Gate-crashed by Jesus

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I WONDER how much of our understanding of the Zacchaeus story is shaped by Christopher Idle’s Sunday School chorus:

Zacchaeus was a very little man and a very little man was he.  He climbed up into a sycamore tree for the Saviour he wanted to see.  And when Jesus passed that way he looked into the tree and said ‘ Now Zacchaeus, you come down, for I’m coming to your house for tea.’

Are you struck in the Bible passage (Luke 19:1-10) that Jesus invites Himself into Zacchaeus’ home? What a thing to be gate-crashed by Jesus! Zacchaeus was not a poor man, but did he have anything in the larder fit for guests? Had he been out shopping? Was it his day for using up left-overs?

Zacchaeus – the tax-gatherer; Zacchaeus – the collaborator with the Roman authorities; Zacchaeus – the sinner. But to him Jesus says: “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”

It is one of the many astonishing moments of hospitality in the Bible.

This radical assertion, as Desmond Tutu said to the General Assembly in his electric address in 2009, that all will be embraced by God. That in the family of God, all find a place at the table; that there are no outsiders any more. Jesus doesn’t wait for Zacchaeus to sort his life out; Jesus merely gate-crashes the little man’s home. Nobody on the outside, everybody on the inside. All means all. The people we like, the people we don’t like. Different colour of skin. Different lifestyle choices. Different genders. Different ages. Different faith traditions. Every single person, broken and bad, uncertain and suspect, believing and doubting, all welcomed in by our generous Lord.

Who is at the table in the life of our Church? Who is kept away, and why? Where is the radical welcome?

Who is at the table of society, and who is kept away, and why?

In the hospitality Jesus showed towards Zacchaeus, what are we being told about our Church and our community?

Who are in the sycamore trees around our cities, towns and villages just waiting to be called down and invited in? None so broken they can’t be mended. None so wicked they can’t be forgiven. None so sick they can’t be healed. None so lost they can’t be found. None so unable to keep their promises that they can’t be given another chance. None so unclean on the inside that they can’t be purified. None so narrow-minded that they can’t be enlightened. None so stuck in their ways that they can’t be moved. None so hard-hearted that they can’t be softened. None so invisible that they can’t be seen. Jesus will come and share table fellowship with everyone.

The story of Zacchaeus is a little story (no pun intended) but its shattering implications for who we welcome and how we welcome and why we welcome speaks to every theological persuasion of our rainbow church.

This story of hospitality reveals to us the heart and the practice of God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.

There’s Jesus, there’s Zacchaeus, putting it all into practice before our very eyes. 

The Very Rev Dr Derek Browning Is minister at Edinburgh: Morningside