THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

[cappie]

Throughout Scripture, Jesus' choice of dinner companions set him apart from other observant Jews of his time. In first century Jewish culture, to dine together was to show a bond of fellowship and peace among those at the table. Observant Jews did not generally dine with foreigners and sinners. Yet, Jesus chooses to honour the tax collector, Zacchaeus, by staying at his house.

With the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus we are nearly at the end of Luke’s narrative of Jesus’ journey from the region between Galilee and Samaria up to the city of Jerusalem (17:11 - 19:27) for the events leading to the Cross. The stories and parables told in this section all point to one of Luke’s basic convictions about Jesus, summarized at the end of the scene with Zacchaeus: The Son of Man has come to seek out and to save the lost. (19:10) Luke has illustrated what is meant by the lost with fairly typical Gospel characters whom Jesus finds along the way, or tells about in parables: lepers (17:12-19), a widow (18:1-8), a blind beggar (18:35-43), and a rich young ruler (18:18-29). Of all these lost souls, none is more lost than Zacchaeus, and none less typical.

The story of Zacchaeus brings life to what St Paul calls justification by grace through faith. The story shows very clearly indeed that God’s voluntary acceptance of Zacchaeus came before the chief tax collector’s repentance. Jesus showed God’s forgiveness by entering the life and household of a sinner, and the sinner’s repentance followed as a consequence.

In our liturgy we put confession first, and absolution afterwards. If we have spent many years doing this week after week on Sundays, we cannot help but get the impression that first we have to repent, and then we get forgiveness as a reward for repenting. But in our preaching on this day we have to point out that God actually does this thing backwards. With God, forgiveness and acceptance is there before we repent. And this is always and everywhere our chief reason for thanksgiving, be it the eucharistic Great Thanksgiving, or tiny prayers of gratitude in the course of daily life. No character in Gospel stories exemplifies more than Zacchaeus the abundant love that God bears towards the ungodly while they are still in the squalor of their ungodliness.

We are committed to showing this kind of love, not only on our lips but in our lives.  We soon realize that the love and forgiveness of God surpass anything we can come up with ourselves. This love extends to the abuser, the liar, the thief, the cheat, and the killer, in circumstances that often produce too much human damage and hurt for us to begin to forgive until we see signs of repentance.

This is why the story of Zacchaeus comes so near the end of Luke’s narrative of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and the Cross. What Jesus showed to a chief tax collector in Jericho is that God accepts and transforms the unacceptable, loves the un-loveable, forgives the un-forgivable. In Jesus death, God will voluntarily take on all the damage of sin, so that we can all respond to his love freely, and abundantly.   Zacchaeus was saved by grace and invited to faith and so are we all.  This Sunday, we will not climb a tree to see Jesus. But we will leave our homes and gather with our fellow Christians to “see” Jesus as he speaks to us in his Word and feeds us at his Altar. 
 
While we could give reasons to explain our presence at Mass this Sunday, the underlying reason is the same as the one that motivated Zacchaeus. We have been touched by the grace of God.

[Guest]

Wow!