Luke 18:18-30; 19:1-10

Will we respond with courage and curiosity as we encounter the living God in the person of Jesus Christ, or will we walk away sad? Saying, you know what? This is too much. This requires too much. This is too uncomfortable. Hanging out with those people? Nope. Can't handle that. Letting go of my preferences, this is the way I want it, and I can't I can't let go of that. Letting go of some of our comfort, our privilege, our standing, our routine. Here's the big one, I think, our time. I think the rich young ruler would be the busy young ruler in today's translation of the story. [00:30:59] (44 seconds)  #choosecouragecuriosity

Repentance does not require that we work harder, that we grin and bear it for God. It asks us to welcome in the living God with a glad heart and then have the the courage and the curiosity to just see what happens. And believe me, something will happen. For some of us this morning, we may need to take the courageous step of simply welcome welcoming Jesus in. Giving this relationship a shot. For others of us, Jesus is is saying, you lack one thing. Let go. Let go of some time. Let go of some talent. Let go of some treasure. Whatever it might be, let go so that there's room for me to come over to your house for lunch today. Make room for Jesus and everything will change. [00:32:22] (67 seconds)  #makeroomforjesus

Again, not in a week, not in a month, not not maybe next year if I can get around to it. Here and now, I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay them back four times the amount. How do the rich enter the kingdom of God? Be like Zacchaeus. You see, repentance is not just a feeling or a thought. It is those things for sure, but it is a tangible action that leads to shalom. [00:24:27] (36 seconds)  #repentanceinaction

Now, there's a, there's a tension in our faith. Right? Grace is is freely given and freely received. Sometimes we sing it this way. Right? We don't earn it. We don't deserve it. And yet at the same time, it does require something from us because grace creates a crisis. What will we do? How will we respond? I think the thing that we see in Zacchaeus that is both beautiful and challenging to us is that he responds to Jesus with courage and curiosity. [00:29:56] (43 seconds)  #gracecreatesacrisis

The one thing, though, I think we can say with some degree of certainty is this. His relationships in that community are forever different. If nothing else, he's now Zacchaeus, the tax collector who paid us back. Just a very different reputation. Zacchaeus is the one who experienced grace and then shared it with his community. That is shalom. That Jesus says is why he came. [00:29:14] (41 seconds)  #transformedrelationships

Chapter 18, you have a guy who's got it all together. Everything's going for him. Obviously, he is blessed. And Jesus says, hey, you gotta do this one thing, and the guy walks away sad. And the disciples are like, wait. What? That guy can't be a part of it? And the very next chapter, he goes to he goes to the exact kind of person the messiah is supposed to drive out, and he says, I'm going to your house for lunch today. [00:22:25] (27 seconds)  #wealthvswholeness

And so this muttering is not just, oh, Jesus is doing this thing that we find annoying and a little bit, you know, uncouth or whatever. This is this is Jesus actively, like, rejecting the the sort of thing the Messiah was supposed to do. Like, he is completely subverting this. He's abdicated. In their minds, he is abdicating his responsibility as messiah. He was supposed to be judging tax collectors. He was supposed to be delivering them from extortionists, not having lunch with them. Do you see how upside down this is? [00:21:47] (38 seconds)  #upside-downmessiah

Right? No one was gonna make way. Oh, Zacchaeus, come here. Stand next to us so you get a good view of Jesus. No. No. No. You go you stay in the back. So he has to climb a tree to get a view of this Jesus who is passing through. As Jesus passes through, he sees him. Right? Jesus sees Zacchaeus. And he says, come down immediately. I, Jesus, the son of God in the flesh, the Messiah, I must stay at your house today. [00:17:08] (52 seconds)  #jesusseesyou