The Neighborhood Podcast
This is a podcast of Guilford Park Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina featuring guests from both inside the church and the surrounding community. Hosted by Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing, Head of Staff.
The Neighborhood Podcast
"Righteousness & Mercy" (April 6, 2025 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Stephen M. Fearing
Curiosity led a despised tax collector up a tree and into an unexpected encounter with grace. The story of Zacchaeus reveals the profound intersection between righteousness and mercy that defines Jesus's ministry and challenges our own understanding of reconciliation.
The biblical account introduces us to this "wee little man" who was actually a powerful figure – a chief tax collector who had grown wealthy by exploiting his neighbors. His very name, meaning "pure" or "innocent," created an ironic contrast with his reputation. Yet something sparked his curiosity about Jesus, leading him to the childlike act of climbing a sycamore tree for a better view. This simple act of curiosity positioned him for a transformative encounter.
What follows is a masterclass in the dance between righteousness and mercy. Jesus doesn't ignore Zacchaeus's harmful actions, but instead creates space for accountability alongside grace. Without being asked, Zacchaeus commits to giving half his possessions to the poor and repaying fourfold anyone he defrauded – embodying the Hebrew concept of teshuva (repentance) through confession, change, making amends, apologizing, and making different choices moving forward.
The crowd's grumbling at Jesus dining with "a sinner" reflects our human struggle to hold righteousness and mercy together. We're reminded that righteousness without mercy creates rigid self-righteousness, while mercy without accountability enables continued harm. Only together do they create the beautiful space where true reconciliation occurs. What tree might you need to climb today to catch a glimpse of this transformative grace?
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Please listen to the prayer for illumination. Loving God, week after week, we return to this space because we long to see you. Like Zacchaeus, who climbed a tree to get a peek at you as you walked by, we come to this sanctuary hoping to get a peek at your goodness, of your joy, of your light. So speak to us through these ancient words. Let us get a peek of the love that lingers here. Gratefully, we pray Amen. I'll be reading from Luke, chapter 19, verses 1 to 10.
Speaker 1:He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him because he was going to pass that way.
Speaker 1:When 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. So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said he has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner. Zacchaeus 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. Then Jesus said to him Today, salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of Abraham, for the Son of man came to seek out and to save the lost. Holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God.
Speaker 2:Thank you, choir, and thanks be to God. Let us pray, o Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, o Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Now, y'all, I asked Jordan to stay at the piano because there really is only one proper way to start a sermon on Luke 19, 1 through 10. Let's all hearken back to our days of vacation, bible study and sing along. If you remember it all right, study and sing along if you remember it all right. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see, and as the Savior passed that way, he looked up in the tree and he said Zacchaeus, you come down, for I'm going to your house today, for I'm going to your house today. Y'all remember it. Good job everyone. Y'all remember it. Good job everyone.
Speaker 2:So, friends of this passage, the late Rachel Held Evans once beautifully summarized the audacity of the kingdom of heaven, saying that God has a really bad habit of using people we don't approve of. What makes the gospel offensive is not who it keeps out, but who it lets in. And then another favorite author of mine, nadia Boltz Weber, put it this way. She said I can't imagine how infuriating it was to his followers when Jesus never seemed to stick to the scripts they kept handing him Every time they wanted him to kick butt and take names for their cause. He kept inviting the absolute wrong people over for dinner, like he didn't understand the rules. Were I one of his early followers, I'd for sure take him aside and be like you know. Maybe tone down the hospitality and the forgiveness of sin stuff. Jesus, we don't want people to think you're just letting people off the hook. But, friends, our love of hooks has never healed us in the way mercy has.
Speaker 2:Enter a wee little man named Zacchaeus, and though we sing of him fondly, he was a despised man. As the April 15th tax deadline approaches in the coming weeks, many of us may relate to a smidgen of the animosity directed toward him by the crowds. Tax collectors were, of course, notorious for exploiting their positions of power to extort people. A few months ago, in January, we discussed the year of Jubilee. In the Hebrew scriptures that, highlighting some of the 613 laws of the Torah, intended to interrupt and end cycles of poverty and indebtedness. Cycles of poverty and indebtedness. By contrast, the tax collectors of Jesus's time were reviled, largely because their work did nothing to alleviate the oppressive poverty endured by the occupied people of Judea at the hands of the Romans. If anything, tax collectors were seen as traitors who colluded with the enemy and deepened the economic divide between the classes. However, the cultural animosity aimed at Zacchaeus only heightens the contrast of the rather playful scene famously depicted in today's text, scene famously depicted in today's text.
