“Today salvation has come to this house,” says
Jesus. Salvation has come to the house of Zacchaeus because Jesus has come to
the house of Zacchaeus.
We try to make this really complicated: Who is in, who is
out, what achieves salvation, what is faith. Blah, blah, blah, blah. I realize
I just threw out all your Bible studies, all my study, and everything about
education that we value so much as Lutherans with a series of blah blahs. But it’s
true, it isn’t so complicated: Salvation has come to Zacchaeus because Jesus
has come to Zacchaeus.
Jesus brings salvation; that’s his shtick. So what’s
salvation? I’m glad you asked. Salvation
is wellness, but it is wellness that is both immediate and forever, so unlike
wellness sold to you it has nothing to do with diet or life-changes or workout
plans. It’s about things coming together and actually working as they should.
Salvation is about Jesus. If there’s a somewhat hard lesson in all this it is
that salvation, since it is about Jesus, is therefore not about Zacchaeus. It’s
not about personal character. It doesn’t matter if he’s good, she’s bad; he made
poor choices, she is greedy, he is nice. He deserves it; so does she. Blah blah
blah. It’s not about Zacchaeus. It never was.
If it were about Zacchaeus then Jesus would be
particularly concerned about the person Zacchaeus was, how despised he was by
the people, about how he defrauded them and lived off their hard-earned wages.
As a tax collector, he took what the Romans told him to take and then he skimmed
off the top to make his own living; the more he could extort the better it was
for him. He was a traitor to his people, despised by more or less everybody. If
this were about Zacchaeus we would most definitely be hearing all about this
stuff.
But it’s not. Salvation has come because Jesus has come.
So Zacchaeus responds: He’ll give it all back and double the defrauded amount.
He’ll change his ways. He’ll love on his people. Is this why salvation came? Was
it cause and effect? Zacchaeus turns, so God changes God’s mind? No! Jesus
already came to him. Zacchaeus is responding to a promise of grace that he does
not deserve. This is how a person should act when Jesus brings salvation to
your house, but it’s not the reason Jesus is there. This isn’t about Zacchaeus.
As we look forward to Holy Week, a week away, this is a
good time to remember that this isn’t about us. It’s not about you; it’s not
about me. It’s about Jesus. It’s that
simple. Follow Jesus through Holy Week, turn off the TV, turn off the opinions
in your head about what’s right and what’s wrong, who is good and who is bad,
and instead turn to Jesus. Follow along with the disciples into Gethsemane,
follow along with Mary’s mother to Golgotha, look to the cross, then come back
with Mary Magdalene and the others to the empty tomb. This season is about
Jesus—not bunnies, not Spring, not planting, not even burying our dead. “Let
the dead bury their own dead,” Jesus said not so many weeks ago in Luke’s
Gospel. This is about Jesus.
So this is probably the easiest sermon I’m ever going to
give—no angle, no expertly defined law and gospel, no nothing. Just Jesus.
Because that’s nothing more or less than what we need.
Sure,
we may try to elevate other things. I
mean, isn’t it important to follow the law? Sure, but not if your strong
desire to follow the law distracts you from Jesus. Yes, but surely being Christian means being considerate and kind? First
look to Jesus—more Jesus, then more kindness. But what about evangelism? Don’t we need to save people? No. We
need Jesus. Others do too. But we can’t save a single person. God does that
through the work of the Holy Spirit—the Spirit who continues the work of God
made manifest in—you guessed it!—Jesus. Yes, Jesus is not something to be
hoarded, but neither is he a party to our agenda. We don’t control who is on
the outside or the inside; we don’t get a say in who is bad and good. Our
theology does not change who God is or what God does… it’s merely us struggling
to piece it together. We don’t have a single bit of influence over Jesus’
saving work. He comes to us and most of the time we don’t invite him in,
because most of the time Jesus comes to us while we are kicking and screaming
and throwing stupid fits. Surprisingly, that doesn’t seem to matter, because
again THIS. IS. NOT. ABOUT. US.
Jesus chooses us like he chooses Zacchaeus—not because we
are great but because we are human—and that’s the kind of thing Jesus loves:
Little human beings. It’s about Jesus, and Jesus loves people. But that’s not
exactly the heart of the Gospel, or at least it is confusing cause and effect.
Yes, Jesus loves you, but you won’t believe Jesus loves you unless you
understand that Jesus died for you. That’s the heart of the Gospel. That’s what
is coming in our church calendar. God’s love for us is expressed in the form of
a cross and proven in the empty tomb. So look to Jesus not for an abstract kind
of love that requires you to believe it, but instead look for a kind of
self-sacrificial love that surprises us because we feel so unworthy of it. We
don’t buy it—not most days of the week. We don’t buy that anyone or anything
would do that for little old you and me. That’s what makes Jesus so
exceptional: He’s the only thing that exceeds our expectations. The only thing
that matters; the personification of love. He comes to us as he came to
Zacchaeus and it’s all about him.
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