November 12, 2006

Outward Evidence of Inward Change
 

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

Luke 19:1-10
 

Opening Illustration

What evidence is there that someone has changed? What evidence is there in our lives that our encounter with Jesus has made us different in some real way?

That question is very much in play in today’s passage as we look at this hated man named Zaccheus. Now I used to look at this passage very differently from the way I do now, and my preparation this week has challenged the way I’ve taught this passage in the past.

Before we actually begin talking about this story, we have to keep in mind that Luke has been setting up his readers since the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and before. From the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist in Luke, Tax collectors are shown in a very positive light.

When John preaches and all kinds of people go out into the desert to hear him, tax collectors are some of the people who go. And not only do they get baptized, but they also ask John how their conduct should reflect the new life they’ve taken on. The implication is that they are willing to clean up their acts.

But who are these tax collectors? Are they somewhat similar to the IRS agents of today? And why would they need to clean up their acts? There is actually a lot of confusion about who these people are, and how Zaccheus fits into his society’s prejudices toward tax collectors.

Let me try and clear some of the misconceptions up. First, there were more than one kind of tax collector. The folks who collected land taxes and poll taxes for the Romans themselves were correctly called “tax collectors”. But the Greek word for those folks never appears in the New Testament.

The word used to describe “tax collectors” in the New Testament really describes people who collected other kinds of taxes such as tolls, tariffs, and customs fees. They are more rightly called “toll collectors”. This group did not work directly for the Romans.

The way it worked was like this: Zaccheus, who was a chief toll collector, probably had to submit a bid with the Romans as to how much money he thought he could collect in these local tariffs. He then paid that money up front, hired a staff of toll collectors who collected those tariffs, and after he paid them, he would keep what was left over.

The biggest problem with this system was that it practically invited toll collectors to overcharge the people for these fees. We have records of officials inscribing the correct tariff amounts in stone so that a toll collector couldn’t claim the actual fee was higher and pocket the difference.

All of this has traditionally made Zaccheus look like a really bad guy. But I think Luke is telling us something decidedly different about Zaccheus, and about toll collectors in general.

Now try this on for size. In chapter 5 Jesus calls a toll collector named Levi to be one of his disciples. In chapter 7 he affirms that he is rightly to be associated with disreputable people like tax collectors rather than hypocritical people who can’t accept his message.

In chapter 15 Jesus is again criticized for allowing himself to be associated with tax collectors. Jesus responds by saying his ministry was to the outcasts of society who are willing to repent of their sin rather than to people who already think they are righteous and don’t honestly think they need Jesus.

In chapter 18 Jesus tells a parable in which a tax collector and a Pharisees both go to the temple for prayer. The Tax collector admits his sinfulness and is justified before God. The Pharisees talks about how righteous he is but is not justified in God’s sight.

Now what I’ve shown you so far is that Luke has clearly described tax collectors (I’ll call them that just for sake of argument) as repentant people who have been unfairly criticized by both the religious leaders and by their society. You really can’t read this story of Zaccheus correctly unless you understand what Luke thinks about tax collectors.

Now let’s take a fresh look at the story of Zaccheus. Jesus is in Jericho, coming down the road, and a chief tax collector names Zaccheus wants to see him. Zaccheus’ name in Hebrew means “clean” or “innocent”. We have no idea if Zaccheus has seen Jesus before or how he heard about Jesus.

Zaccheus is a short man, which prevents him from seeing over the crowd. He decides to climb into a tree so that he can actually get a look at Jesus. This action only serves to show just how receptive Zaccheus was to Jesus’ message.

Jesus sees Zaccheus in the tree, obviously recognizing that Zaccheus’ action is an indication that Zaccheus is extremely eager to know what Jesus is about. Jesus tells him to come down and insists that he will visit Zaccheus’ home that day.

Zaccheus happily receives this honored guest. But the people in his community are upset by the idea that a Rabbi would go to the house of such a notorious person. A righteous person would steer clear of someone who has made a healthy living in such a corrupt profession.

Zaccheus responds by telling Jesus that the people have wrongly accused him of stealing. In fact, Zaccheus currently gives half of everything he earns to the poor. And if he realizes that he has unfairly collected taxes from someone, he pays them back plus four times the amount of overcharge.

Jesus declares that from now on, Zaccheus is to be understood as a saved person. He is to be regarded as a good person, and his Jewish neighbors are to treat him like a fellow Jew and not an outcast. Jesus came to gather the outcasts of society and restore them to their communities with justice.

