Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector and a wealthy man. In his day and age these were not things that would endear him to his fellow Jews. Zacchaeus worked for the occupying Roman government, extorted taxes and fees from his own countrymen, and became wealthy in the process.  He was not part of the Roman world. He was not part of the Jewish world. He is betwixt and between. He is lost

 

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”  The story of Jesus and Zacchaeus is a story of the seeker encountering the lost. And in that encounter, what was lost is found.  A heart was changed. The one whose choices in life led to exclusion from his people and family seems to have made an abrupt about-face.  Choices were being unmade and consequences of choices were bring undone.

 

 

 

Why? How?  The easy answer is that because its Jesus! These are things that Jesus does, right? True.  But then again, as it says in John’s Gospel, just as the Father as sent Jesus, so Jesus send us.  In other words, each one us is commissioned to seek out the lost.

 

 

 

I suspect that we all have people in our circle of friends and family who made choices that took them down paths where they are not as welcomed, not as remembered, no longer included; a little lost. Yet they are people we still care about. People we want to see change – to undo their choices – to have the mounting consequences of those choices laid low and put aside. We want what is increasingly being lost to turn around and come home, to be found whole, complete, to be saved.

 

 

 

So….we who are seekers of the lost – what do we do?  Sadly the most common is to passively stand back, not wanting to be a busy-body, to be nosey, or maybe to respect their choices (even if we are cringing inside).  What does such passivity say to the other person? It is kinda’ up for grabs.  It could be interpreted as “Whatever,” “it doesn’t really matter to me,” or “ you don’t matter to me.”

 

 

 

Maybe we can bargain, bribe or cajole: “if you don’t do that but rather do this, I will give you this or that.”  What is being communicated here? It might be taken as caring or maybe as “They just want to control me?”  “They don’t think I am capable to making this decision?”

 

 

 

OK, forget bargaining,  Let’s aim for the heart of Catholic guilt and direct a little shame, disapproval, or condemnation to the person.  This is perhaps the clearest communication of all… Sadly.

 

 

 

Maybe the problem is that we are good at finding the lost, we just don’t know what to do when we find them.

 

 

 

Zacchaeus was lost, got found…. And what did Jesus do next? Basically, he invited himself to dinner.  Jesus did not stand back passively, did not bargain, and did not condemn.  He said let’s go get a cup’a’coffee. He didn’t email, text, poke, or leave a voice mail. He went old school: face-to-face.  And in doing so, Jesus crossed all the social barriers that separated Zacchaeus from his people. Jesus passed by all the choices, wrong turns, and sins of Zacchaeus’ life. Crossed over to let Zacchaeus know he is loved. No prerequisites; just loved.

 

 

 

True, Christ-centered love has a wide enough embrace to pull in the folks like Zacchaeus from the fringes of life. It is a love that pulls us back from the places where we have not been at our best, or maybe even when we have been at our worst. It is a love that is wide enough to sometimes even make us grumble when we see people whose sins are not the same as ours being embraced in God’s love.

 

 

 

It is a love that compels us to seek out the lost.

 

 

 

Like I said, we all have people in our circle of friends and family who made choices that took them down paths where they are not as welcomed, not as remembered, no longer included; a little lost. Yet they are people we still care about.  And so we seek them out and we are unsure what to do when we find them. Perhaps the first reading can give us insight and food for thought and prayer.

 

 

 

But you [Lord] have mercy on all … you overlook people’s sins that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; … you spare all things, because they are yours, O LORD and lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things!

 

 

 

And as the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus send us. In mercy and in an all-embracing love to encounter the imperishable spirit within them; to remind them what they already possess.

 

 

 

Finding is the easy part.  What next?

 

 

 

Maybe start with a cup of coffee?

 

 

 

Amen