Hello,
My friends.
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighborhood monk in dogs.
Welcome back to another episode in our series,
The Way Home.
We are getting closer and closer to the end of our journey through the Scriptures' great stories of return.
We watched the prodigal son leave home and discover that love was waiting.
We allowed ourselves to be found like lost sheep.
We walked the road to Emmaus and discovered Christ beside us in our disappointment.
We sat beside Peter's charcoal fire and discovered that failure never has the final word.
We rested with the Shepherd of Psalm 23.
We've heard Isaiah's invitation to come to the waters that satisfy,
And then in Hosea we encounter a God who refuses to let us go.
And today the journey takes an interesting turn.
Because the focus of today's reflection is a gentleman called Zacchaeus.
You've probably read the story before.
In fact,
I use Zacchaeus's story quite often in the work that I do and teach.
Because it's a multifaceted story and this is another facet yet again that I haven't really shared much about because it's only just become apparent to me.
You see,
Zacchaeus is not obviously lost.
He's not wandering in a distant country.
And he's not sitting in grief and he's not hiding in failure.
It looks for all intent and purposes like his.
Found a life that works.
He's got an amazing position.
Plenty of money because of that position,
Influence and security.
Because of that position.
There seems to be something missing.
And he climbs a tree because he wants to see Jesus.
And Jesus looks up.
But Jesus doesn't just seize a case.
He then calls Zacchaeus.
And the encounter that comes afterwards changes everything.
And it's probably because sometimes the way home.
.
.
Isn't about returning to God after we've lived.
Sometimes returning home is about returning to ourselves.
After we'd become someone that we were never meant to be.
So I invite you just to steal yourself.
To take in the moment,
To be fully present.
Take a nice,
Slow,
Deep breath in.
And out.
As we pray together.
Jesus you see us.
And you don't see the image we present to the world,
Or the success we throw out there,
Or the roles that we perform.
You see the person underneath all of those things.
So look upon us,
We pray,
With the same attention with which you looked upon Zacchaeus.
Call us out of whatever has made us smaller than we were created to be and lead us home to the person that you've created us to become.
Amen.
Let's begin with the words of Luke in chapter 19 of his Gospel.
From verse one.
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it.
A man was there named Zacchaeus.
He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
He was trying to see who Jesus was,
But on account of the crowd,
He couldn't because he was short in stature.
He ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him because he was going to pass that way.
When Jesus came to the place,
He looked up and said to him,
Zacchaeus,
Hurry and come down,
For I must stay at your house today.
So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.
All who saw it began to grumble and said,
He's going to be the guest of one who's a sinner.
Zechariah stood there and said to the Lord,
Half of my possessions,
Lord,
I'll give to the poor.
And if I've defrauded anyone of anything,
I'll pay them back four times as much.
And Jesus said to him,
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.
Now it's interesting that the story begins with desire.
He wanted to see who Jesus was.
He wanted to see.
And I often wonder whether our spiritual life begins in that moment,
A desire,
Something in us wants to see,
Wants to know.
Wants to understand and encounter something more,
And maybe you know that feeling,
That quiet curiosity,
The longings that you can't explain,
The sense that there must be more to life than what you're currently experiencing.
And sometimes we don't even know.
What we're looking for,
We just want to see.
So take a moment now and ask yourself.
What am I looking for?
What do I hope to discover?
What am I longing to see clearly?
Is it God?
Yourself,
The future,
Meaning.
A way forward?
Peace?
Maybe all of those things and others,
Just see what rises as you sit with the question.
For a moment.
What are you looking for?
But of course we're told Zacchaeus can't see Jesus,
There's a crowd and.
.
.
Luke tells us that he's short.
And so he climbs a tree.
And there's something almost comical about the scene in the context of the day in which it was told.
A wealthy,
Respectable man scrambling up a tree because he wants to see Jesus.
But again,
I don't think the gospel writers tell us these things by accident.
There's something that's important here for us to capture.
And maybe it's that sometimes we might look foolish in order to find what matters.
We might need to climb up above the noise,
Above the expectations that others have,
Above those voices that are telling us who we're supposed to be,
What we're supposed to do,
How we're supposed to kowtow and toe the line in whatever group or system we happen to be in.
And maybe Zacchaeus climbs the tree because he's tired of being defined by everybody else.
