THINK SMALL

Did anyone here like climbing trees as a child? Sunday’s childhood for me meant catching lizards and climbing trees. At the age of 7, I used to climb the gigantic fir trees that grow alongside the main road in Kiama. I would climb right to the top and passers by would gawk and panic as I threw prickles down at their kids, clearly Gods done a work in me since then. I remember, one Sunday, the Pastor asking the congregation if anyone had any prayer points and I boldly requested they pray for me to catch a ‘really big lizard’. Then in Sunday School, the place I first heard about the man called Zacchaeus, I remember wistfully looking out the window at all the trees and lizards and thinking ‘that Zacchini bloke was alright, at least he knew how to climb a tree’.

Yep Zacchaeus is normally reserved for kid’s church but tonight I am going to be speaking on spiritual parables within this story and how thinking small like Zacchaeus can make a big difference in your life right now.

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Luke 19:1-4 |1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

What a scene. I imagine a short, rich (possibly fat) caricature of a man wheezing as he tries to scramble up a tree, with bags of gold falling from his sagging pants and some young scallywag like the past me throwing figs down at him. Can you see it?

Alright now let’s dig a bit deeper. What are Zacchaeus’ motivations? In Jesus’ day, lazy Roman officials gave their job of collecting taxes to important Jewish men, who turned a profit by scamming their own people employing thugs to force them to pay, perhaps the equivalent of today’s online scammers. I have been trying to imagine what kind of person would betray his own people like this? Recently God has been driving me crazy, telling me over and over again that it is all about the heart, which is confirmed by verses like 1 Samuel 16:7 | ...The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. The issue here is that the bible doesn’t give me information on the heart motivations of the characters but the Holy Spirit does, and so I have been leaning into my giftings in art and therapy. Long story short, allow me to read between the lines concerning Zacchaeus’ motivations for one second, it seems likely to me  Zacchaeus may have been bullied as a child for his height causing him to develop a hard heart for his community and a desire to protect himself with high status and material wealth (even if this meant supporting enemies). Admittedly at this point Zacchaeus appears to epitomises the caricature villain on the outside BUT on the inside something is clearly going on for him...

See all of Israel was talking and Zacchaeus had heard tell of a radical nomad; a man with no wealth or social status but who had begun devoting his life to standing up to the bullies, whether they be Jewish or Roman, a man who cannot be bought and freely serves the broken, the hopeless and the small. Nothing short of a real life superhero, and the very antithesis of the shameful man Zacchaeus had become. Come on people, I am talking about Jesus, how awesome is he? Can you imagine hearing that such a man was coming to town? Zacchaeus didn’t know whether to leap for joy or run for cover but the bible says he became determined not just to catch a glimpse of Jesus from afar but to ‘see who Jesus was’, up close and personal. Can’t you feel the wrestle in his heart: 1. In the hope that to encounter such a man might redeem his own life or 2. at the very least that he might kill the myth of a ‘perfect’ man and go back to trying to live with himself.

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Luke 19:5-7 | When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

Let’s talk now to the motivations of the crowd. It wasn’t hard to see Jesus in those days, you either saw the crowds or heard the stories; people could feel God’s love when they were around him and they wanted to be around him... all the time. I have been asking myself; if Zacchaeus was so keen to see Jesus, why didn’t he just push through the crowd, why did he resort to climbing a tree? Surely it is because he was ashamed of who he was and feared being judged or even attacked by the people and Jesus. Regardless, the crowd was a barrier for Zacchaeus and as such an apt metaphor for our sinful nature, which seeks to remind us of our past wrongs and prevent us from approaching Jesus. But whilst this internal battle raged, Zacchaeus’ managed to have a small thought. And here’s a key strength to thinking small; sometimes it is all you can manage. His plan was simple if not arbitrary; he climbed a tree coming up along Jesus path. Your probably all familiar with Neil Armstrong's famous quote as he stepped onto the moon ‘that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’, in other words, it is all about where you choose to step that makes all the difference. You have to take into consideration what I call the flesh-to-spirit exchange rate, Jesus says in Matthew 17:20 faith of a mustard seed has the power to move a mountain, therefore, one small step - of faith (toward Jesus), is one giant leap for mankind. Remember Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector, the conversion of this one man was going to result in financial and political breakthrough for all of Jews living in Jericho. The crowds should have been making way and ushering this man into the transformative presence of Jesus not judging him for it. Church, we as the people that gather around Jesus, need to ensure our judgements don’t become a barrier for those that have a heart to encounter Jesus.

