By now, we probably know everything we need to know about tax collectors! If you remember from last week, our Gospel was “The parable of the pharisee and the tax collector praying in the Temple“. We talked extensively about the reasons why tax collectors at Jesus’s time were considered as sinners and how they were scorned, not only by those who claimed to be “holier than thou” but even by the crowds, simple everyday people who felt that tax collectors were traitors to Israel, working for the Roman Empire and defrauding the little ones for their own profit. And so today, we leave the universe of the tale, the parable, for a real life example. Not only do we meet with an actual tax collector, but, Luke says, “a chief tax collector” and Luke also adds that the man “was rich“. It’s interesting that Luke would point out this detail because people would already know that, as a result of their activities, most tax collectors were, as we say, “comfortable”, so my guess is that this one, being in charge of supervising other tax collectors, must have been extra rich.
But there might be also another reason that Luke would add this detail. From last Sunday to this Sunday, the lectionary skips almost a whole chapter of the Gospel. We heard last week the beginning of chapter 18, and today we find ourselves at the beginning of chapter 19. In between, Jesus meets with another rich man, a “very rich” man says Luke, and we learn that although the man is eager to learn more from Jesus’s teaching, he will eventually turn down Jesus’s invitation to follow him and to “(…) sell all that [he] owns and distributes the money to the poor”. Then Jesus explains to the disciples “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God“, making the comparison that: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God” and the disciples are left wondering: “Then who can be saved?” (Luke 18: 23-26).
I think it’s important to have this story in the back of our minds as we hear at the story of Zacchaeus, because this one is also a wealthy man, and yet he finds unexpected salvation. Not only for himself, but also for his family. At the end of our passage, Jesus declares that “Salvation has come to [Zacchaeus’] house”, adding that “He also is a son of Abraham” (If you remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man proved himself unworthy in the eyes of Abraham when he enters the after-world). So, indeed this is very unexpected: Luke, more than any other evangelists, presents us a Jesus who deeply despises material wealth and never has words strong enough to warn people of the danger of it. So what happens in our story today? What is it that supersedes all the rest, and make the impossible possible? Indeed to the question of the disciples “Then who can be saved?” Jesus has responded earlier: “Things that are impossible with people are possible with God.” And they now have an example with Zacchaeus.
Well, I don’t know what you think about it, but to me there is something utterly likable about the man. Don’t get it wrong, he was probably scorned by his people like many others in his line of work. In a few verses before our passage starts, Luke tells us that the people in Jericho know that Jesus is on his way to their city, and they go to meet him at the gates. But what they do is that they also seem to be the ones granting access (or not) to the Master and his disciples. Right before Zacchaeus enters the picture, we learn that there is a blind man who calls to Jesus, and the crowds try to silence him. In the same way, my guess is that Zacchaeus had to climb up a tree, not only because he was short, but also because the crowds were driving him away, something that his stature made easier. But the man does not lose heart. He pushes his way forwards Jesus, with no consideration for social conventions or for his dignity. The text tells us that Zacchaeus “(…) ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree.” It takes what it takes. And when Jesus calls him by name, he hurries down and Luke says “he was happy to welcome him” and to show his gratefulness, declares on the spot that he will give all of his possessions to the poor, and will pay back four times anyone he might have defrauded. Interestingly, the man asks nothing for himself, does not even beg for mercy. His joyful greeting is all it takes.
And so, there is something about Zacchaeus, an enthusiasm, an authenticity and even an aura that make him much likable for us readers, but even more to Jesus. Actually, Zacchaeus reminds me of the woman, believed to be a prostitute, who anoints Jesus’s feet with a costly perfume (her story is told in all four Gospels). She pops out of nowhere with bursting energy, interrupts the respectable men’s dinner, and with no regard whatsoever to what everyone might think, falls at Jesus’ feet, kissing him and crying, and Jesus shows her as an example to all the holy people, because of her great love (Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; Luke 7:36–50; John 12:1–8). And this is I think what touches Jesus’s heart in both characters: Their ability to welcome him with all their heart and lavish generosity, and to this, Jesus responds with radical hospitality: a place near him at the table, a well–known image for the eternal banquet. I have been reading recently a book about the common roots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and the story of Zacchaeus reminded of this saying from prophet Muhammad as he describes the love of God: “Take one step towards me, I will take ten steps towards you, walk towards me, I will run towards you.” Luke indeed concludes the story reminding us that Jesus is the one who has come to seek out and save the lost.
So what does the story say to us today?
Well, we can see that as Zacchaeus turns his heart towards Jesus, he is “justified”, in the same way than the tax collector in the parable last week. As he did earlier with the prostitute, Jesus declares the man innocent in front of all the people who hated him, showing him even as an example of holiness. What was only a story, so far a parable, becomes reality in the eyes of all. The man will return home, not only with God’s grace following him, as we said last week, but Jesus is with him and will bless all his house. It is likely that the crowds will also be blessed, with a chief tax collector become honest and generous. Because indeed if a rich man can enter the Kingdom of God, nothing is impossible to God, Luke seems to tell us.
In our first reading, we have read from the book of Isaiah and we see how afflicted the prophet has become with his people. Corruption is everywhere and religion has become empty. And yet God promises Israel: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.“ Zacchaeus, the wealthy chief tax collector, is made pure, (that’s actually what Zacchaeus means in Hebrew). He is not only forgiven but declared innocent, returned to the man he should always have been. There is actually in the text an interesting ambiguity: That’s the present tense that is used when Zacchaeus declares that he will give to the poor and will pay back what he owns. Although it’s translated as a future, it actually reads: I am giving, I am paying. As if it is what the man had been doing just that all along. Zacchaeus is who he truly is in the eyes of Jesus, the past has been canceled. And so maybe, like the prophet we also have grown cynical about our world, and people around us. I don’t know how it is for you, but I keep on hearing these days that “people” are like this, and “people” are like that, and it looks like everybody thinks that no one is up to anything good and they will never change. Well, when I read this Gospel I wonder if we don’t behave like the crowds in Jesus’s time, condemning“people” before they even have a chance to prove their good heart, before we even have a chance to see them with the eyes of Jesus. We may think some days to ourselves that all is lost, and yet the Gospel keeps on telling us that all can be saved. Yes, we live in a world where we have often good reasons to grow bitter, disappointed or just suspicious, but we also see with Jesus that all it takes only a heart ready to open up to make the storyof new beginnings come true.