I have an imaging situation I want you to plant in your mind.  Suppose one day you walk into a bank and see an armed robbery actually in progress.  Customers are cowering on the floor.  A tall stocking-faced bandit has a gun trained on them.  Two other bandits are behind the cage prodding terrified tellers to empty the cash drawers into their sacks.  Two bank managers exchange a nervous and calculating glance as if devising a way to sound the alarm.

 

Your heart sinks.  Why did you ever pick this time to come to the bank?  How could you stumble into a mess like this?  The stocking-faced bandit catches sight of you.  A shiver runs through your body and your breath grows short.

 

Suddenly there’s a shout from the corner of the lobby -- “cut”.  With that barked command, tensions evaporate.  The bandits pull off their masks, the tellers smile as the customers get up from the floor, and the light dawns.  This is not a robbery but a movie take of a robbery.  The customers, bandits, and tellers are in truth actors.  The robber world has been transformed into an actor world.  The crime has become a crime in quotes.

 

For you, blundering innocently into this situation, the whole reality has shifted.  The reality as you saw it has instantly turned upside down.  The director had one set of assumptions about what he saw while you had a completely different set of assumptions. 

 

In the same way the reality of the story of Zacchaeus seems to be fairly straight forward.  Jesus comes to town, has dinner with a wormy little man whose reputation would have been enhanced to be compared with a common thief.  Jesus invited him to be a disciple and used him as an illustration of the purpose of his ministry.

 

Nevertheless, it will not surprise you to know that there is more than one reality buried within this story depending upon your point-of-view.

 

I.  What the People Said!  “We Don’t Waste Time With Losers”!

 

The first assumption about reality had to do with what the people said.  In Verse 7 we read, “And when they saw it, they all murmured saying that he was gone to be a guest with a man that is a sinner.”

 

The question was why would Jesus waste time with losers?  And it was less of a question than an exclamation of amazement.  Zacchaeus stood barely five feet tall with his shoes off and was the least popular person in Jericho.  As head tax collector he was the richest person in town as well as the shortest.  He’s been described as a sawed-off little social disaster with a big bank account and a crooked job, but Jesus welcomes him aboard anyway.

 

Zacchaeus is an example of all the second rate unattractive folks whom the world labels as losers in various disguises.  He may have been wealthy, but sometimes even the green doesn’t cut it.  He was “nouveau riche” in a place where blood was thicker than money.

 

Isn’t it true that in our society winning is not only an attitude, a matter of self-confidence and expertise, but it is also a matter of momentum.  When that momentum is broken by mistake or fraud, it’s like having a scarlet letter burned on one’s forehead.

 

Some day Kenneth Lay of Enron infamy may be able to climb out of the pit into which he has fallen (and I pray he does), but for now he is identified with the big “S” -- “sinner” -- ostracized by some whom he thought of as friends, having to prove himself again as worthy of trust and confidence.

 

From a political standpoint we know that it can be devastating to be identified with losers.  George McGovern would certainly have lost anyway to Richard Nixon in 1972, but his campaign became mired in confusion early on when it was learned that his running mate, Thomas Eagleton, once suffered a nervous breakdown.  Weakness, whether moral or psychological, is seldom tolerated by a society which demands that its leaders be larger than life.

 

Therefore, we do understand it when we read that Jesus was wasting his time with a loser, for the common wisdom is that association with losers can be contagious.

 

II.  What Zacchaeus Said:  “I’ll Try Harder.”

 

A second assumption about reality was made by Zacchaeus when he promised that he would give away half of all his goods and restore four-fold anything which he gained by fraud.  Essentially his response was, “I’ll try harder.”

 

It is just good “Avis Theology”.  The one who is second rate and has been condemned to the “loser” category can only get out of it by putting her nose to the grindstone and paying the price of pain.

 

The theological description of this is called “work’s righteousness”.  I was first introduced to “work’s righteousness” after attending a Billy Graham evangelistic meeting when I was ten years old.  I had been convicted by Graham’s preaching and wanted to go forward as the choir sang “Just As I Am”, but my dad felt that it was more important to beat the traffic and so with some relief I was able to avoid that moment of exposure.

