Texts from the NRSVUE Bible. According with Un giorno una parola lectionary.
Giovanni Pistone PL
BF 65 — Give me oil in my lamp
Welcome. This is the service for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost of the English Speaking Congregation of the Waldensian Church of Turin. The service is led by preachers Johnson Yeboah and Giovanni Pistone. The music is provided by brother Kenny Chukson. Sunday school is taught by sister Zoe Ann Hall. The church is represented by elder Marco Schellembaum. The biblical text for the sermon is Luke 19:1-10, the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus. Let us praise our Lord, Father, Son, and Spirit.
UMH 577 — God of Grace and God of Glory
Let us pray. Our Lord, we come together to your house like pilgrims on the road, hoping to be met here by Jesus our Savior. We know that your grace comes together with your judgment: you see us as we truly are, and still you call us by name. We do not put our ultimate trust in powers, in fictions in which there is no help, but in you, our help and our hope, who lifts up those who are bowed down. Before you now we present our will to repair what was broken, trusting not in what we have already done but in the wisdom and the mercy that comes to meet us. Teach us to pray as your Son Jesus taught us, saying:
UMH 858
UMH 354
Let us read from Luke’s witness the beginning of the journey by which Christ comes to us.
51When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55But he turned and rebuked them. 56Then they went on to another village.
UMH 378
1He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 9Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
Evangelist Luke is famous for his craft in presenting Jesus’s words and actions. Think about the parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan. Commentators have even invented a special way to deal with such texts; they call it narrative exegesis, a sort of literary criticism. Zacchaeus’s story impresses the listener as realistic in its plot development and engaging in the interaction of its characters. It is easy to take the text with few changes and use it as a script for a play to be acted out in Sunday school. There are two scenic actions.
Scene 1 (vv. 2–5) takes place on the main street of the town of Jericho: Jesus and his followers are said to be entering the town of Jericho. Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus, but the crowd blocks his view because he is short — a nice point for the children’s play. Zacchaeus overcomes the obstacle with a clever trick. Big surprise: the trick is exposed, Jesus raises his eyes, calls him by name, and tells him to come down to meet him. Even more: he tells Zacchaeus he is going to visit his house. Another good point for the children’s play, because Jesus’s coming to his house is a sign of great intimacy. The second scene (vv. 6-10) is in Zaccheus mansion: Zacchaeus is happy, the meeting takes place, and those who were not chosen grumble, exposing Zacchaeus as a bad person. Again, something very easy to understand. But again, Zacchaeus has a countermove: he shows good works by giving alms and by being willing to correct his professional wrongdoing. Jesus himself provides the gospel of the events: Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham; he is saved by the grace of Jesus’s presence in his house. As a strategy, Jesus meets sinners where they are.
As a grown man, I identify with the story of Zacchaeus in a similar way, but probably from a wider point of view. Like Zacchaeus I feel and I am moved by the inner desire to “see who Jesus is”. I come to the Sunday service for that, as Zacchaeus goes up the sycamore. This urge is said by Luke in a very precise way: “see” “who” “Jesus” “is”. I hope to see, not just to know. “See who,” because it is not a question of confession of faith, it is about knowing somebody. That is, it is not about me, my needs and my feelings; it is about somebody else, precisely Jesus. Because Jesus is, as the voice from the burning bush said to Moses, “I am who I am.”
I am not moved by an immediate need, like the blind man of the previous episode, who shouts “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” I am quite comfortable with what I am. I am not as rich as Zacchaeus; I could not invite Jesus and his followers home, my apartment is not big enough and I do not have servants to prepare and serve the meal for Jesus’s crowd. But I have a family, I had the blessing of working doing something I actually enjoy to do, my health is passably good for my age. My experience helping organize Bible studies for adult newcomers to this church tells me that indeed many come because of a spiritual or physical distress they hope to heal. But also, according to a comment by John Calvin, “… before revealing himself to men, the Lord frequently communicates to them a secret desire, by which they are led to Him, while he is still concealed and unknown …”
But the most amazing thing is that sometimes, when I wait to see, He comes out and calls me, follows me home, asks me to prepare a place for Him in my family. He helps me to understand how to improve my life, how to become a better version of myself by making the right decisions. I can actually understand the resentment of those for whom he did not come, that time. Because there are times when He does not show himself to me and I am left waiting. In a recent meeting of preachers we were discussing whether it is better to follow a lectionary or it is better to have each preacher choose freely the text for the sermon. One of the preachers said: “We must take the text as it is given and look into it in hope and prayer”. Another said: “What if the lectionary’s text does not speak to me?” In the end, no decision was taken.
Every sermon has three points. That was point 2 of my sermon. Now comes the third and last point.
Before going further, a word about the geography. Jericho lies low, in a fertile oasis, full of water, and rich; Jerusalem sits at the top of the hill. Between the two there is a difference in elevation of about a thousand meters. The road between them has been walked for centuries by pilgrims going up to the holy city — a pilgrimage route, today closed because of the war. There is even a tourist attraction there now: the sycamore of Zacchaeus, still shown to visitors.
This text is not a parable. Luke does not invent a character to teach a lesson about climbing trees or giving alms. Luke’s plan, in writing his account, was to tell the story, the actual story. He recounts an encounter — a story with a meaning — placed with care at the last station before Jesus goes up to Jerusalem to die and to be raised. The meaning is not first “do as Zacchaeus did,” but “see who Jesus is, and what he is doing while he goes to Jerusalem.” Only in this way, through the testimony of the Gospel, and the long chain of narrators who have kept his memory alive, do we see Jesus.
From Luke 9:51 the evangelist has been telling one long movement. We already read it: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” The phrase is deliberate. Jesus is not wandering. He is accomplishing a mission. Jerusalem is the place of the Passion, the “taking up,” the fulfillment of what Moses and the prophets said. This was signaled already at the Transfiguration (9:28–36), where Jesus meets Moses and Elijah, who speak with him of the “exodus” he is about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Luke reminds the reader of that destination again and again. Jericho is the last city on that road. Immediately after the meal in Zacchaeus’s house Luke will add the parable of the pounds, “because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately” (19:11). Then: “he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem” (19:28). The entry as king follows at once (19:29–40). There, the crowd will chant “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” The irony is already in place. In Jericho the crowd screens a short man from seeing Jesus and then murmurs when Jesus chooses a sinner’s house. A few miles and a day later a crowd will acclaim him as king. Not many days after that, a crowd in the same city will shout for his death.
In a sense, Zacchaeus is singular: he just wants to see who Jesus is, and, as a result, he is himself seen. His name, Zakkai, “pure,” seems to be a provocation but is in fact a theological point. Luke, the writer, wants us to feel the collision: the “pure” one who is treated as impure; the short man whom the crowd makes smaller still; the powerful official who must run like a boy and climb a sycamore because the people who despise him also block his sight. In this sense, the traditional section title used in many Bibles, “The Conversion of Zacchaeus,” is not correct. As Jesus said, the correct title is “Today salvation has come to this house.”
Amen. Hallelujah!
Let us collect our offerings to keep Christ’s church alive to bring his message of salvation to all generations.
(DO IT)
UMH 95 — Praise God, from Whom All Blessing Flow
Notices about the synod. Next service; new Pastor;
Lord, we pray for anybody in need. Give them hope and faith. We pray for Christian churches under pressure and persecution. Lord, bring your wisdom and mercy to the sons of Abraham, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, who have been fighting each other in never-ending wars. (ASSEMBLY PRAYERS)
Let us hear again the words given to Aaron, the brother of Moses.
(sing Amen)
(back cover of the hymn book)