And the crowd in this story is important too,
Because the crowd already knows who Zacchaeus is and they've given him a label.
Depending on who they are.
He might be sinner.
He's a tax collector,
Which makes him a traitor.
Others would say he's an outsider.
And certainly unworthy of the rabbi's attention.
I think all of us know what it's like to be labelled.
Sometimes other people give us those labels and sometimes we give them to ourselves.
You know,
Failure,
Not good enough,
And all the twos.
Too old,
Too young,
Too difficult,
Too broken,
Too successful.
Too unsuccessful,
Too ordinary,
Too much.
Not enough,
Even.
We can start living according to those labels,
Can't we?
Zacchaeus.
Has become the person that everybody expects him to be.
But then Jesus looks up and I think this is the most important moment in the story.
Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus.
But before Zacchaeus can see Jesus,
Jesus sees Zacchaeus.
He looks up.
And he knows his name,
Zacchaeus.
And we all know that amazing feeling when someone knows our name and uses our name.
But think about All of those things that we just talked about,
That either Zacchaeus has labeled himself or others has labeled Zacchaeus.
And then think about this,
Some time ago I looked up the meaning of Zacchaeus's name and what's beautifully,
Just absolutely beautifully amazing.
Is that Zacchaeus' name means pure?
Clean.
Or innocent.
In the Hebrew.
Capture that for a second.
Here's the guy on the tree.
You've labelled yourself these things,
Other people have labelled you these things,
And you hear Jesus call your name,
Saying pure,
Clean,
Innocent.
And even more interesting,
Now put yourself in the crowd.
And you see Zacchaeus going up the tree,
And you know who Zacchaeus is,
And you know the sort of person he is.
And you see the rabbi look up in the tree.
Calling him,
Labelling him,
After all the things that you've labelled him.
Jesus dares to label him.
Pure.
Plane.
Innocent.
Imagine that.
Of all the things Jesus could have said to Label as Achaeus,
His job title,
His reputation,
His mistakes.
No,
No,
No,
No.
He says his name,
His real self,
The person beneath everything else,
Pure,
Clean,
Innocent,
Jesus sees.
And for a moment,
I invite you to just imagine Jesus looking at you.
And again,
Not the version that you show other people,
But the real you.
And when I say the real you.
.
.
Like the real.
Real you,
The tired,
The uncertain,
The hopeful,
The wounded.
The joy for you.
All the parts of you that you're proud of,
All the parts that you try to hide.
Imagine Jesus looking at all of it and simply saying your name,
Recognising you for who you truly are.
Sane.
And while your name could mean anything,
Know that when Jesus calls our name,
What he's really saying to us is pure,
Clean.
Innocent.
And loved.
Then Jesus says,
Hurry and come down,
Come down from the tree and maybe When you think about it,
This could be more than just a physical direction.
It's an invitation to come down.
From the places where we've climbed to protect ourselves.
Come down.
From holding up that image that you maintain.
Come down from that need to control.
Come down from the story that you tell about yourself.
Just come down.
Let it go.
Be human.
Be vulnerable.
Be real.
Jesus doesn't encounter the public Zacchaeus.
He encounters Zacchaeus,
Just Zacchaeus.
And this is why I think he belongs in this series called The Way Home,
Because sometimes we become so disconnected with ourselves.
That returning to God means returning to the person that we were created to be.
Because if we go through life,
We can become lots of other things.
We can become our job and our reputation and our responsibilities.
We can become our failures,
The things we own.
The things we've achieved.
We can become our politics even,
Or our opinions.
Become our roles.
And underneath all those things,
Though,
There's a human being,
A beloved child of God,
And salvation begins when we remember.
That person.
So again,
Take a moment,
Imagine.
Putting down all the labels you carry,
You work.
The achievements,
The failure,
The responsibilities.
What's left?
Who are you when you have nothing left to prove?
Who are you when nobody's watching?
Who are you when you stand before God?
Just sit there.
With that question.
And then.
Jesus says,
I must stay at your house today.
I'm coming over.
And I don't know about you.
.
.
But usually when guests come over there's a bit of a tidy up first.
But Jesus isn't interested in that.
He just says,
I'm coming over to your house today,
Now,
As you are.
This is grace,
Friends.
Jesus doesn't wait for Zacchaeus to become respectable.
He enters the house of a man that everybody else has rejected.
And loves him.
