“Welcome to my house.” Can’t you just picture the excitement of Zacchaeus as Jesus entered his front door? I’m sure that he wanted to show off by putting out the best china and cloth napkins. He made sure everything was clean and tidy. Maybe he even put an arrangement of flowers on the table to create a spirit of hospitality. “Welcome to my house,” Zacchaeus would have said. But let’s rewind the tape of that story a little bit. How did it happen that Jesus was entering into the house of Zacchaeus? Was an engraved invitation sent out? Was the honor of Jesus’ presence requested in any way with RSVP and self-addressed stamped envelope included? St. Luke makes it clear it wasn’t that Zacchaeus invited Jesus. Rather, Jesus invited himself! “Zacchaeus, today I must stay at your house.” It was not planned. Luke insists that Jesus “intended to pass through the town.” But when the opportunity presented itself, Jesus invited himself into the house, into the life of Zacchaeus. Wouldn’t we love to be able to say to Jesus, “Welcome to my house. Welcome, for I know that you bring healing. Welcome, for I recognize that God is with you.” Perhaps our own ability to welcome Jesus into our home, into our families, into our neighborhood, into our churches is similar to the story of Zacchaeus. If we understand how Jesus ended up entering into his life, maybe we will see how to let Jesus into our own. We’ll examine the gospel scene with its “before” and its “after.” Then we will apply the lesson to ourselves.
The “before” starts when Zacchaeus heard that Jesus was coming. He knew about Jesus. He was interested in him. He wanted to see him. But something was preventing him. He was too short: “short in stature,” height-challenged, down-sized. The crowds were blocking his view but he didn’t give up and go home. He did something about it. He climbed a sycamore tree. He went out of his way to ensure that he and Jesus would have their encounter. And because he did the things which made it possible for Jesus to see him, Jesus invited himself into his home. Church, we can easily excuse ourselves that we aren’t closer to Jesus because we are “too” something. Maybe not too short, but too busy. I’d like to be more prayerful but I just don’t have the time. Maybe not too short but ordinary. Meeting Jesus is not for the likes of me. I’m just a schmuck from Bronzeville. I don’t mess with things beyond me. Maybe not too short but too damaged. I have done things in my life or things have been done to me that have impacted me in negative ways. How can I get close to Jesus after that? Of course, the lesson of Zacchaeus is that no matter what we are “too” of, we need to find a way to overcome it. What is the sycamore tree we need to climb? Perhaps we need to turn off the TV so that we have some quiet time for prayer. Perhaps we need to read the Bible to see that it is filled with ordinary people. Perhaps we need to find a spiritual guide or confessor to discover the grace and mercy of God can work wonders in healing our sin-sick soul. Doing things like that creates a space for Jesus to burst into our lives and say “I must stay with you – busy, ordinary, damaged you.”
In order to encounter the Lord we need to imitate Zacchaeus and do whatever is necessary in order to make ourselves available to for the Lord. How wonderful it is when we hear that the Lord wants to be with me. “Welcome to my home.” But that leads to the “after.” After Jesus invited himself to spend time with Zacchaeus a change comes over him. He realized that he can’t remain as he was, that having Jesus in his home makes it a different place and him a different person. He wanted his home and his heart to reflect the presence of Jesus. “I’m going to give half my possessions to the poor,” Zacchaeus says. “I shall repay four times over anyone I extorted.” We too like Zacchaeus become different as a result of the presence of Jesus in our lives. The two concrete steps that Zacchaeus took are ones that we can emulate as well. Since Jesus dwells with us we too must care for the poor. Those who are in need have a claim on us because they bear a family resemblance to Jesus. The homeless and the hungry, those abused and neglected, the unloved and unappreciated are among those that we give of ourselves to. We respond to the presence of Jesus in our lives by reaching out our hand in care. And, we must also make amends for any harm we might have caused. Now all of us have done things which we regret. We too easily excuse ourselves by saying: that was then, this is now, get over it. But Zacchaeus was going to repay four times over for any harm he might have caused. We must make amends for all the hateful, ugly, bitter things we’ve said and done. We must make amends four times over to everyone we haven’t treated like a child of God.
“Welcome to my house,” Zacchaeus said to Jesus. No doubt Jesus just smiled. For what Zacchaeus thought of as his house was in fact a gift from God, on loan as it were. We don’t have or possess anything except by the grace and mercy of God – not our health, not our wealth, not our life, not our love, not our memory, understanding, will, much less our house. So when we are inviting Jesus into our house we should really be saying, “Welcome into your house. I’ve been getting it ready for you.” Church, we can be tempted to cling to the sycamore tree, the accustomed, the familiar. It has, after all, worked for me so far. But if we do what we’ve always done, we will get what we’ve always got. We have to come down, we have to give up what we have come to rely on and throw ourselves into the arms of the Lord. The whole point of the encounter was not for Zacchaeus to be able to say, “Welcome to my house.” It was for him to hear Jesus say, “Welcome into my Father’s house. Welcome into the new thing that God is doing. Welcome me and God “will bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of the faith in accord with the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”