Climbing Treese & the First Winter Breeze

Brad Sullivan

Proper 26, Year C

October 30, 2016

Emmanuel, Houston

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Luke 19:1-10

Climbing Trees and the First Winter Breeze

“The Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”  Thank God for that!  Amen, and Alleluia!  I could almost end right there…I won’t, but I almost could.  Thank God that the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.  It’s a crazy world, and it is pretty easy to get lost in this world.  Zacchaeus, as we heard in our Gospel story today, was one who got lost, lost seeking after riches and security for himself.

As a tax collector, Zacchaeus was a Jewish man who made his living collecting taxes for Rome.  He was the ultimate turncoat.  Not only did he not hate Rome, he got rich by collecting exorbitant taxes for an occupying nation from his own people and then taking more than necessary to line his own pockets. 

He was kinda the scum of the earth, and yet Jesus saw him as lost…lost and wandering in the desert, desperately trying to find his way home, trying to find his way back to God.  Zacchaeus was lost, and in his efforts to find his way back, he was doing terrible things.  He was defrauding people, stealing, getting rich off others’ misfortune and oppression.  For him to do that, however, he had to have been lost already.  Maybe he felt helpless and powerless, and he wanted more power.  Maybe he was afraid of Rome, afraid for his life and well being, so he joined them to find security.  Maybe he just hadn’t been raised all that well and had been a greedy jack-wagon ever since he was a kid.  We don’t know, but he was lost in the desert even before he started collecting taxes for Rome.

So, Jesus called Zacchaeus out of a tree and asked to have lunch with him.  Imagine being part of the throngs of people wanting to see Jesus, crowding around him, and then seeing him ask to have lunch with this scumbag.  I think we’d be pretty upset, just like the crowd was, at the seeming injustice.  Zacchaeus should have been scorned by Jesus, or at least given a throughout tongue lashing, and instead, Jesus asked to go be a guest at his house.  There’s this part of me that feels like that just doesn’t seem right, but “the Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost.” 

That part of me that feels upset about Jesus showing mercy to Zacchaeus is a part of me that is also lost in the desert.  What if the crowd had gotten their way, if they had been given free rein to chastise Zacchaeus (and make themselves feel more righteous in the process)?  They would have ended up lost in the desert just like Zacchaeus was.  No good would have been done.  They’d have felt righteous for a time.  They’d have been able to get their hate out and feel some temporary power over this man who had power over them.  Then, Zacchaeus would have continued doing what he was doing, except he’d have felt even more justified in collecting their taxes.  He’d have probably taken even more for himself from those jerks who were mean to him.

Zacchaeus would have stayed in the desert, and the people would have just joined him there, but Jesus came to seek out and to save the lost.  Jesus invited Zacchaeus out of the desert and into the promised land.  Notice that this story takes place in Jericho.  

Anyone remember a place named Jericho?  A guy named Joshua fought a famous battle there, and the walls came a tumbling down.  So the people of Israel were lost in the desert, waiting to go into the land of promise, and once they got there, the first stop they made was to the huge city of Jericho.  They saw the wall of this hugely fortified city, and they knew they were in trouble.  They figured, we should just go back to the desert and give up now before we get hurt.  Josh talked to God and said, “No, guys.  We’re good.  We just need to march around the wall a few times and blow some trumpets, and it’ll come down.”  So, they did, and crazily enough, it worked.  God led the people out of the desert and into the promised land.   

I bring this up because in today’s story, Jesus (whose Hebrew name was Joshua) was in Jericho, and Zacchaeus, like Israel, was lost in the desert.  Like the people of Israel trying to make their way in the promised land, Zacchaeus was trying to see Jesus, and like the people of Israel, he found himself hindered by a wall.  In his case, being a rather short dude, he was hindered from seeing Jesus, hindered from entering the promised land, by a wall of people.  So, Zacchaeus climbed a tree. 

That was kind of a childlike thing to do, right?  Little children climb trees.  Adults tend not to quite as much.  Jesus said that we need to become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Childlike wonder.  Childlike joy in the world.  Childlike viewing of creation as beautiful and the world as our playground, alight with wonder, beauty, and joy. 

Zacchaeus climbed a tree, like a little child and went from being lost in the desert of greed and security to entering the promised land of Jesus.  He met Jesus, and immediately his heart was transformed.  He was no longer lost in the desert of greed and security.  He was found in the way of Jesus, the way of loving God and loving people. 

Way of Jesus hard to see sometimes.  It seems crazy that the way of loving God and loving people is hard to see, but we also know that the way of Jesus is at times hard to see.  We know Jesus’ way, we get it, and still we find ourselves lost in the desert.  We want to find Jesus, and we think we’re almost there, then we find ourselves running into a wall in our faith and in life.  We can’t get where we want to go.  We want to live with joy.  We want our hearts full of hope, full of wonder, full of love.  Sometimes, however, we just can’t get there.  We’re going through life in the doldrums, not that hopeful, or joyful, or even loving. 

Sometimes we look around and we realize we’re lost in the desert, and we know Jesus is near, but we just can’t find him.  We’re too busy or too stressed.  It feels like there’s a wall in the way to the joy of Jesus that we just can’t get through.  We want to be transformed.  We want to live in his light and spread his light, and we can’t see over the wall.  Maybe then, like Zacchaeus, we just need to climb a tree.

Maybe we need to recapture our childlike joy and wonder in creation, in the presence of God all around us, in the people we see, even in ourselves.  We need to become children again.  Climb a tree.  Open our eyes, ears, heart to see and hear Jesus all around us.  Constantly saying, “hey, I came to seek you out.  I need you for my kingdom.  I want to transform your life, maybe for the first time, maybe all over again.  I am seeking you out because you’re lost again, and I want you to be found, to be able to love God and to love people and to experience joy and wonder in creation once again. 

This call from Jesus can come from anywhere.  Once a year, at least, I get to re-experience the joy and wonder of creation when I hear and feel the first winter breeze of the year.  When I was in first grade, walking outside to go to gym class, I heard what sounded to me like a winter breeze.  It was not cold outside (I grew up in Houston), but there was a crispness to the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves.  I was so excited for the promise of the return of winter, a rest from the 9 month heat and humidity of Houston, and the rest that comes with the season (back then it was Christmas break for us elementary school kids). 

Every year since then, I’ve heard the first winter breeze, and without fail, the Spirit of God blowing crisply through the leaves transforms my heart, brings me out of whatever desert I am in, and leaves me with the joy and wonder of a child.  Even if for a moment, I am found with Jesus and all the worries of life are gone.  I’m back in the promised land of Jesus, and I am free to love God and love people once again. 

Any authentic encounter with Jesus sets us free.  Jesus set Zacchaeus free from his love of money and fearful need of security so that he could instead love people and use his money as a means toward loving people.  Trusting in Jesus sets us free from our fears and anxieties, from whatever desert we find ourselves in.

Sometimes the very craziness in our lives that is keeping us in the desert can also be Jesus inviting us to have lunch.  We just need a change of perspective.  We just need to become like a child again, and climb a tree, to see Jesus right there already in the midst of our lives calling us out of the desert and into the promised land, calling us to rest in him, to be freed from our fears and anxieties, and to love God and love people with childlike joy and wonder once again.  Amen.