Zacchaeus

CALL TO WORSHIP

Every day we meet with God, but Sunday is a special day, and this is a special place. So, we gather for our special meeting with God in Jesus, in excited expectation that our lives will be enriched, and that we will journey into the week ahead as changed and ever-changing people.

Hymn 175: Here I am to Worship (Light of the World)

PRAYERS

A prayer of adoration

All-forgiving, all-loving God, we worship you today. We acknowledge your greatness, confessing we cannot understand your ways – but we know that they are wonderful. We bring you all our praise, joining our voices with your children around the world, lifting our hearts and faces to you. You, God of our lives, our hearts, our world, we bless your name today. Amen.

A prayer of confession and assurance

Gracious Lord, who sees all, you know all that we hide in our hearts. We lay before you all the things that dishonour you and us, acknowledging the damage they cause. We turn from hate and greed and pride. We ask that you would restore us and renew us, transforming our lives by the words and actions of your Son, Jesus, and cleansing us with your Holy Spirit, through whom you make your home in us. Amen.

The God who called us, calls us still: cleansing our hearts and renewing our minds. We delight in knowing that we are forgiven, that we can turn away from wrongdoing, that we can start afresh today. In God’s great love, we choose to live differently. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven

Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven

Give this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory

Forever and ever AMEN

Hymn 248: I heard the voice of Jesus say

READING

Ezekiel 34: 11-16

11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

Luke 19: 1-10

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 and to save the lost.”

Hymn 254: Seek ye first the Kingdom of God

SERMON

Our reading from Ezekiel this morning it speaks about Lord is my shepherd who says in the last verse. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

There, is a great promise from God in his concern for the weak and needy, which was eventually fully fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus, and while the message of Ezekiel this reading is primarily for Israel, there is a lesson for our spiritual life and salvation today.

One thing I was flummoxed by was the statement, “but the sleek and the strong I will destroy” what’s that all about wouldn’t you think the sleek and strong would be better.

There was a Shepard who wrote on this subject, and he explained that sheep that are the best looking and the strongest will naturally dominate the others, they will influence the weaker ones. This makes sense because they are, in essence, the leaders among the sheep.

This would be great if these leaders are leading the other sheep in the way the shepherd wants the sheep to go.

But the issue is sometimes these sleek or strong sheep would be independent and go in a direction different from the way of the shepherd. The danger is their example would lead the other sheep into trouble and cause the flock to become scattered.

Because these were the “best” sheep in the flock, the shepherd cherished them and would try, to break them of their bad habits. If these sheep won’t cooperate, they would need to be destroyed because by their actions they would destroy the rest of the flock. So, when God says He will destroy the sleek and the strong, he is saying they need to be taught how to follow the Shepard, so the weaker sheep are secure.

God does the same with us. He “destroys” us in the sense that He purifies our souls of the various vices which cause us problems. Of course, the worst of these is pride, the very thing that makes us think we are sleek, or strong, or both. If we cooperate and go through the purification, these vices will be destroyed and we will be true sheep of our Good Shepherd, following Him in truth and follow where He leads us. However, if these vices are not rooted out, our pride will often make us pull away from God to do what we want. In this way, we become a wandering sheep and, possibly, lead others astray with us.

This is echoed is the last verse of today’s reading, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” What a great promise.

If you recall last week, you may well have heard the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

We seem to move on quite a way this morning as we move into chapter 19, and if we consider the rest of chapter 18, we find that as Jesus is moving on towards Jerusalem, he meets a man rather like the Pharisee from last week’s reading who asks “Good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life” he asking the question he may well have asked several Rabbis in the past, probably proud of his position and wanting reassurance wanting a virtual pat on the head, but he is challenged by Jesus, and goes away.

And now we meet a tax collector not just a tax collector but a chief tax collector, he is in the great city of Jericho a main route to Jerusalem a major trade route, so, lots of import and export taxes to collect. So, this man would have been extremely wealthy, but probably extremely lonely hated by his fellow Jews.

His desire to see Jesus changed his life and attitude.

We are all on Jericho roads though it may be different for each of us, in our churches, and nation. The Jericho road could mean dealing with divisions in the church, our current political chaos, a time of broken relationships, the growth of food banks and the experience of poverty we haven’t seen for many years and for some loneliness which is all around us.

