“Faithful Stewardship, Part 2: How Zacchaeus Got Down from the Tree” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, November 2, 2025, Year C / Proper 26 (31) – Psalm 119:137-144 • Luke 18:9-14
THEME: Respond to God’s grace and Jesus’ call on our life by repenting, holding our money loosely, and using it to make the Kingdom visible.
This is a remarkable parable, isn’t it? In the Gospel of Luke, rich people usually don’t fare so well. We think of Jesus’ teaching “blessed are the poor” and “woe to you who are rich.” We remember the rich farmer who plans to build more barns instead of repenting in preparation for his imminent death. We think about Lazarus in heaven, and the rich man in hell. And we think of the rich ruler who asks Jesus about eternal life, and then walks away grieving because he cannot bring himself to part with his possessions.
So, as soon as we hear that Zacchaeus is rich, we immediately expect that this parable is not going to end well for him. But God’s grace is universal, and Jesus is a master of the unexpected. This parable is a prime example of both. We know from last week that Tax Collectors were despised in Israel. They were not welcome in anyone’s home, except maybe a fellow tax collector. How much more despised is Zacchaeus? He is the chief tax collector for the city of Jericho. He manages an entire squadron of Tax Collectors. This makes him wealthy - very wealthy. As a result, the people regard him as a thief and a traitor. But God sees him differently, and so does Jesus.
Zacchaeus has heard about Jesus. He is curious. He hears the commotion as Jesus enters the town. He rushes out to see him, but a crowd has gathered along the road. They are not about to make room for Zacchaeus. But he is determined. He spots a sycamore tree with a low branch. He jumps up and crawls out on the limb just in time to see Jesus approach. It turns out that Jesus knows Zacchaeus. In fact, he calls him by name, tells him to hurry down, and then – to everyone’s amazement – invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house. Zacchaeus is thrilled to host Jesus. The crowd, however, are appalled. They grumble that Jesus would be the guest of such a notorious sinner. Zacchaeus responds by highlighting his ethical behavior.
You know that we pastors like to throw around our knowledge of Biblical languages. This is one of those times when knowing the Greek behind the text is actually important. The verbs here are in the present tense. Zacchaeus is not just promising to do something in the future. He is talking about his usual practice. “It is my habit to give half my possessions to the poor. If I discover that I have defrauded someone, I do what the Jewish law says. I pay them back four times as much.” That is enough for Jesus to declare that Zacchaeus has been redeemed in God’s eyes. He says, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.” The real question here is how the crowd will respond. They, too, are the lost whom Jesus has come to save.
These people are not strangers to Zacchaeus. They are his neighbors – maybe even his family – and they have ostracized him. Yet, surely, they must know that Zacchaeus is that rare Tax Collector whose behavior is ethical. Maybe he was not always that way? Or maybe they are just reluctant to believe that any tax collector can be redeemed. Either way, the question remains: will they welcome him back? Will they restore the bonds that join them all together as children of Abraham, children of God? That is what Jesus wants them to do. He is calling them to restore Zacchaeus to their community. That is how they can embody the Kingdom of God in the here and now.
In the Kingdom, God’s grace is so great that it covers the worst sin and the worst sinner. Even the tax collector belongs in God’s Kingdom. That is what Zacchaeus hopes for. Whether his neighbors acknowledge it or not, he is using his wealth faithfully on behalf of those who, like him, are living on the margins of community life. He is working to draw them all back into connection, beginning with the poor, just as the law requires.
Friends, if our lives are going to point to the Kingdom, then we need to do the same. Today is Part 2 of this sermon series on faithful stewardship. As we know from last week, the foundation is humility and gratitude. Zacchaeus certainly has both of those. The lesson he teaches us today is to hold our material wealth loosely, and use it to further God’s Kingdom. That means responding to God’s grace by reaffirming the bonds that join us all together, not as a regiment of the righteous, but as a family of the forgiven. You know the old saying: the church is not a museum for saints. It is a hospital for sinners. That is precisely why we need one another. In the eyes of Jesus, we are each responsible for the wholeness and well-being of not only our community of faith, but the broader community outside. The way we work to heal our community and make the marginalized whole is by using our material wealth, our skill, and our time, to build up the many ministries through which we share God’s gracious love with all.
This week you received an email with a link to all the various ways that we do this, and some new ministries are being proposed. It is an impressive list. When we support these ministries with our gifts on Commitment Sunday two weeks from now, we are following in the footsteps of Zacchaeus. Like him, we are especially concerned with the well-being of those in need. And there is no shortage of those. When they wake up tomorrow, 2 million poor Pennsylvanians are still unsure whether they will receive SNAP benefits to feed their families. Other folks who work in government or related agencies are no longer receiving paychecks. They also do not know how they will feed their families. These are just the most recent examples of people all around us who are struggling to make ends meet. Regardless of how you view the politics behind this mess that we are in, Jesus calls us all to help make these folks whole.
They are our neighbors, and they are living on the margins of life. What Jesus wants from you and me is to help restore them to full life as fellow children of God. That is what he meant when he said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” I expect that we will see some of these folks at our upcoming Meal with a Mission two weeks from this Wednesday. I hope we will see you there, too. Together, after a simple supper, we will pack food to feed the hungry. Last year, we delivered over 1,100 pounds of food to New Hope’s food pantry. When we arrived to deliver it the following morning, the line of cars waiting for food was out on the street and down the block. It is a safe bet that the line will be even longer this year. When we do this, we are helping God make his Kingdom visible by redeeming the lives of those who have been cast out to the margins.
Few have ever understood the power of this kind of redemption better than Chuck Colson. 50 years ago, Chuck Colson was a special advisor to President Nixon. He developed a reputation for being ruthless. During the Watergate scandal, Colson was the first of 28 people convicted. He served 7 months in Federal prison before he was released in January 1975. When he got out, he was treated as a pariah. He claimed to have found Christ in prison, but many doubted that. They called it just another jailhouse conversion. But inside, Chuck Colson was a changed man. Prison humbled him. It forced him to rely on God’s grace. When he got out, he came to the realization that God had put him in prison for a reason: to help the inmates he left behind.
He began speaking publicly about his experience as a convicted felon and social outcast. His goal was to mobilize the church to minister to former inmates like himself. A year after his release, he founded Prison Fellowship, a Christian non-profit organization to do just that. When he died 36 years later, not only had he been redeemed, reconciled, and reintegrated into the broader society of God’s children, but he had helped thousands of other inmates do the same. He had given his entire life – money, skill and time – to help redeem outcasts by making them whole. Friends, that is what is going on when you and I approach this table, the table of Communion. It is here that our connections with Jesus Christ and one another are reaffirmed and strengthened through bread and wine.
It is here that we offer our life – time, talent and treasure – to make this world more like the Kingdom to come.
May it be so.
