In Luke 18 there is that story where Jesus is confronted by a rich man who asks what he can do to inherit eternal life. Jesus says, “Easy. Sell all you have and give it to the poor and find your riches in heaven.” The rich man is stunned by that answer, as are the disciples. And Jesus says, “You know, it’s easier to thread a camel through the eye of a needle than for rich folk to know God’s Kingdom.” So the disciples say, “how can anybody be saved?” “Well,” Jesus says, “it’s not really something you can do on your own, but God can do it.”

  Well a few verses later we have a story about a rich guy who actually does the trick. He discovers for himself the Kingdom of God. The camel actually made it through the eye of the needle.

  The story of Zacchaeus is familiar to most of us. One of the commentators I read this week, says it is not only a well known story, but a key story in the Gospel of Luke and, indeed, in our understanding of the ministry of Jesus. In it we see that whole theme of the upside down kingdom that courses through the gospels.

  Zacchaeus is despised by the people. He is a collaborator with the occupying forces. He has made himself rich by taking as much money as he can from as many poor people as he can. He’s this short measly guy that they would love to beat to a pulp, but he always has a Roman guard with him. And that probably produces a bit of arrogance in him. You can imagine people elbowing and pushing him as much as they can get away with as he tries to cut through the crowd, and then finally makes that fateful decision to climb the sycamore tree. But, Jesus let’s the crowd know that God loves Zacchaeus and that salvation has come to his house. He even has lunch with him and treats him like a friend.

 I do think this is a pivotal story in the Gospels. It raises lots of issues like who is the insider and who is the outsider. It challenges our perceptions of God and money and social and political relationships. Jesus doesn’t openly condemn and express his contempt for the likes of Zacchaeus. Rather, he saves him.

  This is not new territory for us around here. So that’s why I would like to focus on something else that this story brings to mind. Zacchaeus, this tax collector, this collaborator, this man who has exploited poor people most of his life is now one of the gang. How do you think the disciples felt about that? He was now a member of the church, so to speak.

What do you think happened the first time Ananias brought Paul, or they were still calling him Saul then, to church? According to the story in Acts 9 the disciples “were caught of guard by this and, not at all sure they could trust him, they kept saying, ‘Isn’t this the man who wreaked havoc in Jerusalem among the believers? And didn’t he come here to Damascus to do the same thing–arrest us and drag us off to jail in Jerusalem for sentencing by the high priests?’”

  This movement of Jesus followers consisted of people who regarded each other with suspicion, fear, loathing, and disgust. There were tax collectors with Jesus, people making sure the Roman occupation had the money it needed to keep Israel under Rome’s control. But there were also the freedom fighters, people who would rather slit the throats of the likes of Zacchaeus and that other tax collector Matthew, than sit in church with them.
 
  This group of people who followed Jesus and those who became the nucleus of the very first days of the church had to cross political, theological, social, and class boundaries. Suddenly rich were together with poor, slaves with slave owners, Jews with Gentiles, men with women, the pious with the irreverent. All those folk had lived their lives separated from each other, physically, socially, and psychologically. They looked at each other through the eyes of prejudice and stereotypes.

  I think it is also fair to say that some of them probably weren’t even nice, no matter how redeemed they were. I wouldn’t be surprised that Zacchaeus had a bit of an attitude even after he started giving his money away. And, of course, the Apostle Paul has his own lack of social graces. Evidently, some of the women in the first church were regarded as a bit pushy, and even the disciples didn’t get along all that well with each other.

  We read about arguments in the early church over doctrine, the place of women and Gentiles, and there were personality conflicts. But, they managed to build the church with each other. How did that happen?

  They had a vision that enabled them to look past what they usually saw. Salvation had come to each of their homes, and that took on more importance than the other things that had seemed so important before. Jesus was changing their lives were changing. They knew they could be better people than they were. Sometimes it was easier to give their money away, stop oppressing others than crossing the divides betwen them.

  But, they were able to cross all those gulfs between them, and acknowledge each other as sister and brother in Jesus Christ. The call to follow Jesus was a call to a changed life. They got past whether they liked each other or not, and loved each other.

  There was something far more important going on than personality clashes, theological differences, and social custom that divided folk by income, class, race, religion, nationality, and gender. Peoples’ feelings might get hurt. People might feel misunderstood, ignored, or slighted. They might not know how to deal with the eccentricities and irritating behavior they found in each other. There were old hurts and new wounds. But this was the community of Jesus Christ, built on forgiveness, grace and love, and the possibility of new starts. And they had a calling to change their lives and the world with each other.

  It wasn’t always easy. Paul writes about the divisions in the Corinthian church and James isn’t too pleased with some of the things he had seen happening in the churches he had been in. But this was all new to everybody. Before Jesus came along no one had suggested that they cross the boundaries between themselves. Instead, they had been taught to stay behind them, had been told, in fact, that it was the religious thing to do. It wasn’t an easy thing to bring this vision of a new humanity to church with them.

  At the end of Ephesians 4, the Apostle Paul offers a bit on context to help the folk in Ephesus, and us, move with each other to the future. “Don’t grieve God. Don’t break God’s heart. God’s Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, in the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for God. Don’t take such a gift for granted. Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, and profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”

  There was a whole pile of forgiveness that needed to be sent Zacchaeus’ way. And given the disdain and contempt with which others looked at him, he probably had to offer some forgiveness right back at them.

  I don’t think Zacchaeus was the only one saved that day. Jesus showed that crowd the new possibility for their lives and all of humanity he was offering. Those who had ears to hear and eyes to see would get a glimpse at the ways of God that day, they would see God’s kingdom coming.    

In some ways it seems so impossible. It’s not surprising the disciples wondered how anyone could be saved after that encounter Jesus had with the rich man. But Jesus was always sure of the power of God to change our lives.

  What shows that more than the Lord’s Table? Since the very first time Jesus had communion with those men and women he loved in that room the night before he died, his followers have been crossing all kinds of lines and boundaries and borders to get to this table with each other.

  They have been gentle, abrasive, rich, poor, black, white, loud, introverted, gay, straight, mentally ill, men, women, young, old, physically disabled, caring, self-focused, full of faith, full of doubt, hungry, satisfied, eager, lazy, angry, forgiving, generous, stingy, self-confident, self-loathing, conservative, liberal, hurt, healed, rejected, accepted, hated, and loved. We’ve all come to the same table–limping, walking, running--with that vast company of saints that surrounds us, Zacchaeus and all the rest, including those in this room with us, because Jesus wants to eat with us.

Salvation has come to our house.