Big Little Man

By

Reverend Litton Logan

Scriptures: Luke 19:1--10 (NRSV)
¹He entered Jericho and was passing through it. ²A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. ⁵When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” ⁶So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. ⁷All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” ⁸Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” ⁹Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Sermon:

In the 1970s movie Little Big Man based upon Thomas Berger’s book, Dustin Hoffman played Jack Crabb the lone, white survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. In the movie, Jack, now well over a hundred years old, shares his rather roguish life story in a tale of the Old West. Jack’s narrative begins in his teen years and goes into old age in a bravura performance. Moreover, Jack's chronicle is a fantastic one: He was captured by Indians as a boy, reared as an Indian, and shuttled back and forth between the white and native-American worlds. In the process, he befriends everyone from Wild Bill Hickock, a preacher’s wife turned prostitute to George Armstrong Custer. During his life, he was a gunslinger, a snake-oil salesman, and an Army scout.

The story and the film are a blend of comedy and tragedy, with a strong statement about America's treatment of indigenous people without getting preachy. However, the most amazing thing about this story is what one man, a small man in stature, can do and will do under the pressures of necessity in a hostile environment to find his place in the world, to survive, and thrive.

I cannot think of this morning’s story of Zacchaeus with out thinking of Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man or think of the movie without thinking of Zacchaeus.

People of small stature have not fared well at the hands of our society. There is a lot of unintentional and intentional discrimination against short people in America. It is interesting to note, short people or very small people that are highly successful are perceived as having a Napoleonic complex—that is they over compensate for their stature by being hyper aggressive and acquisitive, like the French General Napoleon Bonaparte. However, the average person or even those very tall people who are successful are not said to have a Goliath complex. They are just successful. Another interesting tidbit of information is that Napoleon was actually 5’6½” tall, which was about average for a Frenchman of his day.

Yet, in a world that prizes giant football players and seven-foot plus basketball players those people that don’t measure up to the average, the smaller people, must struggle to over come the world of the average much to their consternation and humiliation. I understand this to some degree because my mother was just shy of five foot tall.

Such is the case today in our story of Zacchaeus, a small man and the successful owner of a Roman toll collecting franchise.

In Luke’s day, Roman officials collected poll taxes and land taxes from their Palestinian subjects. The Romans however farmed out the collection of tolls from those transporting property by land or sea to private contractors some of whom were Jews. The private contractors bid for the right to collect these tolls and paid a stipulated sum in advance. They then levied exorbitant and often arbitrary tolls for their profit.

Zacchaeus evidently owned a large tax franchise and subcontracted the actual collections of the tolls to others in the region of Jericho.

Tax collectors are never popular, but Jewish tax collectors like Zacchaeus, who participated in the cruel, oppressive Roman taxation system, were really despised.

In fact, in the New Testament, tax collectors were lumped into the same immoral pot as robbers and prostitutes. However, Jesus’ willingness to eat with tax collectors, prostitutes and other sinners does not mean that he condoned their activities. On the contrary, Jesus’ relationship with such people was because they were sinners and in need of redemption and acceptance and had been excluded from the concerns of the religious establishment of his day.

One of the major points that the Luke wants to make clear about Jesus’ association with prostitutes, tax collectors and even the demonic is that there is no one, no one, beyond God’s healing love and redemption. Moreover, by implication, no one is to be excluded from fellowship in the community of Christ.

Today we see Zacchaeus, the despised and hated chief tax collector, trying to get a glimpse of Jesus.

Given a universal understanding of human nature, we know that we don’t generally change or even seek the possibility of change unless we are in pain or under some form of extreme, existential anxiety. Human beings always tend toward a static state of comfort, harmony, purposefulness, and safety. Therefore, we can only imagine what was going on in Zacchaeus psychological and spiritual as he sought to view Jesus. If he were comfortable, not in pain, safe, etc., why would he want to go through the humiliating experience of climbing a tree and drawing attention to himself to see this reputed holy man?

Maybe Zacchaeus has heard that this holy man befriends tax collectors, prostitutes, and others who are demeaned and suffer the stigma of being sinners. I can only imagine the struggle that was going on in Zacchaeus. On the one hand, he knew he was a sinner, outside the pale of convention and acceptance, yet there was a deep spiritual longing in him.

I would also speculate that Zacchaeus was at such a point in his life where his money, could no longer abate the deep pain of his spiritual existence. I would maintain that something compelled him beyond curiosity to see this holy man. Furthermore, it appears that he doesn’t stop to count the possible costs—where he was, was more painful than his dread of the unknown.

