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One of the Saints

2 Thessalonians 1: 1-4, 11-12; Luke 19: 1-10

          This past Thursday, November 1, was All Saints’ Day.  The purpose of the day is to remember the faithful who have died and joined the Church Triumphant, the “great cloud of witnesses”, as the writer of Hebrews refers to them.  On Thursday, I remembered, not only those for whom this memorial candle has been lighted, but also the saintly people of my childhood who did much to shape my Christian identity.  I remembered the example of Christian kindness offered by Mr. Bobby, a widower whose house was separated from the manse by a field and connected by a well-worn bicycle path.  He always greeted me with a smile.  I remembered Sunday school teachers, too.  They not only taught me bible stories but also lived biblical stories of honesty, courage and devotion.  Almost always, they gave me candy, a benevolent gesture that allowed me, with the Psalmist, to taste and see that the Lord is good. 

          I cannot recall her name, although I’m sure Mom and Dad could, I remember that teacher from my earliest years who taught me songs about the bible.  “Who built the ark?  Noah, Noah.”   “Ezekiel saw the wheel, way up in the middle of the air.”  And this one, which was a perennial favorite: “Zacchaeus was a wee little man a wee little man was he.” 

          Those Sunday school teachers, Mr. Bobby and all the rest were saints, not because they were holier than any one else.  They were saints because they embraced Christ who first embraced them with grace.  I say “they lived saintly lives”, not because they were the most pious people I knew, but because they were among the seekers who sought to see Christ and to follow; they did so, not perfectly but faithfully.   

          Zacchaeus was far from perfect. Not only was he a tax collector, he was a chief, rich tax collector.   The strong and accurate implication, of course, was that his riches had been acquired illegally and unethically.  As an employee of the Roman government, Zacchaeus was viewed by the people of Jericho as a traitor. He was among that city’s most despised citizens. 

          Writer Frederick Buechner describes Zacchaeus this way: “He was a “sawed-off shyster,” a “crook-a Jewish legman for the Roman IRS who, following the practice of the day, raked in as much more of the going tax rate as he could get and pocketed the difference.  When people saw Zacchaeus oiling down the street, they crossed to the other side.”[1] 

I can almost picture Zacchaeus on the day described by the writer trying to wedge his way to the front row of people lining the street.   Elbows pierce his side. People slide into the openings to deny him passage.  No one accommodates Zacchaeus.  No one gives up his spot to this disreputable man.      

He is alone in a crowd of people.  As people cast their judging eyes his way, it is clear he is an outcast. 

Perhaps it was the condemning stares of the people or their looks of anger that made Zacchaeus more determined than ever to see Jesus.  He had heard that Jesus is not a person who would unfairly pass judgment.  He had heard that Jesus welcomes outcasts and sinners.  “I need and I want to see Jesus”, Zacchaeus perhaps repeated as he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed the sycamore tree. 

 He sees Jesus, but not before Jesus sees him. 

“Hurry, come down for I must stay at your house today.” 

Let’s not miss the import of Jesus’ statement.  Jesus didn’t merely say: “I would like to go to your house.”  Rather, Jesus conveys a necessity to do so.  Jesus sees this encounter as part of his divine mission: to save someone who is lost, to grant mercy to one who desperately needs it.”[2] 

Zacchaeus responds with great joy.  The NRSV uses the word happy; but that word does not adequately describe Zacchaeus’ response.  Joy is a better translation.     

Out of indescribable joy, Zacchaeus affirms a new manner of life; he declares that he will give one half of his money to the poor and with the other half of his wealth he will make a four-fold restitution to the people he has defrauded.   Zacchaeus is a transformed man.  He goes from a high level of greediness to a deep concern for the poor.  He bears fruits of repentance as he demonstrates love for the forgotten people of the world. 

  This scoundrel becomes a saint.  This lost man seeking to see Jesus joyfully embraces Jesus who first sees him; and he begins to live a transformed life of love, benevolence and generosity. 

Who are the saints among us? 

Saints are those people, as one preacher has put it, “who despite a person’s physical appearance or social station or sometimes even their reputation, ….seek with justice to distribute food when it is requested, to provide crisis intervention when it is needed, who don’t pass judgment on the way the recipient is dressed or smells, but who graciously seek to be the presence of Christ, who find a way to welcome the Zacchaeuses of the world, the ones nobody else wants to welcome or to include.”[3] 

Who are the saints among us? 

Saints are those people who not only embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior, but who live like the joyful, generous, thankful, repentant saved sinners that we are.

Who are the saints among us?

They seldom draw attention to themselves.  But they include Sunday school teachers, food pantry volunteers, those who refuse to laugh at inappropriate, demeaning jokes; they are the extraordinarily generous people, people who welcome outcasts and love the unlovable; their acts are performed in grateful response to the mercy and the salvation God has given through Christ. 

I love the way the hymn “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God” speaks of saints:

 

1.  I sing a song of the saints of God,

    Patient and brave and true,

    Who toiled and fought and lived and died

    For the Lord they loved and knew.

    And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,

    And one was shepherdess on the green:

    They were all of them saints of God, and I mean,

    God helping, to be one too.

 

2.  They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,

    And God's love made them strong;

    And they followed the right, for Jesus' sake,

    The whole of their good lives long.

    And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,

    And one was slain by a fierce wild beast:

    And there's not any reason, no, not the least,

    Why I shouldn't be one too.

 

3.  They lived not only in ages past,

    There are hundreds of thousands still;

    The world is bright with the joyous saints

    Who love to do Jesus' will.

    You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,

    In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea;

    For the saints of God are just folk like me,

    And I mean to be one too.[4]

 

Jesus looked up into the tree with mercy, saw the sinner, Zacchaeus, and saved him.  That man was transformed from a scoundrel to a saint.

We have come here to see Jesus, to see Jesus in the hymns, in the word read and preached, in the body of Christ.  Even before we see Jeseus, he sees us with his eyes of love and mercy, and says to us as he said to Zacchaeus: “Today, salvation has come to this house.”  Amen.