“For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save
the lost.” – Luke 19:10
A key idea in the spiritual teachings of Saint
Ignatius is that of magis or, in
English, more. The sense of the word
Ignatius wanted us to understand is a greater
way of loving, a deeper way of
living out the great mysteries of life, a more
wholehearted way of following Jesus. With this in mind, as I consider the
text at the header, I seek to more deeply
know and respond to the call of Christ who sought out and saved the lost.
In my time of prayer with this text I
first considered its context. Basically, a field preacher who had become widely
popular for his teachings with authority and healings had attracted large
crowd. In this particular crowd, on this particular day, a man short in stature
named Zacchaeus joined the crowd. The text tells us, “He was trying to see who
Jesus was…” (vs 3). It is not simply that he wanted to get a glimpse of Jesus,
as if he was waiting for a Hollywood star to appear on the red carpet. He
wanted to see who Jesus was.
Zacchaeus, a wealthy tax collector,
widely known to have unethical practices in the collection of taxes, despised
by the locals, wanted to see who Jesus was. A man who had become rich on the
backs of others came to see who Jesus was. He did not come to gawk at the show,
but was motivated to see who this field preacher from Galilee really was.
The text creates a scene that is nearly
comedic; a short man trying to see Jesus through the crowd but he can’t. He
climbs a sycamore tree. Imagine him walking along trying to see but not being
able. I doubt many would have offered him a better place from which he could
see given that he was so reviled by the people. At any rate, Zacchaeus finds a
sycamore tree from which he can see Jesus but he has yet to see who Jesus was. The
rich, prideful, unethical, sinful man must have been shocked to his core when
Jesus invites himself to stay with Zacchaeus! He wants to discover who Jesus was and, all of a sudden, Jesus comes
more closely. Perhaps shockingly close at first.
That the invitation shocks Zacchaeus is
self-evident, but the invitation not only shocks but scandalizes many of the
others gathered. “All who saw began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the
guest of one who is a sinner.” (vs 7) How about that for scandal, even disgust?
Last summer I hired a contractor who
ripped me off. Just imagine how I would initially feel if this contractor was
singled out in a crowd and invited to dinner among a crowd in which I was
present along with many of my friends and family who had also been ripped off
by this contractor. Just imagine, this contractor invited by Jesus to join him
for dinner, not to be scolded or shamed, but simply to be loved.
I might like to think of the many people
in the crowd who had striven their whole lives to follow God’s holy ways, but
here Jesus chooses a man who has made a living by ripping people off. At first
glance it is scandalous. But as we know through the text it brings Zacchaeus to
have some sort of change of heart; he wants to make things right again, in
spite of his past. Jesus delights in his host for, “…the Son of Man came to
seek out and to save the lost.”
Jesus loves the lost. He seeks them out
only to love them, not to coerce them into submission but to bring them alive
in the freedom of being fully human, fully alive in the beautiful knowledge and mystery of God’s self-giving love.
Jesus delights in showing mercy; loving
the sinner.
Go Deeper: Bring to mind someone in your community who has acted unethically. Imagine
Jesus inviting himself into this person’s home in a desire to enter into mutual
friendship. Imagine the conversation between Jesus and that person.
