Of tax collectors and other sinners!

Last Sunday the Gospel reading gave us two characters and we studied how they prayed inside the temple.  It was The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector and we learned the proper posture for prayer in that Parable. Today’s Sunday Gospel reading once more talks about another Tax Collector, this time it is the story of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector and you can read it in Luke 19:1-10.

[Jesus] came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. 2 Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, 3 was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. 5 When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house. 6 And he came down quickly and received him, with joy.

7When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

Lest you have forgotten, our Lord Jesus Christ was sent by God the Father into this world to save us from our sins, hence the two stories we read this week talked about tax collectors who in Jesus’ time was considered by Jews the worse of all sinners as they taxed Jews to the satisfaction of the Roman masters.  Yes, it may seem to the reader that our Lord Jesus was surrounded only by the vilest of sinners or prostitutes. But isn’t this what our Lord came to this world for?

Let me clarify that amongst the multitude of sinners that Jesus considered as friend, there was a commonality among them, they all came to the Lord to repent for their sins. Let’s re-read what the tax collector prayed in last Sunday’s Gospel: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner”.   This was a simple prayer-cum-confession from a man weight down by his sins and in that parable, the Lord justified him for the sincerity of his heart.

Today’s Gospel we have another repentant sinner in the person of Zacchaeus, who like most Filipinos was short and he must have heard all those rumors about this Jesus of Nazareth who came about healing the sick or giving sight to the blind. He must have heard that story of the blind Bartimaeus who cried out “Jesus Son of David, have pity on me.” The people in the crowd rebuked him telling him to be quiet, but Bartimaeus kept on shouting out to Jesus, who then heard him then stopped and asked him, “What do you want me to do for you? Bartimaeus replied, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus then told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”

More often than not, when we are physically sick, it is not just a manifestation of a health problem, even our lack of faith can make us ill and in the story of the blind Bartimaeus, it was his faith that allowed him to see the Lord. Let me point out that there are thousands of people that we meet everyday who look healthy, but they are actually blind because of their lack of faith. When a close friend comes to them (they often act as messengers from God) to invite them to join a Charismatic Community, they refuse simply because they know a lot of people in that community who are great sinners and they don’t want to be in the same community as those sinners.

But as we all learned from our Bible readings that our Lord Jesus Christ did not come for the righteous people, he came to save those repentant sinners. Once more allow me to point out that faith is a gift from God. When God wants us and calls upon us, he expects us to accept this call with a childlike faith, just like the way our Mama Mary accepted the message from God sent through the Angel Gabriel that she was to bear the son of the most high and Mary replied to the Angel’s call saying: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, May it be done to me according to your word.”

So what is expected of those who repent to God for the sins they committed? Get the cue from Zacchaeus who said before Jesus, “Behold, half my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” What about the rest of us? If we have stolen from others, return that money four times over or give it to the church to be donated to the poor. Then your sins will be forgiven and as the Lord told Zacchaeus: “Today salvation has come to this house… for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” Happy Sunday to all.