why”tax collector” and “sinner” were practically equivalent in the minds of most people. Not only were these contractors tax collectors, they were often money lenders and traders in commodities as well, with even more opportunities to make lots and lots of money. By the time of Jesus, tax collection had been reorganized to reduce contracting out, but there were still many opportunities for abuse.
Tax rates were actually quite low compared to what we’re used to. Depending on conditions and the needs of the government and the military, taxes on wealth and property were around 1 to 3 percent. But in the subsistence economy of the time, even tax rates like these could be burdensome. And in a steeply class-divided and status-conscious society, with vast differences in wealth and status between the lowest and highest classes, it is easy to understand that there would be a lot of resentment, and hostility toward the wealthy --- hence the belief that tax collectors, publicans as they were called in the old translation, were “sinners”. And since they were often moneylenders, charging interest in violation of the law of Moses, that only made it worse. Add to that, the fact that some of them were commodities traders, hoarding and charging what they could get away with, “sinner” was probably the most polite word that people could apply to them. I learned the other day that Jericho, Zacchaeus’s town, was a center of trade in balsam wood, a valuable commodity that Zacchaeus might have traded in. So we have an understanding of the kind of man Zacchaeus might have been, and of what people likely thought of him.
All of this makes Jesus’s connection to Zacchaeus very interesting. Jesus evidently knows him, and expects to visit Zacchaeus in his house. What does this tell us? Is there some kind of network that Jesus and Zacchaeus belong to? Is Zacchaeus one of a group of people, rich businessmen and others, who take care of Jesus as he goes from town to town? It is an interesting question, how Jesus was supported in his ministry, since there is no evidence in the Scripture that Jesus worked for money, altho tradition tells us that he was a carpenter. Zacchaeus may have had some role like this in Jesus’s life, but of course we can only speculate. We don’t know. But the story as we have it still gives us much to reflect on.
For starters, Jesus is willing, even eager, to make it clear to everyone watching, that Zacchaeus is a friend, that he is happy to be seen with him and to stay with him, and Jesus wants everyone to know it. Zacchaeus wants everyone to know it too, as he makes clear in his delight in welcoming Jesus. We know how the crowd reacts: “All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’” But Jesus is having none of it; he doesn’t allow public opinion to get in the way of his seeing Zacchaeus as he really is, and he is in effect telling the crowd to see Zacchaeus as he is, to pull away the veil, to blow away the religious fog that this word “sinner” places between themselves and Zacchaeus, and between Jesus and Zacchaeus and what Jesus knows that Zacchaeus is capable of.
By accepting Zacchaeus as a friend, by recognizing him publicly, Jesus has released in Zacchaeus the ability to act in accordance with his true nature. His true nature is one of great generosity: “half my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor.” Furthermore, he is willing to make up for any fraud he may have committed. The interesting point here is that he’s not admitting to fraud; presumably, that would have to be proven. But he’s willing to be convinced, and to make up for it several times over. This willingness, by the way, is an indication of just how rich he really is. In any case, Jesus’s acceptance of Zacchaeus as he is, makes his free generosity possible. Jesus makes no demands upon him, except the expectation of hospitality, and makes no judgment of Zacchaeus. Jesus lets no preconceptions about money or sin or anything else, get in the way of relating to Zacchaeus person-to-person, in freedom, spiritual freedom which comes from his understanding of Zacchaeus, and himself and everyone else, as a son (and daughter!) of Abraham.
“Today, salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.” In other words, Zacchaeus, before all else, is a son, as all men and women are sons and daughters, of the people of God, chosen as all people are, to live with God in his kingdom.
“For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” The lost are the people who have forgotten, or who never knew, that they are sons and daughters of Abraham; the whole human race is called to life with God, which is what salvation is, in this life and in eternity. Jesus called Zacchaeus back to this awareness, which he had forgotten or neglected; today’s Gospel recalls us to the same realization, and makes it possible for us to drop preconceptions and exclusionary words like “sinner” and remember that we are all called to a life of spiritual freedom, as Zacchaeus was called. Let us all, like Zacchaeus, come down from our sycamore tree, to see Jesus, and let us welcome him into our lives, to see Jesus, and ourselves, as he, and we, really are. Amen. (29.X.16 Adv. 30.X.16 TSP).
