There's Room at the Table 21/06/26

This week Bethany continued our series looking at encounters with Jesus at the table. She focussed on the story of Zaccheaus in Luke 19 and challenged us to be more hospitable in our everyday lives. 

Transcript

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I can get the first slide of my PowerPoint upgrade. Actually, I forgot my phone, which has the remote for the PowerPoint, so we're gonna take a wee walk. We're going through a series at the moment um called Room at the Table. I actually don't have a clue where my phone is, but that's really great. Um is it in the office maybe? I think it's in the office. Thank you. Good morning. So at the moment we are going through a series uh called Room at the Table, or There's Room at the Table, Making Room at the Table. And we're talking about different instances where Jesus sat with people and had a meal with them and how people's lives were changed, the situations were changed because of that. So this morning I'm going to be talking from the book of Luke, chapter 19. The words are gonna come up on the screen in a wee minute, and but we are gonna be just looking through that the story of Zacchaeus. I think my phone might possibly be in my car because my watch is currently ringing because Alana's phoning me. So we're gonna read from Luke chapter 19, and we're gonna start at verse 1 and we're gonna read through to verse 10. So he entered Jericho and was passing through, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for here from here, for I am must stay at your house today. So he hurried and he came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he is also a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. So at this point where we start this passage, Jesus has is on his way to Jerusalem. Right at the start of the verse it says, He entered Jericho, that he is talking about Jesus. And he is on his way to Jerusalem because he is going to be crucified. This journey starts in the previous chapter, in chapter 18, verse 31. And it says in there, it says, taking the twelve, he said to them, See, we are going up to Jerusalem. He was somewhere near Jericho at this point. It was about 20 miles to Jerusalem from Jericho, from the other side of Jericho to Jerusalem. And so this is about a day's walk, maybe two days. So this two-day period or day-long period covers the span of two chapters. It starts in chapter 18, verse 31, and it ends in 19, verse 44. And in this chapter, you see, and thank you so much, that's great. In this chapter, you see different stories, many different stories actually. You've got um Jesus' encounter with Sacchaeus, you've got Jesus speaking to his disciples of his own death, you've got Jesus healing a blind beggar, Jesus uh telling the parable of the ten Minas, and then also the triumphal entry of Jerusal into Jerusalem on a donkey, and it ends then with Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. And all of these stories are stories that we kind of think of as isolated stories and isolated events. We we tell the story of Zacchaeus and Sunday school, we tell the story of the triumphal entry at Easter. But all of these things very possibly happened on the same day, maybe over the span of two days. It was one journey all the way to Jerusalem. And I think this shows us that Jesus' approach to ministry, it wasn't isolated events, it wasn't bits and pieces where he didn't take it as a job that he clocked in and out of. He didn't go heal someone and then think, great, that's my job done for today. I've done my good deeds. Jesus' ministry was a lifestyle. And he lived in a constant state of hospitality. Sorry, I'm just trying to get this to is that working? Fantastic. So he lived in a constant state of hospitality. He was continuously interrupted. If you read through the New Testament, you see time and time and time again the encounters with Jesus are actually interruptions. Um, there are times where Jesus goes to see people specifically, but most of the time when you see something happening, it's because he's been on the way to something and something else has happened. He lived in a constant state of hospitality. Now, hospitality is not a word that's actually used that often in our day-to-day lives anymore. And when we use it, we are usually talking about like the businesses that cater to travel and leisure and entertainment. If someone says they work in hospitality, it usually means that they work in a restaurant or for a hotel. But the actual definition of hospitality is the friendly, generous, and welcoming reception of guests and strangers. Some of us will think of hospitality as maybe inviting people over. When you say someone is very hospitable, you mean that they are very good at having people in their home, making meals for them, having people stay. Usually these people are people that we know and we like. Biblical hospitality is different. In verse 5 of this passage, Jesus invites himself over to Zacchaeus' house. And this is the only time recorded in the Bible where Jesus invites himself to someone's house. But actually, this is quite a common custom in this culture. The people of ancient Israel they understood themselves as strangers and sojourners or travelers. That's just how they saw themselves. And so then when the strangers and sojourners came in, they were expected culturally to look after them, to look out for them because they were no different to them. They saw every person as someone who is traveling through life. Therefore, we look after those who are traveling in our homes. And so they had a responsibility to care for vulnerable strangers. And in our culture, when you say, I would love to get dinner with you, what follows is a discussion on like where would work, when would work, a time, a place, a point. In this culture, if you said, I want to get dinner with you, it meant I'm coming to your house tonight for dinner. I think there's some people in this room, probably myself