UP A TREE
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4; Luke 19:1-10
For the Son of Man
came to seek out and to save the lost.”
De Rijk was a large man, and he managed to hold the museum guards off long enough to slash the painting more than a dozen times while shouting, by way of apology, “I have been sent by the Lord! I have been forced to do this by forces out of this Earth!” The guards finally wrestled De Rijk to the ground, he was eventually committed to a mental home, and later he committed suicide.
After a four-year restoration process, the painting went back up, this time under permanent guard. Which was lucky, because it meant that when, in 1990, another Dutchman sprayed acid on the painting from a concealed bottle, the guards were able to douse the painting with water quickly enough to avoid permanent damage.
De Rijk wasn’t the first person to attack The Night Watch. He wasn’t even the first Dutch person—nor the first to do it with a knife. That distinction went to “a discharged naval cook named Sigrist,” who, “with a knife deliberately slashed the masterpiece,” apparently as revenge for his discharge from the navy.
Desperate people do desperate things; and Zacchaeus, the
chief tax collector in Jericho, was a desperate man—not because he was hated by
the taxpayers, not because he was filthy rich, and not because “a wee little
man was he.” Zacchaeus was desperate because he was lost…and fortunately, for all
who are lost, Jesus—Son of Man and Son of God—“came to seek out and to save the
lost” (Lk 19:10).
Being the lost whom Jesus came to seek and to save has
nothing to do with one’s physical location—all of us have probably been lost physically
from time to time in that way: lost in the woods, lost in the city, lost in the
dark…. Neither does being lost have anything to do with one’s emotional status.
Have any of you ever felt lost in a crowd? Lost among friends? I know I have. It’s
not a good feeling at all.
Chief Tax Collector Zacchaeus is not lost in those ways;
he’s lost spiritually, he’s lost in sin. He lived quite comfortably in that
sin…until he heard that this teacher, this prophet, this healer, this Jesus, was passing through Jericho…and
Zacchaeus was intrigued; he wanted to see
who Jesus was. And maybe, just maybe, he could see what the fuss was all about.
That was Zacchaeus’ plan. He was going to survey the situation; he had no idea
that his whole life was about to change. When Z ran ahead of the crowd and
climbed the sycamore tree, he was actually running toward his own salvation.
What is this thing called salvation? Well, I could give you
the reformed church’s systematic theology explanation using John Calvin’s 17th
century TULIP acronym:
T stands for total human depravity;
U equals
unconditional election—this is the part about some are chosen by God for
eternal life and some are damned from the beginning;
L stands for Limited Atonement meaning that
Christ died only for certain people.
I stands for Irresistible Grace,
only certain people had the ability to respond to the Holy Spirit’s call upon
their lives; and
P is for the Perseverance of the
Saints, again the elect are able to continue in the faith because God had
already chosen them for sanctification.
TULIP is just one understanding of salvation; far more
accessible to us in the 21st century is this understanding put forth
by the United Methodist Church:
Salvation
is to know that after
feeling lost and alone, we've been found by God. It's to know that after
feeling worthless, we've been redeemed. It's to experience a reunion with God,
others, the natural world, and our own best selves. It's a healing of the
alienation—the estrangement—we've experienced. In salvation we become whole.
Salvation happens to us both now and for the future. It's ‘eternal life,’ that
new quality of life in unity with God.”[1]
Zacchaeus would never be the same after Jesus called his
name that day. “Hurry and come down,” Jesus said, “for I MUST stay at your
house today” (Lk 19:5). Zacchaeus’
feet had barely touched the dirt before he was giving half his money to the
poor and repaying those he had defrauded 4 times the value of what he
originally stole from them.
The NRSV translation says that Zacchaeus hurried down and
was happy to welcome him, but the Greek word chairo ((khah'-ee-ro) actually means rejoicing, being glad;
celebrating like the Red Sox won the World Series! Zacchaeus has been changed! He
knows it; he feels it; and he does something with it!
And so must we. Desperate people do desperate things. The
first thing is to admit we are sinners; that we are lost. But do not fear: the
lost are dear to the heart of God—so dear that God was willing to do something
desperate, too, and that something was to send his very own son—God’s
irreplaceable masterpiece of love—to die for our sins so that we can live with
God forever—that’s what it means to be desperate; that’s what it means to be
saved.
And so I pray that Jesus is come to our house today…and that
he will celebrate with us this meal: the bread of life and the cup of
salvation. To taste how gracious our Lord is, we have to welcome him, and listen
for his voice. Softly and tenderly, or loudly and boisterously, Jesus is
calling each one of us by name: “Come down from the tree of loneliness and live
in my community. Come down from the tree of restlessness and might find your
rest in me. Friend, come down from whatever desperate perch is keeping you from
rejoicing with me. Let go; come down; eat with me, and be refreshed, restored,
and renewed. Rejoice, the long night watch is over; today, salvation has come
to this house.” Amen.
November
3, 2013
First
Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The
Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