Speaker 2:Zacchaeus was not merely a tax collector, but the text tells us a chief tax collector and a man of considerable wealth, and we're introduced to him by being told that he's climbing a tree, a sycamore tree to be precise. It's an oddly specific detail and often when there is an oddly specific detail in scripture, it's good to say why is this in there? So, as it turns out, this story in Luke's gospel contains some kind of clever word play. Stick with me here. The term for sycamore tree derives from the root word of fig, as in the fruit. The word sycamore is where we get the word sycophant, which means aer, which was originally used to describe a person who extorted fig importers by threatening to report them to the Romans for failing to declare all their imports for taxation. So essentially, a fig informer or a sycophant was someone who seized every opportunity to profit at another person's expense.
Speaker 2:So Zacchaeus this sycophant was perched in a sycamore tree. It's as if the author of Luke's gospel is really attempting to emphasize Zacchaeus's unsavory reputation. And if that wordplay wasn't enough for you, I've got another one for you. The word or the name Zacchaeus literally means pure or innocent, so these adjectives would probably be the last that Zacchaeus' neighbors would ever choose to describe him of all people. And so this pure and innocent sycophant perches in a sycamore tree. You and I are left to ponder the following what led this wealthy man to the kind of childish act of climbing a tree in the first place? What had he heard about Jesus? Had he spoken to anyone who knew him personally? Had he extorted money from one of Jesus's followers? Had he experienced some encounter in the course of his work or home life that inspired him to climb that tree? And you and I, of course, don't know the answers to these questions. We can make educated guesses, but we simply don't know. What we do know is this Zacchaeus was curious and friends. Curiosity is the beginning of faith. In all my years reading the Gospels, it seems that Jesus isn't interested in seeking out perfect individuals, if they even exist. He can, however, work with curious people, and Zacchaeus was one of them. It's important to note that Zacchaeus' curiosity puts him in the driver's seat in this passage. He chooses to find Jesus, he chooses to climb that tree, he chooses, unprompted, to give away half of his possessions and repay fourfold the money he has defrauded from his neighbors. The only part of the story where Zacchaeus isn't in the driver's seat is, of course, when Jesus invites himself over for dinner and the crowds, as you and I know, immediately express their disdain for Jesus's choice.
Speaker 2:At this point in Luke's gospel. We should be pretty familiar with that sort of grumbling. It echoes the complaints made by the church leaders when Jesus heals someone on the Sabbath in Luke, chapter 6. It reflects the dissatisfaction of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. It mirrors the outcry of those who sought to throw Jesus off a cliff in Luke, chapter 4. And that grumbling continues when the crowd hears Jesus invite himself to Zacchaeus' home. So there's a notable tension in this passage.
Speaker 2:I wonder if you and I can hold two things in tension with one another. It's kind of what this whole sermon series is about. Can we hold the tension of righteousness and mercy together, as in the title of this sermon? So perhaps for a moment we can honor the understandable anger of the crowd. They had really good reason to revile Zacchaeus. He and others like him kept them and their loved ones in poverty, exploiting them for financial gain. You know, millions of people across the country protested yesterday against the actions of the current presidential administration, which, in their view, represents policies and rhetoric and governance that inflict considerable harm on this nation. Can we honor righteous anger in one hand while simultaneously embracing the mercy that Jesus offers to those who have caused harm Y'all? That's not an easy thing to that part of the life of faith is messy and is hard.
Speaker 2:Zacchaeus' story. His actions represented the antithesis of righteousness, at least his actions before this story. Yet Jesus shows him mercy by inviting himself over to have dinner. To be clear, zacchaeus didn't simply say, hey, my bad. In fact, nowhere in the text does Zacchaeus explicitly ask for forgiveness. He does, however, offer concrete actions of reparation to those he has harmed.