included, that would freak out if someone just walked up to me and said, I would like to get dinner with you, as in I'm coming tonight. I uh I grew up on the Isle of Sky, and uh when I first moved to Glasgow, there was a brief, very short, very short period where I would forget to lock my car, sometimes my house, because they're not quite as uh strict on locking things up in the rural areas of the highlands because there's a more of a community feel where people know each other and they feel safe, and so they don't have such an emphasis on locking doors. I do lock my car now, I do lock my door, do not worry. Um, but there is a feeling of safeness, and and many people in these areas wouldn't be estranged to coming home to find that their guests had already arrived and had let themselves into their living room. Um, my friend actually once got home from school and found that her mum had left the house and had locked the door. Now, this was such a strange event locking the door that my friend hadn't taken keys with her to school, so she had to squeeze through the back bathroom window to get into her own house. Because there is just that feeling of we don't lock things because we don't need to keep people out. Now, I'm all for safety. I'm this sermon is not saying you should unlock your doors and just let any stranger into your house. That is not the message I'm trying to give right now. I'm very much a bro for keeping ourselves safe and our belongings safe. But I do think that there is a balance that we can find where, as Christians, I think we should have an openness in our lives that I think the Western society seems to have lost. We treat the stranger with hostility rather than hospitality, assuming that they pose a potential threat to us before they can even prove to have done that themselves. Rural areas function in that way because they know each other and they have that community, and it does just feel safe. And in Israel, everyone depended on someone else's hospitality, which then made hospitality a way of life. The friendly, generous, and welcoming reception of guests or strangers. I do think that there is a middle ground that we can find where we can have safety and restrictions which are needed, but also have an attitude of openness to those around us. Jesus walked around dependent on others. Most of a lot of the time where he is walking about in the New Testament, he is going to stay with people. He invites himself to stay at Zacchaeus' house this night. And he didn't do that. He didn't become dependent on other people because he was lazy or because he was rude. First of all, he did it because it was the cultural custom. That's just how they did things. But also he did this because it teaches us how to live as a Christian. We're not meant to walk this road of life alone. We're not meant to do things by ourselves. But in this highly individualistic society, we very rarely seek another person's help. In fact, we actually kind of begrudge asking for others' help and looking vulnerable or needy or being a burden on another person. But the church, the church is supposed to be a community of people who know each other and love each other well enough that we are able to help each other. It says a community of believers who meet together to worship, pray, and encourage one another. That's a group of people who know each other, who meet together. They're also meant to know you well enough that they can challenge you whenever you may be going astray, whenever I may be going astray. I need people in my life that'll notice that, that will not just see me on a Sunday morning, but know me well enough in my life to say, Are you okay? Is everything going on alright in your life? But Jesus didn't just have this community with believers. He didn't just say, My disciples are my people and they know me, and I don't need to know anyone else. He welcomes the strangers and sinners too. Let's look at Zacchaeus for a minute. So the first thing that we're told is that he was a chief tax collector and that he was rich. This very short sentence tells us a lot about this man. Tax collectors were highly despised in this time. I remember being a child, and that when the post would come, I would I would see all these letters coming in, none of them would be for me, and I'd be raging. And I'd be thinking, I can't wait till I'm an adult because mum and dad get so many letters, and I'm going to be so popular when I'm an adult and have my own house. Fast forward to having my own place and getting those letters and realizing they're all bills and things to pay your tax and your car insurance. I don't think anyone actually really enjoys being told they owe someone money. But it went deeper than that for this culture because tax collectors weren't just hated because they were taking people's money, it they were hated for many reasons. The Roman Empire was the cult was uh what am I trying to say here? I'm completely lost where I was. The Roman Empire controlled ancient Israel very harshly, and therefore the taxes went straight to this Roman Empire, and so it was a completely different culture, a different government, a different place that was controlling what they saw as their home. And so when they were paying their taxes, they didn't feel like it was going to their country, it was going to someone else. And Zacchaeus tells us that he is a son of Abraham, he is a Jew, so he is one of the people of Israel. But he is working for the Roman government, taking money from the Jewish people and giving it to Rome. So he would have been seen as a political traitor. People would have hated him for his political alliances, for his morals, for all of these reasons, but also he was extremely rich, and this came from the extortion of the Jewish people. Zageus wasn't just a tax collector, he was a chief tax collector, which probably meant he had people underneath him. And so if Rome went to him and said, We need this much in taxes, he would then go to the people