And I think this is what Jesus wants to do with us,
To enter the places that we'd rather keep hidden inside our own homes,
The messy rooms.
You know,
The complicated relationships,
The regrets and fears and contradictions,
The parts of ourselves that we don't think are worthy of God.
Jesus says,
Let me in.
I'm coming over.
And then what's really cool is that Luke tells us that Zacchaeus welcomes Jesus joyfully.
And where did that joy come from?
I think maybe there's joy in being truly sane.
Joy in being truly accepted.
There's joy.
In discovering that you don't have to hide.
Zacchaeus has probably spent years.
.
.
Trying to become significant.
When he gets there,
He's probably spent the rest of those years trying to hold on to that.
But now he's discovered.
Something even more valuable,
That he's loved.
And he's not loved because he's rich or successful or powerful.
It's because Jesus has seen him.
And then.
.
.
Zacchaeus begins to change.
He gives to the poor.
He repays what he's taken.
His relationship with money.
Changes,
His relationship with other people.
Changes,
But notice the order.
Jesus comes along first,
Then the transformation.
Zacchaeus doesn't have to change in order to make Jesus love him.
He changes because he encounters love and that order matters.
For so long spiritual transformation and especially within many parts of the Christian tradition?
Has been become good enough so that God will love you.
But really,
What the gospel stories tell us is that because you are loved,
You are free to become who you really are.
And so what is the power,
The force,
The impetus behind true transformation in the spiritual realm?
It's love.
Love is what makes transformation possible.
There's something in your life that needs to change.
Sure,
Habits,
Relationships,
Attitudes,
The way you use time,
The way you treat people,
Treat yourself even.
How do you start that transformation?
Well,
The story here tells us,
Begin with love.
You might ask,
If I really believed I was loved,
What might I become?
What might I let go of?
What might I repair?
What might I give?
What might I finally stop pretending?
Just sit with that.
You really believed that you were loved.
What might she become.
And then Jesus says,
Today salvation has come to this house.
Today.
Salvation comes home.
Not this house came to salvation.
Now,
The Greek word that Luke uses here is wikos.
Household Home.
The place where Zacchaeus lives becomes the place where the transformation happens.
And so we mustn't think that the way home and salvation requires us to escape somewhere else.
Maybe salvation is God making our actual lives the place where love can dwell,
Right there in those ordinary moments of every day,
At home and at work and in relationships,
In our bodies,
In our ordinary life.
That's where God wants to meet us.
And then Jesus finishes by saying,
The Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost.
There's that word again,
Lost.
But for all intent and purposes,
Zacchaeus did not look lost.
He had money,
Status,
Career,
Security,
And yet Jesus calls him lost.
Maybe we need to rethink what being lost means.
You can be lost and still look successful.
You can be lost and be busy.
You can be lost surrounded by people.
You can be lost achieving everything that you planned.
Being lost.
Isn't about geography,
It's about disconnection.
Disconnection from God,
From others.
From ourselves and Jesus comes to reconnect us.
To bring us harm.
Imagine yourself back beneath the sycamore tree.
Jesus looks up,
Sees you,
Knows your name.
And he says,
Come down.
You climb down,
You stand before him,
He looks at you,
And he says,
I must stay at your house today.
You hesitate.
You know what your house looks like.
It's a mess.
You know what's hidden,
But Jesus waits.
So you open the door.
Let him enter.
Let him see.
Let him stay,
And as you do,
In the silence for a moment,
Hear the words,
You are home.
Jesus,
Thank you for seeing us.
Thank you for seeing beyond our labels,
Beyond our reputation,
Beyond our achievements,
Beyond our failures.
Help us to come down from the trees that we've climbed,
From our defences,
From our masks,
From our need to impress.
Help us come home to ourselves and as we discover that we're loved.
Give us the courage to change.
Repair what needs repairing,
To release what needs releasing,
To become the people that we were created to be.
May our homes become places where love dwells.
May our lives become places where salvation is visible.
May we always remember that you came to seek the lost,
Even when the lost person was us.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with us and remain with us today and always.
Thanks so much for joining me for the way home today.
The invitation to carry into your day from now is simple,
Come down.
Come down from the expectations,
The performance,
The labels,
From the version of yourself that you've constructed.
Come down and let yourself be seen because sometimes The way home is about becoming,
At last.
The person that you were always meant to be.
Until next time.
Bye for now.