Can you imagine being Zacchaeus up the tree; half hiding, half wanting to see and know Jesus, but then when Jesus is directly below you having him suddenly look straight up at you eye-to-eye, call you by name and demand to stay at your house? The name Zacchaeus means ‘pure’ and Matthew 5:8 | Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. The reality is that Jesus knew the hearts of everyone in that crowd and yet Luke 19:1 shows Jesus was planning on ‘passing through Jericho’ until something about Zacchaeus’ heart of humility, faith and desperation all bound up in that one small action of climbing a tree, compels him to state ‘I must stay at your house’. The passage tells us the crowds judged Jesus for choosing to stay with a sinner like Zacchaeus, but here’s the thing when you are the creator of the universe you are a guest in no man’s house. When God became the man Jesus he implicated himself with Zacchaeus, and with you, and with me, and all man’s sin so that he might stay with us forevermore. But before leaving this section, I want to remind you again, do not fall into the judging and complacent crowd. Yes, Jesus loves you, saved you, lives in you but surely we know by now Jesus never stops moving within us. I am talking about small actions to make yourself known to Jesus, to be noticed, to get special time. We need to stand out like Zacchaeus by looking forward to where Jesus is moving in our hearts, in our church and in our communities, and searching for opportunities, no matter how small, to step out in faith and make our availability known to Jesus.

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Luke 19:8 - 10 | 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything,I will pay back four times the amount.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

We all have an obstacle we need to overcome, a tree we need to climb. The tree Zacchaeus climbed was a sycamore-fig hybrid, and the character of these two trees represent the split motivations of Zacchaeus. Sycamore trees were everything Zacchaeus wanted to be; tall, strong and of value in Jericho, whereas, Fig trees on the other hand were good for fruit. The problem when you mix a sycamore and a fig it is that the fruit of the fig that suffers, just as Zacchaeus spiritual fruit was suffering for his desire to be rich and powerful. Zacchaeus had gone the wrong path and this moment was rewriting his history. Here was Jericho, a wealthy city positioned on the border between two provinces, here was Zacchaeus, a wealthy man positioned between the Jews and the Romans, and here is all mankind, whom since original sin have been positioned between God’s image and sinful desire. And here’s the point to all this; as hard as this is to believe, I reckon Jesus saw something of himself in Zacchaeus. God never wanted to be forced into the role of righteous judge taxing us for our sin, he wanted to be our loving creator tending the garden of our spirit whilst we tended the garden he created for us. Just as Zacchaeus was willing to humble his heart, to climb a tree and to give of himself in order to have an encounter with Jesus, so Jesus was willing to climb upon a tree, in the form of the cross, in order to bring all mankind back into relationship with God.

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So what trees have I climbed? Back when I lived here in Nowra, I begun serving at Youth and squashing Ps Jason at squash. We really are a terrible combination: he naturally propositions people for God and I naturally rise to a challenge. Next minute, here I am climbing the tree of pastoring a Church in a City I swore I would never live in, beyond my wildest imagination. That’s what happens when you step out with Jesus you get carried away. I love west sydney. So why think small when everyone else is thinking big? Thinking small keeps you humble and is achievable right now. Forget leaps of faith. Whilst everyone waits forever to do something big why not do something small for God right now. Let’s stand to our feet. I am asking you tonight; what is your tree? What is a small step of faith you could take right now that will realign your heart with the path of Jesus and show your availability to him?  It’s not so much about what you do, as doing something, even something small, for God.