below him and say, You all need to bring in this much, and he would add on money for himself. They would all bring that in, and he would have some money left over that he didn't actually have to hand over to Rome, so he would be even richer. But the thing is that those people below him were probably doing the same thing. So by the time it gets to the people, these people, these Jewish people, were having to pay ridiculously high taxes to literally fund the lifestyle of tax collectors. So these people were rich, but they were despised. The other thing that we're told about Zacchaeus is that he was short. The story of Zacchaeus is an incredible story of a life totally transformed, and yet what comes to your head when you think about Zacchaeus is that he was short. It's probably not helped by the Sunday school song that maybe some of you know Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. It's a bit of an embarrassing way to be remembered, to be honest. But I think this was probably how he was seen in this time. The average height in biblical Israel was five foot one to five foot five, and Zacchaeus is noted as being noticeably shorter than that. You would think as he comes up to the crowds, it tells us that he he can't see beyond the crowds. He was short enough that he wasn't able to see beyond the crowds because he's coming to see Jesus. And you would think that if he was respected or liked or powerful, that people would move out of his way so he could see. But I think maybe his littleness was more than just physical. I think people probably looked down on him physically and metaphorically. They didn't like him, they didn't respect him, and therefore they didn't want to make room for him. And one might argue that the crowd actually was right to look down on him. He wasn't a kind person and probably wasn't a particularly good man. But Jesus saw him and Jesus cared for him, and he still treated him as important. I wonder how many people in our lives that there are that we don't make room for because they act differently from us, they think differently. Last week we were told to that it's not our job to choose who is invited to God. It's simply our job to invite. And verse three tells us that Zacchaeus was seeking to see Jesus. He was seeking to see who Jesus was. He was curious about Jesus, but simply seeing Jesus wasn't going to change Zacchaeus. Because Zacchaeus wanted to see, but he didn't want to be seen. Sitting in this tree, he runs along to go climb up this tree so he can see. But what this tree also does is it hides him. It gives him the opportunity to look and to watch what's happening, to feed his curiosity. But he doesn't actually have to give himself to anything. He doesn't have to speak to anyone, he doesn't have to offer himself, he doesn't have to make himself vulnerable. He could sit on the sideline and he could watch. I wonder how many of us do this. How many of us are curious, but we're not ready to commit? Maybe you're curious enough to be interested in Jesus. You think that it sounds like a good idea, it sounds like a good thing, but I don't actually want to surrender my life because that sounds really difficult because it is. Or maybe you are a Christian, maybe you have surrendered that, but you still slip into the back of church and out again before anyone can actually speak to you. Because if you have to start speaking to people, then you've then started to actually got to know these people. You've got to be part of this thing, you've maybe got to start changing yourself. Zacchaeus was curious, he wanted to see, but he didn't want to be seen, he didn't want to commit. But the the plot twist of this story is when Jesus is passing by the tree that Zacchaeus is comfortably watching from, thinking that he was able to watch without having to do anything or be part of anything. Jesus then stops at the tree, he looks up, and he calls Zacchaeus by name. Because we can never actually be hidden from Jesus. Jesus sees you, he knows you, just as he saw and he knew Zacchaeus. And with the sentence, come down, I'm coming to your house, Jesus offers to bring Zacchaeus from the outside, from the loneliness, into belonging, into relationship. And as much as Zacchaeus could have acted as if he was fine being on the outskirts of society, deep down he wanted to be known. Because deep down, actually, we all want to belong. We all have the desire. We have, as humans, a fundamental desire to belong. This is proven both sociologically and psychologically. And this desire to belong is filled to some extent by friendships and families and social clubs, but the desire is in us because we are designed to be in relationship with the creator. And so it can only be fulfilled by being in relationship with that creator, God. Verse 10 says that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Zacchaeus had riches and power, but he couldn't find satisfaction in this life because he wasn't in a relationship with God who had made him. It's only God that brings purpose to our life, who brings clarity of our identity. And God has offered this relationship to every person. We can't save ourselves from sin. Zacchaeus couldn't have saved himself from what he was going through. It is only God. Jesus came to seek to save the lost. He's on his way to Jerusalem where he's going to die for the punishment for sin. So that we can have a relationship with God, so that we can belong. And the only thing that we have to do is to turn away from that sin and come into a relationship with God. And then in this we begin to be changed, and we see this in Zacchaeus's life. Zacchaeus turns immediately. And he says that he will give away half of his goods. And anyone that he has wrongfully taken from, he will return back four times as much as he took. I don't know how rich Zacchaeus was, but that's a lot of money. I would say he'd probably be virgin on poor by the time he's finished this. It's very apparent that something has shifted in his