Now I realize that what I’ve described to you is not what you’re use to hearing about Zaccheus. We are used to seeing him as this terrible cheat who is graced with Jesus’ presence and in response decides to clean up his act and donate to charity. But I don’t think the gospel of Luke really warrants such an interpretation.

Regardless of which way you understand Zaccheus, one thing is clear: his encounter with Jesus is the event in his life which enables him to show people the fruits of godliness in his life. From that day on, people could no longer deny the outward evidence of an inward change in Zaccheus’ life.

Luke’s readers would hear this story and have to ask themselves, “If this chief tax collector and all the other tax collectors in Luke show clear evidence that their lives have been changed through their encounter with Jesus, what about us? Do our lives demonstrate outward evidence of an inner change?”

Zaccheus gave half of what he earned to the poor. Now I doubt any of us could do that without losing our homes. And that certainly isn’t what God requires. But we can learn something important from Zaccheus’ example. Part of the way Christians can and should demonstrate that inner change in their lives is by giving.

Zaccheus’ practice of giving to charity must have required that he spend his money carefully. And he must have seen himself as a manager over resources that might or might not be used to God’s purposes, depending on how he spent them.

One of the problem we face in the church is that we don’t spend a lot of time helping one another get a handle on the connection between money and faith. The connection between money and faith has been clouded by the fact that preachers have been getting on the TV and asking for money for years.

Some of them do a more convincing job than others, but for the most part our society sees them as a bunch of charlatans. We find out that these donations they have received go to help them buy fancy houses and cars and vacations. And now we find out that in one high profile case a pastor used his salary form the church to pay for drugs and prostitution.


People smell a scam. They are leary of folks who want to talk about church and money in the same sentence. And rightfully so. At the same time these scandals don’t cancel out the very real connection Luke makes between giving and faith in Jesus.

The gospel of Luke is all about outward signs of inward change. Giving money is one part of that outward evidence. The sinful woman in chapter 7 shows evidence that her encounter with Jesus has changed her life by anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive ointment.

The daughter of Jairus comes back to life as the result of her encounter with Jesus. The man possessed with a legion of demons is made completely whole again as the result of his encounter with Jesus.

At the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry he tells the people that as the result of society’s encounter with Jesus, the poor will receive good news, the oppressed will be liberated, the captives will be released, the blind will see, and the people who thought God had forgotten them will see that God is looking favorably on them.

All of those examples demonstrate clear outward evidence of inward change that comes about as the result of an encounter with Jesus. The question I want to raise is, “As we think about pledge Sunday next week, what kind of outward evidence will we demonstrate of an inward change in our lives?”

When you think back over the past year, can you list clear evidences in your life which clearly show the people you know that Jesus has changed your life? What are those evidences? Do people actually notice? If you asked them, could they tell you?

I want to make two suggestions as we consider during the coming week what we will give in 2007. First, the object of the game for us is not money. We are not here to raise as much as we can for the sake of raising money.

Our objective is to use the money and time and talent of the people in this congregation to usher in the kingdom of God in Waukesha by drawing people into the same kinds of life changing encounters with Jesus that folks like Zaccheus had.

We want to use our resources to help the needy just as Zaccheus did. We want to use our resources to restore the outcasts of our community to a place of dignity and self-respect. We want to make it so that people don’t have to climb sycamore trees to see Jesus. We want him front and center, unmistakably clear to people, shining in all his glory.

That is why we have pledge Sunday every year. That is why we give. That is why we come here on Sunday when we could be sleeping in. That is why we participate in the ministries of this church when we could be off pursuing other interests. What we do here is simply more important than those other things.

Secondly, I want to encourage you to resist the temptation to try and change yourself. Don’t try to be Zaccheus. You’re not him. Simply let God try and change you. Don’t go out and say, “I’m going to do this and that.” Look for God’s leading in your life. Take the opportunities that God opens up for you. Be willing to yield obediently to God’s calling on your life, whatever that may entail.

We in the church have allowed ourselves to be categorized by others for long enough. It is far past time for us to allow God to define who we are and what is important to us. God wants to shape the identity of our congregation and make us generous stewards of everything God has given us.

The more God changes us and melts us and molds us and bends us and stretches us, the more we will be formed into the people God knows we can be.