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Zacchaeus

“I will give half of my belongings to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone,
I will pay back four times as much.”— Luke 19:8

Just recently two sisters who are high-ranking officials of the Bureau of Customs were suspended due to their unexplained wealth. Apparently, their monthly salaries from the Bureau could not match their enormous wealth. Hence, government authorities suspected that the two sisters might have been involved in some kind of graft. This story is just one among many scandals of graft and corruption involving high government officials in our country today. No wonder our country is one of the most corrupt countries in Southeast Asia.

This sad and shameful development in our national life reminds us of the story of Zacchaeus in the Bible, particularly in Luke 19:1-10. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. He was a rich person. Perhaps, he was like the two sisters from the Bureau of Customs. Zacchaeus was a little man, not only in physical appearance, but also in moral stature. People considered him a sinner. And at that time, no respectable person would ever become a guest to the home of a sinner. Zacchaeus may be rich in terms of wealth, but poor in terms of friends.

People’s hatred against tax collectors, like Zacchaeus, was somehow legitimate. Tax collectors at that time were perceived to be cheats and traitors. They were regarded as plunderers of their own people and collaborators with the Roman colonial government. Indeed, how miserable life can be, even if you have gained the whole world, but you lost your own soul.

But Zacchaeus somehow felt the emptiness of his own life. He might have heard about Jesus’ friendship with sinners, like himself. Who knows, Jesus might be able to see him and might also accept him as his friend. And so, he had that strong desire to see Jesus. This was shown by the fact that he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a sychamore tree to see Jesus, who was going to pass that way.

True enough, Jesus looked up and said to him, “Hurry down, Zacchaeus, because I must stay in your house today.” What a great joy Zacchaeus might have felt when he heard these words. The Scripture says that Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed Jesus with great joy. Perhaps, this was the first time in his life that someone like Jesus would like to come to his house.

The story shows that when we have strong desire to see Jesus in our life, we would realize that he himself is urgently seeking for us. The joy of being with Jesus and be accepted by him radically changed Zacchaeus way of life. He stood up and said to Jesus, “Listen, Sir! I will give one half of my belongings to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pray back four times as much.” Then, Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today.”

Salvation means not only giving back completely what we have unjustly and dishonestly taken from other people, but more importantly to have a changed way of life – change from a life of greed to a life of sharing.

Evangelical church leaders have shamefully lamented that despite the fact that we have so many churches in our country today we have become one of the most corrupt countries in Southeast Asia. Where have we failed?

It is right here, I believe. We thought that salvation is just simply accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and be baptized, and that’s all! We have failed to see that salvation means a complete change in our way of life, in the way we related with other people. We have failed to see that salvation means sharing what we have and what we are to those in need. We have failed to see that salvation makes us selfless, not selfish.

Hence, there is a big gap between faith and practice, between religion and ethics. This is what Fr. Jaime Bulatao calls “split-level Christianity”.

It is important to note that Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today, salvation has come to this house”. This shows that salvation comes not only to an individual person, but to the whole house, to the whole community, to the whole country. Indeed, genuine salvation should transform a whole house, a whole community, a whole country; not only an individual person.

If the work of salvation stops with the individual person, that individual person who claims to have been saved would tend to become self-righteous, like the Pharisees. Salvation must be communal. For unless we change our understanding of salvation to include social transformation, we may be the most religious country in the world, yet the most corrupt. #

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