Tim’s
Tidings
As I imagine
traveling down the dusty roads with Jesus, listening to his teaching,
witnessing his healing, being baffled by his sayings that he must suffer, die
and in three days rise again, I believe I would feel confused, ambivalent, even
lost. And perhaps that’s the point… to
experience incompleteness apart from God, inability to be meaningfully whole
despite my intelligence, connections and resources.
Just
before Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, when he was 17 miles away in the ancient
city of Jericho, he encountered Zacchaeus, a wealthy tax collector, who was
both lost and curious, so much so that he climbed a tree just to get a better
look at Jesus. Jesus formed a
relationship with him, ate with him, and changed him. Zacchaeus become generous, he made amends to
those he harmed, and Jesus welcomed him into God’s family. To Zacchaeus, to those “sinners” in his
house, and to us all, he says, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the
lost” (Luke 19:10). Zacchaeus saw
through the eyes of faith and was “found” by God. He was saved from “lostness,” from the pain
of separation from God. He was made
whole.
In
our scripture text today, the outcome is not so good for the rich man who
ignored others. Being rich in that
society, he would have been viewed as being blessed by God. But in the end he was in agony, and the
judgment was that he had his chance. The
Scriptures showed the way to be generous and forgiving, and he ignored them. Even as the gates of his house and the walls
of his heart separated him from others, so now he lived in separation, even
agony.
I
was speaking with a mature Christian after Wednesday Bible Study and the
conclusion was these teachings are baffling.
It’s easy to feel “lost” in it all.
Perhaps the best response is that of the disciples. As Jesus is finishing these teachings, the
stunned disciples simply say, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). May their prayer be ours, “Lord, increase our
faith. Find us and make us whole.”
Blessings,
Pastor Tim
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