In Israel, the sycamore tree symbolises regeneration, someone who is spiritually reborn. Zacchaeus’ had a regeneration of heart it caused him to make restitution and change his life in Jericho.

I suppose Zacchaeus’ story warns us to stop separating “what we do” from “who we are.” As a Jews he was considered a traitor, making a living and wealth in dubious way.

At a point in his life, Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus more than he wanted to maintain his comfortable life, a sycamore tree is a symbol of a place in our own lives where we to are able to have a clear vision of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. As we fail to live faithfully in our Christian faith.

The Zacchaeus in each of us can’t see Jesus because we are short in spiritual stature and the crowd, especially the crowd around us in our secular lives, not only obstruct our belief in God, but it is also redefining it. But regardless of the crowds around us, when we see Jesus on the Jericho Road of our own lives, we are invited to exercise our faith, to choose Him and change.

The truth is that the “crowds” in our lives, churches and our nation rarely lead, us to God. What the “crowds” in our lives say about Jesus is not true, so, like Zacchaeus, we need to climb the sycamore tree of repentance where we can finally capture a glimpse of Jesus.

The Sycamore tree did not only create a clear line of vision for Zacchaeus, ‘it helped him to rise above the crowd and see Jesus clearly. It placed him in the right position for the invitation that would follow. Jesus told him to come down for he was coming to his house! Imagine the thrill. For us, the Sycamore tree is a symbol of that place in our own lives which enables us to have a clear vision of Jesus.’

Zacchaeus looked foolish to the crowd that day just as the message of the cross is foolishness to those who don’t believe. just as the person who does not accept the things of God, for they are just silly to him,

The crowd were so quick to judge Zacchaeus, not knowing that, Zacchaeus had changed, the old things have passed away.

The opinion of the crowd didn’t matter to Zacchaeus anymore. In fact, looking foolish to the crowd is “part of the program.” It is sometime something we will face.

Jesus’ is on our own road to Jericho he obeys God’s heart points to his mission to search for a lost child.

For Zacchaeus, despite his economic status, he lacked spiritual stature and perhaps that is why we are given the strange description of him as being a short man.

The Zacchaeus in each of us reminds us that we all have a need beyond the earthly riches.

Nothing can compensate for our Jericho road of church decline, and personal stunted growth except in repentance.

Jesus became more important to Zacchaeus than his pride hence, his mocking by the crowd and it didn’t stop Jesus ‘to pause His trip to Jerusalem in order to pierce Zacchaeus’ heart with an act of His amazing grace so that Zacchaeus became a blessing to others.’

God is inviting us to climb that Sycamore Tree our lives, above the crowd of unbelief around us so as to find the place that will make it possible for us to see and respond to Jesus’ invitation.

Jesus’ closing words to Zacchaeus in this story are his words for us today: “Today salvation has come to this house” in Jesus, name. Amen.

Hymn 633: My soul finds rest in God alone

OFFERING DURING HYMN

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

Jesus, thank you that you want to meet with us; that you want us to know you. Thank you for your willingness to step into the messiness of our lives, to console us, change us, and celebrate with us, whatever the season or circumstance. Thank you for challenging us to live differently, for modelling integrity and love, and for your indwelling Spirit who makes transformation possible. Thank you, Lord, you are worthy of all our praise; may our lives proclaim your glory and tell your story, now and for ever. Amen.

God of grace, we pray for those who are overlooked, those who weep behind closed doors, those without a champion for their cause. Have mercy, Lord, have mercy.

We pray for those whose minds hold hidden terrors, who cannot voice the pain they feel within, and those who struggle with everyday tasks. Have mercy, Lord, have mercy.

We pray for those who feel the blows of cruelty, for those for whom injustice is the norm, and those whose lives are marred by persecution. Have mercy, Lord, have mercy.

God of grace, surround all for whom we pray with love and care today, that peace and hope may spring from unexpected places. Have mercy, Lord, have mercy. Amen.

Hymn 545: Be, thou my Vision

BLESSING

Thank you, Jesus, for being with us today and every day. In our noisy, busy lives, we pray that we may hear you calling our names and make the effort to see your face in the crowd. Amen.