Daily Pastoral #46

I’ve been preparing a sermon for this coming Sunday. It’s Reformation Day and the word I’m preaching on is from Luke’s gospel (Luke 19:1-10) about the story of Jesus’s encounter with Zaccheus, the tax collector who everyone despises. Since Zaccheus is ‘short in stature,’ he climbs up a tree to see Jesus as Jesus passes through Jericho. Jesus calls Zaccheus down from the tree and invites himself to dinner at Zaccheus’s house.

Here is the Messiah who so many ‘good citizens’ came to see… And to whom does Jesus gravitate? Yep… The one they despise. The one who oppresses them.

And in that communion meal, Jesus turns Zaccheus’s heart toward his neighbors. Zaccheus vows to give half of his possessions to the poor and to pay back four times those he’s defrauded. It’s an amazing story.

And here’s the really interesting thing…

Jesus never tells Zaccheus to quit his job. And there is no indication that Zaccheus does. This tells me…

God can redeem us even while we remain in shady situations thusly bringing those shady situations to restoration. Who knows? Maybe Zaccheus became big into tax reform? Maybe he mentored other tax collectors in not being so shady and oppressive? I don’t know.

When you look out onto the world or even into your own life and you see shadiness that seems hopeless…

Know that is where God does His most interesting work.

As Ever,
Jonas