Speaker 2:That's why I find this passage so compelling, because righteousness and mercy can coexist when we allow accountability to have its place in the conversation. Both can thrive through honest discussions about things like power dynamics and their potential for abuse. Righteousness and mercy can exist in a healing tension, when we understand that no one is beyond the reach of God's redemption. They can bless each other when we honor the pain of the oppressed and invite the oppressor to repent in ways that restore shalom and give that fig tree we discussed a few weeks ago another chance to bear some good fruit. So the hebrew word for repentance is teshuva. Can you say that with me, teshuva? Teshuva is not merely saying I'm sorry. Well, that is an important part. It's just one of several steps that rabbinical teachings suggest are necessary for righteousness and mercy to exist together.
Speaker 2:There's a medieval rabbi named Madmonides who outlined the following steps of the Hebrew practice of teshuva or returning, or repenting. Step one is confession. The transgressor acknowledges their wrongdoing and they openly recognize the harm that they've caused. Number two starting to change. The individual initiates, excuse me, the process of transformation. Therapy, self-education or distancing oneself from negative influences can all be a part of this step. Number three making amends. This step emphasizes repairing the harm caused. Zacchaeus' unprompted offer to give away half of his fortune and return fourfold what he has extorted exemplifies this step. Number four is an apology offering a heartfelt apology to those harmed to express sincere regret and finally making different choices next time. This is about making mindful decisions, moving forward to prevent further harm.
Speaker 2:Have any of you watched the TV show Ted Lasso? I hear there might be a new season coming out, which I'm very excited about. If you've watched the first season of Ted Lasso, then you've witnessed this five-step process of teshuva. The story kicks off when Rebecca, one of the main characters, inherits her ex-husband's cherished English football club in a divorce settlement. So she hires Ted Lasso, an American football coach who really knows nothing about what we call soccer, with the intention of deliberately sabotaging the club in an act of revenge against her ex-husband. Initially, she takes pleasure at undermining the program as it falters. However, ted's unwavering kindness and empathy and optimism start to change her perspective. By the season's end, rebecca admits to her sabotaging efforts and begins to change, allowing herself to experience love and connection and forgiveness. She reconciles by supporting Ted Lasso and the team, doing everything possible to ensure their success, and she apologizes to Ted for her past actions and commits to being his ally and the team's best friend throughout the series.
Speaker 2:Zacchaeus's narrative arc, while lacking the details that you're going to get in a 10-episode television series, may have mirrored this five-step path to reconciliation. He appears to acknowledge the harm he has caused and takes active steps to repair it. And consequently, as a result of this reconciliation, jesus tells him Today, salvation has come to this house, because he too is the son of Abraham, for the Son of man came to seek out and save the lost. Now it's important to note what Jesus does not say here. Jesus does not say today, salvation has come to this man. Instead, he says today, salvation has come to this house. Now, that's a very different phrase there. This suggests that Jesus is hinting at something broader than an individual's salvation or deliverance. Rather, jesus implies that this act of reconciliation, this balancing of both righteousness and mercy, has healing ramifications not only for Zacchaeus but for everyone around him.
Speaker 2:Due to Zacchaeus' shift from a pattern of harm to a place of righteousness, the mercy of God has brought wholeness to the wider community. Friends, as we approach the final weeks of this Lenten season, let us remember that mercy and righteousness must be held closely together. One without the other leads us into some problematic places. Other One without the other leads us into some problematic places. Righteousness without mercy turns us into stiff-necked people with little room for grace.
Speaker 2:Conversely, mercy without righteousness promotes harmful patterns of continued harm, but holding those two together creates a beautiful space where true reconciliation can occur. Jeff Chu, one of the commentators for our sermon series you may see some of his writings in your devotional describes this beauty when he says the following of today's passage we can't know how Zacchaeus would have responded if Jesus had instead tried loud condemnation. We do know that what worked was winsome grace, gentle mercy and a love so attentive and so offensive that it healed Neighbors. Thanks be to God for a grace like that. In the name of God, the creator, redeemer and sustainer, may all of us, god's children, say Amen.