Therefore, Zacchaeus in a humiliating act draws attention to his stature as well as to himself—the wee tax collector—by climbing up in a tree to get a look at this man Jesus. Perched in the tree, now taller that the rest of us, he sees Jesus clearly, and he is seen by all who were gathered. How demeaning and humiliating.

Yet, this Little Big Man about town becomes even smaller in his own eyes and in the eyes of others in hopes of glimpsing the one who is rumored to care for the likes of him and to offer them the good news of restoration to God.

Jesus spots Zacchaeus up in the tree. He probably understood the humiliating price this man has had to pay get a glimpse of him. Jesus, whether he knew Zacchaeus previously or not, calls Zacchaeus by name and tells him to come down from the tree because he wants to go to his house. Calling him by name meant Jesus knew Zacchaeus for who and what he was and that in spite of it he valued Zacchaeus.

Notice that we have no indication that Jesus says anything to Zacchaeus about his life, his vocation, or his relationship to God. The next thing we see is Jesus and Zacchaeus standing there face-to-face. Suddenly and from out of the blue, Zacchaeus by word and deed acknowledges that he is a sinner in need of redemption. He does this by telling Jesus about what he will do to make restitution to others and to God. Notice Zacchaeus doesn’t just say I am sorry; he puts repentance into action with hard, cold cash.

For Zacchaeus to give half of all he had to the poor would have been understood by those in witness to be his efforts in making restitution to God through an act of charity. Then he goes on to exceed the demands of the law in making restitution to any he may have cheated. This would have blown the minds of those gathered there that day that had grumbled and questioned Jesus’ involvement with Zacchaeus.

Folks, we must see the awesome, yet simple, power in these passages of scripture. Just Jesus’ acceptance of Zacchaeus in the simple act of calling him by name and inviting himself to Zacchaeus’ house at the critical time of Zacchaeus’ deepest spiritual needs produced a radical, life-transforming affect.

Just being accepted, valued, and deemed worthy of relationship by someone whom Zacchaeus perceived as being holy transformed his entire life. Now you may theorize that Zacchaeus might have been zapped by some spiritual ectoplasm stuff that enlighten him to Jesus’ true nature, but that is pure speculation and not in the text. Truth is, all we have is Jesus saw Zacchaeus in a tree, a Little Big Man about town and told him to come down because he was going to spend the day at his house.

Let us not read any more into the scriptures than that. The power of these passages is this: Jesus accepts and values even the most despicable and that alone has life-transforming power. Those people who are willing to become less in their own eyes, to admit their sins and shortcomings and make amends to God and to others shall be saved and included as citizens of the kingdom. Saved herein does not refer simply to a single soul “saved” for heavenly abode. No, saved in these passages means not only a life, but an entire family and a community is blessed and people are restored to right relationships to God and to one another—made spiritually whole and well. I like the way Jesus says it as he looked out over those gathered around him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too [he too, like you who are so pious and conventional] is a son of Abraham.

Jesus goes on to tells us it was for such people as Zacchaeus, those who have gone astray, those who are excluded by either their own sinful actions or by religious conventions that he came in to this world to seek and to restore. He surrendered his life absolutely and totally to God in order that God might through him affect God’s healing and reconciling presence and purposes in the world.

It naturally follows that as Christians, you and I empowered with the Christ presence can provide the energy of human kindness and human affirmation that may cause others to turn around and lay down a lifetime of hurt, anger, and resentment and to find healing and hope for their lives. However, sometimes our acceptance may not affect such dramatic results. Sometimes maybe all we can do for people by accepting them as divine ends unto themselves is to demonstrate a level of kindness and help, which will aid them in holding on to a little hope against some time in the future when their lives are more ripe for an encounter with God.

Zacchaeus, the Little Big Man, became the Big Little Man in the eyes of Christ and all those whom he blessed and to whom he made restitution. What happened to Zacchaeus? Did he give up his tax franchise? Did he become a dedicated follower of Jesus?

Luke doesn’t tell us. Instead, Luke makes us answer such questions by looking at our own lives. What happened to you, me, when we felt God’s acceptance and we tried to make things right and change our lives? Did we give up all those things in our lives that were not holy and right all at once? How did we or how do we live our lives as people accepted by and loved by God while growing daily in our understandings of God’s will for our lives? What does it mean for us to be Christians? How does that appear in the eyes of others? Well, I imagine that was also Zacchaeus’ situation. Zacchaeus, the Big Little Man of God, gives witness to the littleness and the bigness in each of us.