Today – October 10, 2010 – is the day that the city of Jericho has chosen to celebrate its decamillenial birthday. A decamillenium is ten thousand years. Jericho claims to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. No one knows, of course, the precise day of its founding and it may even be older than ten thousand years. But the current residents of that city have chosen today – 10/10/10 – to celebrate its 10,000^th birthday.

Jericho is the city where Rahab the harlot long ago lived. Remember her (by reputation, I mean)? When the Israelites were about to invade the land that God had promised to give to them, Joshua, who had succeeded Moses as their leader, sent two spies into Jericho on reconnaissance. They went to Rahab’s house, Rahab being a woman of the night who they surmised could be counted on to provide hospitality. Meanwhile, the King of Jericho, having gotten word somehow that the spies had come to her house, went to Rahab and said, “Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land. Bring out the men who have come to you.” Rahab slyly answered, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. And when it was time to close my gate at dark, the men went out. Where they went I do not know. Pursue them quickly and you can overtake them.” But she had hidden them on her roof among stalks of flax. So they survived, took their measure of Jericho , and reported back to Joshua so that successful invasion strategy could be devised.

So, then, “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho , Jericho , Jericho ; Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came a-tumblin’ down” and so the Israelites, after their exodus from Egypt and their long wilderness sojourn, took possession of the Promised Land.

There is a story in the book of 2 Kings that tells the story of the prophet Elisha who, soon after succeeding Elijah, found himself in Jericho which was a strategic city for what today we might call “homeland security” but the water supply was spoiled. So he asked for a bowl and mixed together some ingredients and threw it into the spring at Jericho and made the water wholesome so that disease-induced death coming from the water afflicted the people anymore. The spring was connected to a sophisticated system of canals and pipes that still are used today and makes Jericho a fruitful oasis in the desert.

When Jesus told his parable of the Good Samaritan, the action takes place on a notorious road connecting Jerusalem with Jericho .

And then there is the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector and his meeting with Jesus that happened at a sycamore tree in Jericho .

Well, in honor of Jericho ’s ten-thousandth, we are going to skip ahead in the lectionary a few weeks and talk about Zacchaeus today under the title “Finding One’s True Self in Jericho .”

The passage begins with Jesus passing through Jericho . When someone is passing through somewhere, the person is on a journey toward a destination. For Jesus, the end point is Jerusalem . Much of the gospel according to Luke takes place as Jesus is “on the road” to Jerusalem . But passing through also has another meaning. It signifies a certain leisure, a willingness to take a little time. In our story, word had gotten out about Jesus passing through Jericho and so, if people were interested, they could go out to see him.

“A man was there in Jericho 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 (refer to the photo in your bulletin), because Jesus was going to pass that way.”

Zacchaeus is interested. By virtue of his job as a despised tax collector, Zacchaeus was separated from the religious community in Israel , from any community. The sycamore tree that Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus was considered ritually “unclean” since its fruit was fed to pigs, so in the culture of the time it was humiliating for Zacchaeus to climb that tree. Zacchaeus had to swallow his pride or, because “tree” is a synonym for the cross, we might say that his pride had to be crucified in order for him to be able to see who Jesus was. We might understand that phrase – to see who Jesus was – simply as saying that Zacchaeus simply wanted a sighting of Jesus much as I remember as a little boy running up to the end of my street to see President Kennedy as his motorcade was passing by. I just wanted a sighting. But in the way that Luke unfolds the story, wanting to see who Jesus was denotes something deeper in Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus wanted to make sense of Jesus, wanted to know what he was about.

Luke says that Zacchaeus could not see on account of the crowd, because he was short in stature. I love Luke the storyteller. Here the crowd is an obstacle to Zacchaeus, a symbol of spiritual dimness is a nice way to put it. They do not understand Jesus and so they block the true view, the deeper view, of Jesus that Zacchaeus desires. It makes me wonder how often people who want a deeper view of God and God’s ways are turned off by a church crowd that turns the wine of gospel into water because the price to live it is too great and its truth too inconvenient.

But Zacchaeus is undeterred. He works his way through the crowd and climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus. What Luke means to suggest, I think, is that Zacchaeus is seeking a higher perspective on life and living and he finds it in Jesus. He wants to get connected to the view of life, the way of life, that Jesus embraces because he senses that, rich as he was, his life was in some essential way bankrupt.