 

However, upon returning home (in the flush of my new-found pietism) I asked my dad quite seriously if he was a Christian.  And his reply introduced me for the first time to what I’m calling this morning “Avis Theology” for he said simply, “I’m not good enough.” 

 

If my father, who was the source of all wisdom and moral rectitude in my young life, was not good enough, where did that leave me?

 

Zacchaeus, for all his bluster and assertiveness, knew that he was not worthy.  Daily (through innuendo, smirks, and whispered remarks which somehow reached his ears) he knew that he was considered a quisling.  He knew that his readiness to assist the Romans in reaping the rewards of occupying the land alienated him from the rest of the people.

 

Therefore, you can imagine the pleasure and the honor he felt upon receiving this visitor who was seen as embodying the Jewish dream.

 

If you were a novelist, how would you have written the dialogue over dinner?  I can imagine that the awkwardness would have faded fairly quickly for after all, Zacchaeus had been called by name.  There was no need for pretense here nor was there a desire for justification.  However the conversation went, Zacchaeus quickly stood naked before this one who was able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 

Zacchaeus seemed to think (s most of us do) that if there is something wrong in our lives, the best way to purge it is cold turkey -- mind over matter, try harder.  One of our recent Presidents was quoted as saying, “There is nothing wrong with this country that a return to the work ethic can’t fix.”  It’s “Avis Theology” -- work harder even if you get a hernia.

 

So when people said he was a sinner, Zacchaeus conceded the argument and said, “I’ll raise my pledge and give a bigger number to One Great Hour of Sharing.”  At the risk of putting a damper on such lofty idealism, let’s close the circle by looking at what Jesus said.

 

If Jesus had the savvy of a modern salesperson, he would have known that he had his prospect right where he wanted him and would have used that knowledge to up the ante.   Zacchaeus was clearly ready to buy his way back into the Kingdom.  Jesus could have used that knowledge to extract even more.  Actually Zacchaeus’ offer to return to anyone whom he had defrauded four-fold was not overly generous at all.  It was merely in compliance with Roman law.

 

Nevertheless, the spirit of conversion was in the air and the response of Jesus was to that spirit.  There were no conditions laid down and there was no particular rejoicing that Zacchaeus volunteered for the 50% club.  There was a different order of reality which Jesus saw in Zacchaeus’ response.  It was the reality of one who was changing the direction of his life.  So Jesus says, “You win.”

 

There is no period of probation.  There is no period of goal setting and evaluating progress and achievement.  You win -- pure and simple.  The desire of the heart is enough.

 

I have a friend who competed with his father all his life.  He was consumed by his desire to equal or surpass his father’s life achievements.  One day his father came to him to say, “Son, you have achieved more in the past three years than I have in my whole professional career.”  Boom!!!  All of a sudden the game was over.  Hands down -- the competition was ended.  How can one compete when the competition gives up.

 

In the same way Jesus did not respond to Zacchaeus’ M.B.O. plan.  The Kingdom is not to be built by those who try harder.  You see conversion is simply accepting the fact that we are accepted.  It has been said, “When religion is by grace, then ethics is by gratitude.”

 

The reality of this “Avis Theology” depends upon whether or not you are witnessing a robbery or watching a “take”.  The hard teaching for the likes of us is that we will never get anywhere with God by trying harder.

 

Jesus’ word to Zacchaeus has nothing to do with rewarding effort.  “For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”  The reality of “Avis Theology” has to do with turning that which is second rate into what is first rate through acceptance and love.  Ethics is part of our faith, to be sure, but that ethics is motivated by gratitude rather than duty.

 

I am told that in the Soviet Union over the last few years the number one graduate study subject is conversion -- of course not from a Christian or spiritual point-of-view.  The Russians understand the political significance of this whole field.  For the nation to be able to change its citizen’s values and motivations, goals and life style has the ultimate power beyond nuclear weapons.

 

Of course for us conversion is not a national strategy.  It is what happens when the hound of heaven (to use the phrase from Francis Thompson’s wonderful poem) has pursued you down the labyrinth of years.  One day you stop running and he overtakes you.  And so the lost is found.  This is the good news of the gospel.  You can stop running.  You can stop trying harder.  You are accepted.  You are loved -- not for what you do but for who you are under the umbrella of God’s grace.

 

Amen.