perspective. This isn't just him trying to fit some regulations or guidelines of what it is to pay back and be okay. Zacchaeus has been inwardly transformed by his encounter with Jesus. His outlook on life is completely different. He gave away everything because he'd discovered that knowing Jesus is better. Now he wanted social justice because he'd experienced God's mercy. And this inner change led to genuine outward change. The greatest way that we can fight for a better world, fight for social justice, is to pray that people would know Jesus and would be transformed. Because he makes people genuinely want to have the world be a better place. But our character changing requires two things. It requires the Holy Spirit and intention. It needs both. We become like the people that we are around. And so when we spend time with God, we become more like Him. And this is enhanced by the Holy Spirit that moves in our lives. When you accept God, when you decide to follow Him, when you become a Christian, you get the Holy Spirit inside of you. And he will then guide you. Zacchaeus couldn't have done these complete changes without God. We can't just pick the bits of God that we like or the bits of Christianity that we think are good and try and copy them because it'll fail because we still have sin in our lives. We're still sinful people. The only way that we're able to actually effectively do that is by trusting the Holy Spirit to help us overcome the things that we can't physically buy ourselves. However, when the Spirit begins to move in your life, the evidence of change is dependent on you being intentional and proactive. God doesn't just magic you into a better person. It's not a snap of the fingers, and suddenly you're a good person. Zacchaeus made decisions. He chose to come down from the tree. He chose to accept Jesus' invitation and he chose to practically give his wealth away. What causes us to act as a Christian is spending time with Christ and listening to the Spirit, actively pursuing God's guidance. Part of how we do this is by being in a community, which both encourages us to continue on this journey and challenges us when we may be wandering. Church should not, as a Christian, be an event in your week, it should be the community that you do life with. If we return to the idea of hospitality, we're to show the stranger hospitality and welcome. That is a challenge as Christians. But we're also challenged to show hospitality to each other in the church. We're supposed to be a body of people that know each other, that encourage each other, that push each other to be more like Christ. What's your response when someone up here says, go say hi to someone you haven't seen before? Because I'm not gonna lie, I'm terrified of it. I grew up whenever that would be called, I go, oh no, now I need to go talk to people. But the reason that that is said is because this community should be people that know each other, and it's only gonna last like a minute. So it's actually the perfect excuse to walk up to someone that you're maybe not like super confident in talking to for a long time, and then suddenly, oh, you've got to go sit back to your seat. It's a short amount of time. Can I challenge you that the next time that happens, you walk up to someone and you make a conversation with them? And if you need to, you then say, Oh, I'm gonna go see the next person now. Shake someone's hand that you haven't shook before. Because how many people do you know in this church outside of these walls? How many do you give the opportunity to speak into your life? How many people have you shared a meal with? We're talking every week about Jesus sharing a meal with people, and God wants us to commune with him because he can change us, but he also wants you to commune with his people, to be with his people, because these people will help you know God better. Community is a blessing from God, it's not a chore that we need to complete. However, it is something that does take work and you have to put effort into it. So, who are you in this story? There are many people in this story. Are you are you someone that feels lost? Do you feel like the chaos? Do you feel like you're maybe on the outskirts of belonging? Maybe you are a Christian, but you just haven't quite jumped into church yet. You haven't jumped into being in a relationship with people in here. Maybe you're not a Christian, maybe you're thinking this looks kind of interesting and intriguing, but I'm not quite ready to give myself over yet. Do you feel like you have everything that this life can offer you and yet there's still something missing? Because that something is Jesus. Can I encourage you to take a step beyond simply coming to see and step into belonging with Jesus? Maybe you're bitter and unwelcoming. After Jesus has invited himself to Zacchaeus' house, verse 7 says, and when they saw it, they being the crowd, they all grumbled, saying, He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. This is the same crowd who has come to see Jesus. Some of them were possibly Jesus' followers, and that they think that Zacchaeus doesn't deserve Jesus' attention. How could Jesus, this holy man, go and stay at the house of such a horrible man? Do you realize that the same radical mercy that's given to the worst of sinners was also needed for you? It was also needed for me. We all have failings. And if it was a contest of being good enough, none of us would be in a relationship with God. So when Jesus says he came to seek and to save the lost, he means us. He means you, he means the person that's sitting next to you, and he means the person that you think is least deserving of his grace. Jesus brought Zacchaeus into belonging before he believed, before he behaved correctly. He said, Come. All those things he started to believe and he started to behave in a way that we would maybe think is befitting of a Christian after. Jesus didn't wait until he had showed those promising signs to be like, okay, now