Sermon for the Fourth Sunday before Advent. (All Saints Sunday)

Titus 3: 3 - 7

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Luke 19.

19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’

9 Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’

There are two sorts of people in this world, Saints and Sinners.

In our gospel story Zacchaeus has a go at being both, not both at the same time, but one after the other.

Let me explain…

Zacchaeus was a tax collector, now whatever you may think about tax collectors that alone is not quite enough for us to count him as a sinner.

In the time of Jesus the general population had a very low opinion of tax collectors – and with good reason, tax collectors had gone over to the other side, tax collectors were collaborating with the occupying Roman forces – and making a great deal of money out of their collaboration with the enemy. The system was that the Romans recruited locals to collect the tax that funded the Empire, with the incentive that they could keep any extra that they made for themselves. The general Populus had to pay for its own oppression and then, to add insult to injury, the tax collectors had a clear incentive to raise as much tax as possible over and above what the Roman authorities required. The insult was not just financial, it was spiritual too, the Jews believed they were a holy nation and that God was their Lord, but Roman taxation said Caesar was Lord, indeed Caesar claimed the title Lord – a clear blasphemy to the Jews.

Tax collectors were thus seen as morally and spiritually bankrupt, they had sold out their nation and religion, and thus were shunned by their fellow countrymen. Note, Zacchaeus was not just any tax collector, Luke tells us that he was actually ‘a chief tax collector’.

Excluded from polite society and with wallets full of cash the tax collectors seem to have thrown any attempt at respectability to the wind, and indulged in every vice money could buy. They are repeatedly mentioned in the same category as prostitutes and crooks, when you think of Zacchaeus do not imagine him as a modern day tax collector in pinstriped suit and bowler hat, think of him dressed like an oriental potentate in colourful silks and bejewelled with ancient near Eastern bling, not sitting at a desk surrounded by ledgers but reclining on cushions surrounded by fleshy floozies.

Now, if you can, imagine such a man lodged in the branches of a sycamore tree, looking down at the crowd thronging around about Jesus. There is in Luke’s telling of this story a sense of the comic, the corrupt authority figure become ridiculous.

At this point in the story everything changes. Jesus looks up and says, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’

Firstly, notice Jesus speaks with authority to Zacchaeus, in the chaotic, noisy street scene Jesus is not directed by circumstances, he directs the circumstances. People may have laughed at Zacchaeus behind his back, but they would not have dared challenge him, little man that he was he was backed up by the might of Rome, and a wealthy but despised man like Zacchaeus would have employed his own armed guard, yet Jesus tells Zacchaeus to get down out of the tree because he is going to stay at his house. There is no trace of a polite request in what Jesus says; it is a direct command, even if it was a command spoken with a smile.

Secondly, notice the reaction of those around him, they ‘began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’’ Holy men were not expected to dine with sinners; if they did it brought into question their holiness. Society acted to exclude sinners, Jesus acted to include sinners. Religious people thought holiness consisted of staying clean; Jesus reached out and touched the unclean. Jesus did not come to bring condemnation, much to the disappointment of the religious establishment, he came to bring forgiveness – and he still does today.

Thirdly, notice Zacchaeus’ response to meeting Jesus, he calls him ‘Lord’ and promises to amend his ways. Reading this story people often remark upon Zacchaeus’ reformation, but pass over his recognition of Jesus as Lord – yet this is the crux.

Jesus is Lord; this is a challenge to Zacchaeus’ Jewish heritage, only God is Lord, how can he call this man ‘Lord’? And this is a challenge to the political realities under which Zacchaeus prospered, he is not naming Caesar as Lord, despite all those Roman legions, he is naming Jesus as Lord.

‘Jesus is Lord’ is the earliest Christian statement of belief, it means that Jesus is our divine boss, the one we shall ultimately answer to, and the one we follow.

As Zacchaeus names Jesus as Lord he knows he can no longer exploit and defraud the poor, he knows he must make amends for what he has done, he knows that the spiritual and political realities of his life have changed. He has looked into the face of a man, and seen the face of God.

It is at this point that Zacchaeus becomes a saint.

And it is at this point that you have to ditch over a millennia’s worth of misinformation concerning Sainthood dreamt up by the medieval mind, and pay attention to what the bible is saying. The New Testament consistently refers to all the followers of Jesus as ‘saints’. A saint is someone who acknowledges Jesus as Lord, repents and accepts the forgiveness that God longs to give.

This is how Paul puts it in his letter to Titus, ‘when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.’

The nigh impossible standards of saintliness prescribed by the medieval mind make sainthood only for the unrealistically idealised few, but being a saint is not conditional on what you do it is about who you are, it is a matter of identity. Saints make mistakes, saints are human, and saints rely on the continued forgiveness of Christ.

Consider someone who trains to become a plumber, once they have qualified they are a plumber and can start work, but while they are sitting at home on their sofa they are still a plumber, whilst soaking in the bath they are still a plumber, even if they do a bit of carpentry they are still a plumber. In the same way you do not stop being English if you go on holiday abroad, or eat a chicken korma, or wear a Turkish Fez, being English, or being a plumber are about who you are not what you are doing at any given time. In the same way a saint may sin, but they are still someone who understands Jesus as Lord and is trying to live by that understanding. Calling yourself a saint is not an act of pride it is an act of humility, because a saint knows that they live by the forgiveness of God.

I am not a sinner, by the grace of God I am a saint. Sometimes I sin, but that does not make me a sinner. If my failures meant I was a sinner then Christ’s sacrifice would have been in vain, and there would be no hope. Holiness is the gift of God received by those who turn to him, you cannot boast in a gift, especially when you know that you have neither deserved it, nor could have ever hoped to have earned it for yourself.

Zacchaeus no doubt found that following the way of Jesus brought profound challenges to his life, he would have struggled and made mistakes, he may have been drawn by the pleasures of wealth and the allure of status, but through the Holy Spirit Jesus would have remained with him on the way, extending a hand of forgiveness to help him along. I trust one day we will meet with Zacchaeus in heaven, and hear the rest of his story from his own lips, you will recognise him in the great heavenly congregation singing hymns of praise in the vast throne room of God, he will be the one sitting up in a sycamore tree so that he can see Jesus, and if you ask I’m sure he will invite you back to his place to sit and eat with him, and there too will be Jesus breaking bread and giving thanks.

Amen.