Homily – 31st Sunday in Ord. Time (C)
Luke 19: 1-10
Many of you will, I am sure, be aware that Luke is an unusual gospel. Many of the narratives
it contains are unique to Luke, whether it is the shepherds at the Nativity, the stories of the
Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, or the Good Thief portrayed at the Crucifixion.
Today’s story too, the episode of Zacchaeus, belongs to this unique strand in Luke’s
narration of the life of Jesus. But that uniqueness of Luke can make things a little difficult for
the preacher. These stories have become very famous, very familiar – indeed, until the
revision of the Lectionary after the Council, they were almost the only passages of Luke’s
gospel which were ever read in the Liturgy – and their very familiarity makes it difficult for
us to hear them afresh, to hear the message of life which the evangelist is trying to
communicate to us.
Having said that, and thus made my excuses for a rubbish homily, I must admit that there
was one thing which struck me as new as I reflected on today’s gospel. What struck me was
the little phrase at the beginning of the narrative, when Luke tells us that Zacchaeus “sought
to see Jesus”. It is a tiny phrase, a phrase that can pass us by since it seems to be only part
of Luke’s “mise-en-scene” before the real point of the story, Zacchaeus’ repentance after his
encounter with the Lord. But what struck me is that it is a phrase that Luke uses twice –
once here, and once much earlier in the gospel, in chapter 9, when he is describing Herod’s
reaction to the news of Jesus’ mission in Galilee. There too, we see a rich and powerful man,
perplexed by the news he has heard of this seeming “Messiah”, perplexed by the rumours
that are circulating about who Jesus really is. Of Herod, Luke uses exactly the same phrase in
Greek as he uses of Zacchaeus – “he sought to see him” (9.9).
I had never noticed that little correspondence before, but it made me think. If you compare
Zacchaeus and Herod, you see some similarities. Both are powerful – one a puppet-king, one
the chief tax-collector – both agents of the Roman occupying power. Both are, to some
extent, “outcasts” – Herod, since he was an Idumaean and regarded by his contemporaries
as almost a pagan and not a Jew, Zacchaeus since his work made him an enemy of the
people. Both, probably, are hated by the ordinary people, but both are anxious to see Jesus.
Both, eventually, get their wish and have an encounter with Jesus face to face.
But perhaps more telling than the similarities are the differences we can see between these
two. Perhaps most obviously, Zacchaeus’ curiosity, his desire, drives him to action – even
the simple action of climbing a tree to get a better view. It is that simple action which
triggers his encounter with Jesus. It is a very simple thing, driven by his curiosity, but also
driven by his own self-knowledge – he knows that the crowd is large and that he is small. It
is an action which, in some ways, reflects his powerlessness, his littleness, despite his wealth
– perhaps even an action which demonstrates that his curiosity is, at the deepest level,
grounded in a deep dissatisfaction with himself. Herod, by contrast, does nothing. Confident
in his power, he stays where he is. Confident that he has already murdered John the Baptist,
he rests on his own inner logic, his own power, his own self-satisfaction that he will be able
to deal with this newcomer exactly as he did with the last. So Herod does nothing.
And the two face-to-face encounters with Jesus – that of Zacchaeus and that of Herod –
again could not be more different. Reading Zacchaeus’ heart, Jesus invites him down from
the tree, and then invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house. In short, he is asking Zacchaeus to
convert his desire into generosity – and I wonder if Jesus himself was surprised at just what
a generous response Zacchaeus gives, with his immediate promise of almsgiving and
restitution. It is a very different situation when Herod and Jesus finally meet. Sent to him by
Pilate after the mock-trial before the Sanhedrin, Luke makes it clear that Herod was
delighted finally to see him – but he also makes it clear that what Herod really wanted was
some show of power, some miracle, something to amaze and amuse. If Zacchaeus’ response
was to give whatever he could, then Herod’s desire is to get whatever he can. And reading
Herod’s heart, Jesus makes no invitation, speaks no word, gives nothing to the man who
wants everything.
So what of us? We too, as an academic community, are a community of the curious, of
those driven by desire for the truth – whether in our work, or in our relationship with God
and with each other. Where do we stand between these two – between Herod and
Zacchaeus? Where is our desire to see Jesus – a desire we share with both – leading us in
the pattern of our lives? Is it calling us to a deeper generosity, a deeper integrity of life, a
deeper repentance? Or does our desire, like Herod’s, remain unfulfilled, because we have
not yet understood that to receive we first have to give?
This morning, Jesus makes the same invitation to us that he made to Zacchaeus so many
years ago in Jericho. He invites us to make haste and to come down from the trees –
whether those trees are the sins in which we have entangled ourselves, or our sense of
powerlessness or lack of self-worth, or even our obsession with worldly status and worldly
possessions. He invites us to come down from the trees because, as the reading from
Wisdom reminds us, he delights in us and has given us his imperishable spirit. He invites us
because he longs to share our home, he longs to share food with us, he longs to bring us
salvation – in short, he longs to seek out and save those who were lost. Above all, he invites
us to come down from the trees so that our vision might become action, as Zacchaeus’ did,
so that we might not be mere onlookers, might not be the merely curious, but real players
in the drama of salvation. We cannot be those, in Paul’s words, who fulfil our desires for
goodness if we stay clinging to the branches. We cannot follow Jesus in the trees, no matter
how good the view may seem. He asks us to join him on the road, so that, following him, he
may fulfil our hearts true desire for life in all its fullness.
2.11.13