Proper 26 WED 2025 4 Times Over

Proper 26 WEDNESDAY 5 November 2025

St George’s Episcopal, Fredericksburg, VA

“4 Times Over”

Collect

Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Luke 19:1-10

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When 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." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner." Zacchaeus 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." Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."

When I was a child I loved this story. Being a small child I could envision Zacchaeus. I felt close to him. Mostly because it was a song I loved to sing. 

Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.

And as the savior came that way he looked up in the tree, and he said…

Zacchaeus, you come down, for I’m going to your house today.

For I’m going to your house today.

This story is about redemption.

Growing, I learned to see the story differently, and I love it all the more.

Zaccheus was a chief tax collector, and he was rich, the scripture says. Now to get a tax collector job for the Roman Empire, people had to bid for the position. If the Romans wanted 10,000 bodkins, the bid might be 2,000 bodkins to get the job. So the tax collector had to tax the people the 10 thousand required, the 2,000 pay off, and then they had to add profit to make it all worthwhile. So the people being taxed were being robbed by a local for foreign colonialism. Insult to injury. So, Zacchaeus was despised. He was a traitor, and a thief. And he was a wee little man! Short people! Let’s hate him for all the things.

He was probably feeling the hate when he did not bunch up with the crowd to see Jesus, which probably contributed to him being up that tree. And did I mention he was short?

So the wee hated little man climbed up that tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus.

He probably thought he could go incognito, but Jesus stopped, pointed him out, and invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house. The people were disgusted. 

“Doesn’t he know he is a sinner!” they whispered in contempt.

In response to Jesus’s surprise actions, Zacchaeus spontaneously erupted in response, “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.”

And Jesus was pleased. “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

It might seem like a really sweet deal, spiritually speaking. That by choosing Zacchaeus, where he knew he would get a good meal, Jesus got a little transformation, too. But please, I urge you, do not see it that way. It is easy to read it like that, with a little cosmic tit-for-tat. But if the spiritual life were like that, it no longer is Grace. Grace is not an economic enterprise.

Grace is a gift, freely given to those God loves, not for those who “earn it.” As Brennan Manning reminded us in The Ragamuffin Gospel, “There is nothing you can do that would make God love you any more, and there is nothing you can do that would make God love you any less.” Grace is a gift.

Zacchaeus, in seeing Jesus pick him, felt that Grace and the love behind it. He freely gave his gift of half of his stuff, and returning anything he stole four times over. This is not tit-for-tat, but rather, for me, a grace-filled response for the Grace he received.

As we receive that Grace, may we abide in that Grace and live fully in our responses to it. And maybe like Zacchaeus, Salvation can come to our house, too! Amen