Homily for
November 15th, 2016: Luke 19:1-10.
Zacchaeus was an outcast. He collected
taxes for the hated Roman government of occupation. And everyone knew that much
of the money he collected went into his own pocket. When Jesus went to dine at
Zacchaeus’ house, the good religious people of Jericho
Those words tell us who Jesus is. Then, now, for all time,
Jesus Christ is the one who does not look at what we have been, or even at what
we are. Instead Jesus looks at what, deep in our hearts, we would still like to
be. He is the one who has come to search out and to save people without hope,
the most abandoned, those most deeply entangled, like Zacchaeus, in webs of
selfishness, self-indulgence, and greed.
“Today salvation has come to this
house,” Jesus tells Zacchaeus. He says the same to us today. This is our great today. This is our hour of
salvation. Jesus is calling us, inviting us to his holy table. He reaches out
to us in active, accepting love, though we have done little or nothing to
deserve such love. He comes to us for no other purpose than to seek out and
save people who, without him, are floundering, without hope, and lost.
Zacchaeus “welcomed Jesus with joy,”
Luke tells us. We can share that joy. Because of Jesus Christ, and his love for
us, life is not aimless, not without meaning. Our sins, our failures, our
compromises are not the last word about us.
The last word belongs to the One who tells us that he has come “to seek
and to save what is lost.” No matter what others think of us. No matter what we
may sometimes think of ourselves. There is One to whom we are infinitely
precious. He is Jesus Christ: Son of man and Son too of God — our brother, our
lover, our best friend; but also our savior, and our God!
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