you can come. He said, Come. Like that crowd, there are times where churches can be one of the least welcoming places to walk into. Because you get stared at. If you don't act in the way that they have ordered it, if you start playing a song when someone said we're gonna pray, people look at you funny. I'm really grateful that this church is a friendly church, it's a welcoming church, but I do think that we can each look at ourselves and find points where we have been judgmental towards other people who act differently from us. Now there are points where sin needs to be called out. I'm not saying that we should just let anyone live however they want and we can't ever say anything. There are points where correction needs to take place, but at no point should we have a hatred towards that person because we're no better than they are. Each person is struggling with something, and it's our role as believers to walk alongside other people through their journey of becoming more like Christ. Not to give them a wee side-eye and to think, why are they doing that and why are they not behaving in the way that I think they should be behaving? So are you lost? Are you bitter? Or are you offering a welcome into belonging, the belonging that you've experienced through Christ? Are you seeking to know and spend time with God who changes people? And are you therefore striving to build a community with God's people who will encourage and challenge you to actively pursue God? Are you then making space for people who seem to be on the outside of that community and inviting them to join in? Jesus lived a life of hospitality, of welcoming the guest and the stranger. That's what hospitality is. Opening your life, sometimes opening your doors, but living in a state where you walk through life open to the stranger, also discerning, realizing when there's danger. But living a life that is open to having conversation with your neighbors, with people around you, with your colleagues, with your friends, and not being so closed off that you don't ever actually live life beside them. You just live life in your own bubble. Through Jesus' hospitality, because he lived this life and didn't check in and out, he lived a life that was just constant hospitality, constant openness. We see lives and situations transformed. Zacchaeus' life is completely transformed. We don't actually read of him again, but you can tell that he's excited to be a good person. And I can tell you many, many, many stories of people whose lives have been transformed by God. Because God stood there with the arms open, welcoming. But it's our job to then imitate that, to keep our arms open. This pattern of hospitality is the pattern that we're called to follow as the church. We're called to live our lives open to other people, not at points that are convenient for us, but all the time. And that's difficult. It's a really difficult task, and it will push us out of our comfort zones. But ultimately, it will benefit our own walk with God. Community is God's gift to his people. So can I challenge you to think of two different people? Last week you were asked the question, who will you invite? Who in your life do you think that you could be open to that needs Jesus, that's outside of that, that feeling of belonging that seems lost, that seems like they need a community of people? Who can you think of that you could invite them to church, yeah, but also just be an inviting person? Just be an open person. And secondly, who in this congregation that you don't already have a relationship with can you invest in to build a relationship that helps both of you pursue God better? That's mutually beneficial. Maybe it'll be more beneficial for one of you than it will be for the other, but at the end of the day, it will be beneficial for both of you because as you pour into that relationship, you will hopefully have conversations about God, you will become closer to God. We've been welcomed into this belonging. Who are we to stand in the way of others receiving that welcome? So we're gonna sing a song in just a second. And it's about the welcome that Jesus has bestowed upon us. We've received that welcome from Jesus, and as we sing that, I would love you to think about whether you've accepted that welcome, to reflect upon that welcome. The fact that he stood with his arms open no matter what we'd done in our lives. And I would like it to challenge you to be that welcome to other people. And if you haven't accepted that welcome, I would love you to look at the words and know that Jesus stands with his arms open to welcome you in no matter what's happened in your life. So I'm going to invite Sharon up and I'm just going to pray for us just now. Lord God, we thank you that you are good, that you are a creator, that you have designed us for relationship, Lord, because you love us and you're excited to see what we can do in our lives to glorify you. So God, would you help us to be hospitable people, people who welcome others, who are open to others? Lord, would you help this church to be a community of people who support each other and know each other well enough, to care enough, to have difficult conversations and also to encourage. Lord God, I thank you for this church and I thank you for each individual in here who has chosen to come and to learn of who you are. Lord, would you would you bestow your spirit upon each and every individual to change our character? And would you help us follow the guidance to practically put that into practice? Lord God, we thank you for your welcome, for your mercy, for your goodness. And Lord, we're sorry when we forget about it. And so, God, we praise you for who you are. Lord, would you would you bless this congregation as we head out into our mission fields, which is just our life. As we attempt to show who you are to the people around us, Lord, would you bless those efforts and would you encourage and give us bravery in those situations? In Jesus' name. Amen.