Proper 26

Statistics say being tall gives you an advantage in our culture, particularly if you’re a male. For example, taller men earn more money on average than their shorter counterparts. If you’re six-feet-two or taller, you’re likely to start a new job at a salary 12 percent higher than someone under six feet. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not fair, but that is the way it is.

In a survey of 1,200 MBAs, six-footers typically earned $4,200 more than men who were five-foot-five. There is one caveat: if the six-footer was also overweight, the figures cancelled out. This is, of course, another area of discrimination. A man who was at least 20 percent overweight earned $4,000 less than a thin man in a similar job.

Here is an example of the advantages of height. Nineteen Presidents of the United States have been six feet tall or higher. This is extraordinary given that average heights were significantly lower in the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Again, this discrepancy doesn’t really make any sense. What possible advantage could being taller give you, unless you play in the NBA? A taller person has an advantage changing light bulbs, perhaps. But that’s why ladders were invented.

Even in the NBA, height doesn’t have to be the absolute measure of a person’s potential. Remember Spud Webb? Spud is only 5 feet, 5 inches tall. And yet he once won the NBA’s slam dunk contest against behemoths much, much taller. He managed to play 12 seasons in the NBA.

Spud said, “I used to pray that the Lord would make me taller when I was in junior high and high school, but every time I went to measure myself, or stand in front of a mirror, I’d always be the same size. And then one day I got the message, so I said to the Lord, ‘If you won’t make me bigger on the outside, will you make me bigger on the inside?’ And the Lord liked that prayer and that’s what helped me become successful.”

What a great attitude. The final measure of a man, or a woman, is not how big they are on the outside, but how big they are on the inside.

Which brings us to today’s Gospel about Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus is one of the most famous short men in all of history. Why? Because one day Jesus was passing through Jericho, Zacchaeus’ hometown. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector in Jericho and was quite wealthy. In spite of his wealth, he wanted to see Jesus as he passed through town. Being a short man, however, he could not because of the crowd. So he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a sycamore tree so he could get a better view of this man he had heard so much about.

When Jesus reached the sycamore tree, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.”

Zacchaeus came down at once and gladly welcomed Jesus into his home.

The people in the crowd saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”

They were right. Zacchaeus was a sinner of the worst kind. He was the chief tax collector for the Roman government in the prospering city of Jericho. It was a coveted position. He probably had a staff of collectors, and he was, very possibly, the most hated man in Jericho. He worked for the occupying forces, and he was regarded as a traitor to his own people.

He and his cohorts could stop a person in Jericho and assess duties on nearly everything in his or her possession. A cart, for instance, could be taxed for each wheel, for the animal that pulled it, and for the merchandise that it carried. Zacchaeus would send in a portion of his collections, and anything over that amount he was free to keep.

The system was ripe for abuse. Zacchaeus had accumulated his wealth in service to the invaders and at the expense of his countrymen, and he was regarded as human filth. Zacchaeus, whose name meant ‘the pure one’ and ‘the righteous,’ had turned his name into a sneer on the lips of his fellow Jews. He was a standing joke. The mention of his name evoked not a grin but disgust.

This was the kind of man Jesus went home with. It’s almost as if Jesus enjoyed stirring up the crowd. He was dining with the most hated man in town, a man who was vile and corrupt and regarded as an enemy agent.

In response to Jesus’ invitation, Zacchaeus said, “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.”

This encounter with Jesus had given this small man a big heart. Zacchaeus went far beyond what the Law demanded. The Old Testament law is clear. If you are repaying stolen property, you pay what you stole plus twenty percent. This was considered adequate restitution by the Law. Only in violent and destructive acts of robbery was a four-fold restitution necessary. (Ex. 22:1) And then for Zacchaeus to give one-half of everything he had to the poor was icing on the cake. This was a dramatic act of repentance.

Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

This is what grace looks like. What Jesus showed to a chief tax collector in Jericho is that God accepts and transforms the unacceptable, loves the un-loveable, forgives the un-forgivable. Zacchaeus was saved by grace and invited to faith. And we are as well.

Now some of you may feel that you’re good enough as you are. There are others of you who have so surrounded yourself with toys like houses and cars and boats and the latest technological devices that you’re sure you don’t need anything spiritual.

But there are others of you who are hurting. You know you need God’s grace. You have come to realize that toys cannot fill the deep hole in your life. Like Zacchaeus, you know you haven’t lived up to the best of which you are able. You need to know that God really does love you and accepts you just as you are, and that God’s grace is sufficient to fill your life to overflowing. The story of Zacchaeus is good news for you.

You see, it makes no difference who we are or what we’ve done. It makes no difference what we look like: tall, short, slender or heavyset. All that matters is that Christ gave himself on our behalf. Because of Jesus, there is hope for us all. Something dramatic happened in Zacchaeus’ life. This man who had lived only for himself and what he could acquire reached out in restitution to those he had cheated, and he shared half of everything he had left with the poor. If it could happen to a man as sleezy as Zacchaeus, it could happen to you and me.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss once put it like this: “When you first look at all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, it’s hard to believe there’s actually a picture in there. But there’s an important key to working a puzzle. You need to keep referring to the picture on the box. That’s what helps you know what the finished product is supposed to look like.

“Do you ever look at the jumbled pieces of your life, wondering how they could ever fit together? God has given us a picture of what we’ll look like when He’s finished with us. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is ‘the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.’

Jesus is our picture of holiness. As we give all the pieces of our lives to God, He’ll help us grow into the image of His Son. Are you growing in holiness? There’s one way to know: Study what God’s Word says about Jesus, and then ask whether you’re becoming more like Him.

A small man named Zacchaeus was given a big heart. What is God seeking to give you?