“When Jesus came to the place he looked up and said to Zacchaeus, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ So he hurried down and Zacchaeus was happy to welcome him.”

Zacchaeus had been seeking Jesus and now Jesus is seeking Zacchaeus who hurried down and was happy to welcome Jesus, signs of exuberance and excitement about what was happening. What Luke wants us to see here is that Zacchaeus knew the sin and shortcomings in his life, the ways in which his life did not seem right, and that he was changing his mind about the way he wanted to live. It is what scripture calls repentance. So Zacchaeus put himself in the way or in the path of Jesus where he could be seen. But then notice what happened. When Jesus sees Zacchaeus, he, Jesus, seizes the moment. Grace always is waiting in the wings, waiting to move into our lives quickly and efficaciously. “Hurry down for I must stay at your house today,” Jesus says to Zacchaeus.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son that I have come across recently J, when the prodigal makes his move toward the Father, it is the Father – the God figure and the bearer of grace in the story: “Quickly, bring out a robe, the best one, and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” – it is the Father who runs to embrace his son with mercy and love and a risen life. The prodigal did not have to do all the work. Given any inkling at all that we want to mend and amend our lives, to move in the direction of God and gospel, grace rushes in to heal us and help us and give us hope. Whenever we make a move toward God, God moves toward us.

When Jesus tells Zacchaeus that he wants to stay at his house, it represents the desire of Jesus to enter into Zacchaeus’ consciousness and to transform it with his. Or, as St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus…” That must have been exactly what Zacchaeus wanted as he quickly climbs down the tree and welcomes Jesus. Again, St. Paul : “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Any openness on our part to the Spirit of God will find God’s presence rushing like the wind to come and stay with us, to teach us, to restore our souls and to retool our lives.

“All who saw Jesus going into Zacchaeus’ house grumbled 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.”

There is that spiritually obtuse crowd again presuming, because Jesus went into a “sinner’s” home to eat, that he is condoning Zacchaeus’ sins. But of course that is not it. The presence of Jesus is changing Zacchaeus’ life. Jesus is putting Zacchaeus in touch with God and God’s ways which is seen in the lavish quality of Zacchaeus’ repentance. He gives away and repays more than is required by the law. We learn from the psalmist that those who are in relationship with God find themselves with cups that overflow, with overflowing hearts. Zacchaeus’ abundant and generous reparations are a sign of his openness to God and of the changed life that grace brings.

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

We have read that Zacchaeus hosted Jesus in his home with delight. Even though welcoming Jesus means he will have to repent, to change his mind about the way he had been living his life and thus also his behavior, Zacchaeus is, as we used to say in college, “stoked!” Sometimes the word “repent” becomes a heavy word for us, a dreaded word, because it sounds too religious, too righteous, too glum, too “there goes all the fun in my life.” But we see with Zacchaeus that it is anything but all of that because, in turning to the God he found in the life of Jesus, he finds his own true self that becomes his salvation.

“Jesus said to Zacchaeus, ‘Today salvation has come to this house because, he, too, is a son of Abraham.” Abraham was a rich and generous man who dared to venture forth with faith in God and now Zacchaeus has become his son, not by blood, but by sharing his spirit. Like the prodigal, Zacchaeus had gotten lost in his life, had wandered away from his true home, his true self, and now in his encounter with the Son of Man, he is found. Zacchaeus had come to feel dead inside – have you ever felt as if your spirit was dying within you, sick, aimless, purposeless, isolated, wandering – and now he is alive again!

So there in Jericho Zacchaeus found his true self. In the presence and company of Christ and crisis – which the Chinese tell us is a confluence of judgment and opportunity – Zacchaeus dared to face the truth about what his life had become and decided with joy in his heart to walk to the beat of a different drummer whose name is Love whose name is Life whose name is Justice for All whose name is Jesus whose name is God.

Zacchaeus found his true self in Jericho long ago. A nice story, but only that, unless you, and I, decide and determine to find our true selves in Jamestown in these days of our lives. The Spirit of Christ that is the Spirit of God is passing through our streets, our pews, our homes again calling out the names of any and all who are in any way interested in walking to the beat of that Different Drummer. Are you one of them?

Amen.

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